Stifling defense stellar for Irish

Ursuline was more successful than anyone at stopping both of Akron Manchester's stars.
By GEORGE WELKER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
ALLIANCE -- Akron Manchester basketball star Courtney Whitehill described play under the basket against Ursuline High as "hectic" during Wednesday's Division III girls regional semifinal game at Mount Union College.
"There was a bunch of people running around us," Whitehill, a 5-foot-11 senior, said.
And, that's just the way Irish coach Sean Durkin wanted it.
Implementing a wild, constant motion defense that featured great help inside, Ursuline (20-5) shut down Whitehill and teammate Nicole Neila for a 48-40 victory Wednesday, moving on to the regional final to play Regina Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
"They did a nice job of taking away our inside," said Manchester coach Bob Eckert. "We didn't get as many chances as we normally do inside."
Limited production: Manchester (18-7) averages 62 points a game, but its offensive production was limited against Ursuline.
"We just didn't score like we normally do," Eckert said.
That likely was more because of Ursuline's activity inside than anything else. By tipping and deflecting the ball on most Manchester missed shots, Ursuline grabbed 17 defensive rebounds and allowed only 10 offensive boards for the Panthers.
"We didn't get too many second put-backs. The second and third opportunities just weren't there," Eckert said.
Flood alert: "We just tried to flood the middle," playing some triangle-and-two defense, Durkin said. "We knew that with our size and their size, they could kill us down there. So we tried to take away their big weapon, and make their other people try to beat us."
Durkin's plan was to put his best post defenders on Whitehill and Neila, a 6-2 junior, and rely on his other players to rebound missed shots.
"We were going to try to put as many people around them as we could," Durkin said. "We were trying to run people at them from different angles. If they caught the ball on the block we were going to double down on them.
"We wanted them to go anywhere but the low post."
Whitehill averages 19 points per game and Neila gets 18.4 each time she plays. The duo, however, was limited by Ursuline to just 16 points combined, with Whitehill getting 10 and Neila scoring six.
Eckert said no opponent has been that successful at stopping both of his stars.
"You always know [the opponent] is going to try to stop them. We've had games when one of them has been held down to 12 or whatever, but the other one might come up with 24 or 28."
Focus: Durkin said, "They were what we concentrated on," adding, however, that the Irish didn't target a point total to which they wanted to hold Whitehill and Neila.
"We couldn't ask for much more than that," he said. "We were undersized. Christina Cook, Sarah McKelvey and Dorothy Delboccio just battled. They played as hard as they possibly could, and they played smart."
For being outgunned inside, Ursuline controlled most of the game. Though Manchester often drew within two points or to a tie, the only time the Irish trailed was at 10-9 with two minutes, 44 seconds left in the first quarter.
Not long after that, Cathie Walsh hit a 3-point shot from the right wing for a 12-10 advantage.
Much was the same in the third quarter, when Manchester made two runs at the Irish.
Drawing to within 28-26, Manchester watched Courtney Davidson, Ursuline's sensational freshman guard, drill consecutive 3-pointers to put the Irish back up by eight.
At the end of the quarter, and with Manchester rallying to 36-34, Ursuline worked the ball into Davidson's hands for the last shot.
With time running out, she took her defender one-on-one at the top of the key and threw in another 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded for a 39-34 lead.
"I was looking to kick it out, but there was nobody there. I saw the clock running down, so I decided to shoot it," Davidson said.
Durkin said, "We hit big shot after big shot. We would get up, and they would look as if they were coming back," Durkin said. "Shannon Burley hit a couple of open shots, Cathie Walsh hit a couple. Sarah McKelvey seemed like she was all over the floor."
Davidson led Ursuline with 16 points while Burley added 10.
Regina 73, VASJ 34: Ari Moore shot 9-for-17 to score 22 points and lead three double-digit players for Regina (22-3).
Sarah Burgess added 18 points, Rachel Spadafore had 13 and Stacey Little collected 11 for the winners.
Molly Peterson scored 11 points for VASJ (21-4).
Regina led 20-9 after one quarter, went in front 33-16 at the break and had more rebounds, 36-14.