Mooney wins on Burke's shot

His basket with one second remaining gave the Cardinals a 47-45 victory over Canfield.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Joe Burke's lay-up with one second remaining gave the Cardinal Mooney High boys basketball team a 47-45 victory over Canfield on Friday at Mooney High.
The win marked the fifth win in seven outings for Mooney, while Canfield fell to 3-4 on the year, losing for the third straight time after a 3-1 start.
"Our kids had good anticipation and an excellent awareness on the last series," Mooney coach Nick Bellino said. "We played flat the first two and a half quarters and fell behind by 12 points in the third period.
"During a time out midway through the third quarter, that is when assistant coach Dave Petty challenged the entire team to pick up their intensity, and everything seemed to fall in place for us after that," Bellino said. "That to me was the turning point of the game."
Close all the way: The game had five ties and five lead changes in the first quarter. Mooney's Rashad Williams had five points and Canfield's Jared Kirkpatrick had four of his game-high 16 points in the quarter as Mooney took a 14-13 lead.
Kirkpatrick then added four points in the second period and Canfield outscored Mooney 10-6 in the period to take a 23-20 lead at intermission. All of Mooney's points in the period came from Curtis Ingram, who had a team-high 15.
"Neither team could pull away from the other tonight," Canfield coach John Cullen said. "We played as well as we could in the third period but didn't do a good job of attacking in the second half."
Canfield opened its largest lead of the game at 37-25 when Chase Booms connected on the second of two free throws with 1:35 left in the period. A David Zidian bucket and a 3-point goal with two seconds remaining by Ingram cut the Canfield lead to 37-30 heading into the final quarter.
Williams scored the first four points of the final period for Mooney to cut Canfield's lead to 37-34, then a Ron Stoops bucket in the lane cut the Canfield lead to one at 37-36.
Canfield's Mark Pakula scored his team's next two buckets and Mooney's Ingram hit a bucket and a free throw to make the score 41-39 in favor of Canfield. When Mooney's Jeff Hehr dazzled the crowd with his steal and lay-up, the score was tied 41-41 with 4:23 remaining.
"That was a big play for us by Jeff Hehr," Bellino said. "On nights like this when you struggle offensively, you try to get fouled and go to the line. We never quit and that is what I am most pleased with."
Canfield stalls: Canfield pulled the ball out for nearly two minutes after the Hehr bucket tied the score, but Kirkpatrick's 3-point goal at the 2:28 mark made it 44-41, a lead it held until the 1:32 mark when Hehr connected on the first of two free throws.
Pakula gave Canfield a 45-42 advantage at the 1:20 mark when he made the first of two charity tosses, but Hehr added a 3-point goal from the top of the key to tie the score at 45-45 with just 30 seconds remaining.
A Canfield miscue with six seconds remaining then led to the Burke lay-up with a second remaining, capping a 22-8 run by Mooney to end the game and secure the victory.
"We never considered calling a timeout when Hehr tied the game with 30 seconds remaining," Cullen said. "We work on these situations all of the time in practice and felt we could execute without a timeout."