Low-scoring game won by Mooney

Sophomore L.J. Sutton paced the Cardinals in the 44-40 win.
By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- What does it say when the junior-varsity players score more points than the varsity?
Following Cardinal Mooney's 54-47 JV win over Ursuline Friday, the varsity teams took the floor and put up seven points after eight minutes.
In the end, Mooney prevailed, 44-40, in the Steel Valley Conference game.
Mooney coach Steve Leslie chose to use a word other than "sloppy" in describing the low-scoring outcome.
"I don't know that I'd say sloppy, it was just a competitive game," Leslie said following a game in which the Cardinals outscored Ursuline, 20-12, in the fourth quarter.
"When both teams go after it like we did, it's going to be sloppy at times," Leslie said. "But we got on the boards and got the ball out on the break."
Key moment
Specifically, it was L.J. Sutton whose breakaway dunk put Mooney on top, 32-31, with 5:17 remaining.
It was Mooney's first lead since the Cardinals went up, 1-0, on Nate Burney's free throw three and one-half minutes after tipoff.
"L.J. has really gotten better, game by game," Leslie said of the sophomore, who had 12 of his 15 points in the fourth period.
"Jaron Howell and Desmond Marrow did a good job of getting L.J. the ball in the spots he needed," Leslie said. "That was one of his best games of the year."
Howell added 14 points and Marrow 10 for the Cards (10-10, 4-4).
It was Marrow who got a defensive rebound before giving the ball to Howell, who passed to Sutton for the electrifying dunk.
Considering that the teams combined for only 21 turnovers, maybe the cause of the low-scoring game could also be attributed to defense.
"It was a good defensive game both ways," Leslie said. "Both teams missed a lot of shots. Both teams were a little tight in the first quarter. It took the kids a while to get loose in a big rivalry with a packed house. But I think our defensive was outstanding."
The coach said he asked his players to be aggressive.
"Ursuline plays pretty good defense and I challenged our kids to go after them and not give them easy shots. We had to defend them the way they defend us and I thought we did that."
The game's momentum seemed to be favoring Ursuline at the outset of the second half when Mooney was assessed two technicals for protesting a non-call at the conclusion of the second quarter.
Ouch!
"Our coaches thought there was foul at the end of the first half and we went downstairs and I got a technical downstairs. As a coach, I can't do that. I lost my control a little bit, but I'm proud of the way our guys got after it."
Lance Randall made the technicals to give Ursuline an 18-13 lead, which increased to 25-17.
"We had an opportunity to go up 10 and turned the ball over," Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. "Our biggest problem was in the second half when we didn't make defensive stops when we had to. We did it the first quarter and second quarter, but we did not make defensive stops in the second half."
Following Randall's basket at 5:43 to put the Irish on top, 25-17, Howell made a steal that led to his free throw. Marrow made six of the game's next nine points.
"We played excellent defense the first half," Gunther said. "The problem was that we couldn't put the ball in the bucket. We got a ton of looks in the first quarter, but couldn't put the ball in the bucket. We got looks again in the second quarter. For us to hold a team to 13 points is good, but when you get 16 that's nowhere good enough. We just couldn't put the ball in the bucket."
When Ursuline fell behind, 32-31, Gunther called a timeout at 4:26 and gave his team a message.
"I said if we're going to win this game, we've got to buckle down and get stops. We didn't do that. If there was a shot missed, they got the offensive rebound and put it in. Sutton took it to us. The other key is that they made free throws down the stretch and we didn't."
Ursuline's Jerome Jones paced Ursuline with 14 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 33.6 second left. Randall added 12 points and D'Aundray Brown had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
bassetti@vindy.com