Ursuline's James dunks Chaney

The Irish senior scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for an 82-60 win over the Cowboys.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Even though his team had played well in the first half, Ursuline senior Jerome James was unhappy with his performance.
And he planned to do something about it.
"I thought I needed to step up," he said. "I just tried to attack the rim. That was my main focus."
The third quarter didn't go quite the way he wanted -- Jones scored just three points -- but he more than made up for it in the fourth.
Jones scored 10 of his game-high 20 points over the first five minutes of the final period, including dunks on three straight possessions, to lead the Irish to an 82-60 victory over Chaney in the final game of Saturday's Youngstown-Warren Holiday Basketball Classic at The Chevrolet Centre.
"This is the first game we really shot the ball well," Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. "We love getting up and down the floor and we usually play teams that slow it down and play zone because of Jerome.
"When we can get in that fast pace, it's really beneficial for us."
Huge lead early
Thanks to 10 first quarter points from Jason White -- including a 3-pointer at the buzzer -- the Irish took a 21-4 lead entering the second quarter and were never threatened.
White finished with 13 points, D'Aundray Brown had 18 and Lance Randall had 10 for the Irish (3-1), who got points from 12 different players.
Evan Busch scored 13 points to lead Chaney (0-4) while Kory Jackson had 11 and Corey Council had 10.
"Chaney's a lot better than people realize," Gunther said. "They have a chance to be a pretty good basketball team if they can just put a few things together. They just never quit."
But the Cowboys had no answer for the 6-foot-8 Jones inside.
Focus on hoops
Jones expected to have a breakout football season this fall but missed the first eight games because he was academically ineligible. He practiced with the team the whole time, but when it became clear that the Irish weren't going to make the playoffs, he decided to focus on basketball.
"I wanted to be a team player, but I thought I'd be a bigger help if I just focused on basketball," Jones said.
Jones plans to play football in college -- he verbally committed to Toledo last weekend -- and his size and athleticism more than made up for his lack of playing time in the eyes of college scouts.
"Toledo had a nice family environment and a good team," Jones said. "Plus the coach is a real nice guy."
The Irish expect to challenge Warren Harding for the Steel Valley Conference basketball title, but they'll need to get better on defense if they want to compete.
"We played pretty bad defense tonight," Jones said. "Our goal was to hold them to 30-40 points and we didn't meet our goal."
Offensively, they were just fine. Jones and the Irish put on a show to cap the four-game event, which drew more than 2,000 fans.
"This is great for the community and the Mahoning Valley," Gunther said. "People were able to see a lot of great basketball."
scalzo@vindy.com