Red Hurricanes handle Ursuline

Junior Jaleesa Sams scored 20 points to lead New Castle in the 48-38 victory.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ursuline High girls basketball coach Sean Durkin had heard good things about New Castle before the season.
Then he saw good things.
"I scouted them last week and they were as good as advertised," he said. "But it's always been our objective to schedule as many good teams in the regular season as possible."
Mission accomplished.
Behind 20 points from junior standout Jaleesa Sams, the Red Hurricanes (3-0) handed Ursuline its second straight loss, 48-38, on Wednesday.
"We just hope games like these make us better in January and February," said Durkin, whose team lost at Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit in the opener.
Sams, a 5-foot-11 post player, is a three-year starter and one of the top juniors in Pennsylvania. She's garnered interest from just about every major college in the country, including Michigan, Michigan State, Connecticut and Penn State. Sams battled foul trouble and illness on Wednesday -- she left immediately after the game because of a cold -- but still managed game-highs in points and rebounds (eight).
"She's a very good player and she does a lot of things well," Durkin said of Sams. "She's a big, strong kid and she's a lot more agile than we thought. She's got a very quick first step and I think she surprised us a couple times with it. We thought we could play her a lot tighter and it turned out we couldn't."
Shouldering the load
Ursuline has its own Division I player in senior Tyra Grant (Penn State), but without injured senior Vannessa Dickson in the lineup, Grant has been forced to shoulder a bigger load for the first month of the season. Grant finished with 17 points and seven rebounds but nine of the points came at the foul line as she struggled to get into a rhythm offensively.
"Right now we're asking [Grant] to do so much for us," said Durkin, who starts two sophomores and a junior. "She's a tough kid and she'll get through it but we need her points to come more in the flow right now."
Mary Hendricks scored nine points off the bench for the Irish, who finished with 21 turnovers. Brittany Armour -- one of the two sophomore starters -- had eight.
Point guard Ryen Micaletti added 11 points and five assists for New Castle, which outscored the Irish 8-2 over the final four minutes. The Hurricanes have never faced the Irish but, like Durkin, New Castle coach Luann Grybowski wanted to find as many tough opponents as possible.
"There are two reasons for that," she said. "First, our section is the toughest in Quad A; every night is a tough game. Second, in order to be prepared to play every night, you've got to get used to playing good teams."
Missing piece
Dickson, who broke a bone in her ankle before the season, will likely return sometime after the first of the year. The Irish will be a better team when she returns; until then, Grant will carry a bigger load.
"Obviously, we knew that once the game got close, they were going to go to her," Grybowski said of Grant. "So we just tried to take the ball out of her hands."
Sams, meanwhile, had just two points in the fourth quarter but had six rebounds and played good defense to help the Hurricanes hold on.
"[Sams is] really valuable to us," said Grybowski. "She got a couple easy baskets tonight and really played well down the stretch."
scalzo@vindy.com