DIVISION III BOYS Ursuline, Mooney meet again in district event

The Irish beat East Palestine 66-44 and the Cardinals held off Lisbon 55-42.
BY ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SALEM -- For the third straight season, the boys basketball teams from Ursuline and Mooney will meet in Division III tournament play at Salem High School.
Ursuline, the tournament's No. 2 seed, beat East Palestine 66-44 in the early game of Saturday night's sectional tournament doubleheader to advance. Mooney outlasted Lisbon 55-42 in the late contest to move on.
The two teams will meet for the third time this season, with each team winning once. The Irish won 62-51 in January, while Mooney earned a 44-40 victory a month later.
Third game Wednesday
The intense rivalry in tournament play will be renewed on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., on the same floor where its ugliest chapter was written last year.
A scintillating 2005 sectional final was overshadowed by a near brawl with 23 seconds left. A hard foul out of bounds sparked the ensuing melee and the officials called the game with Ursuline ahead 67-59.
Ursuline coach Keith Gunther was upset that things had to end on such a sour note. And heading into this year's tournament tilt, he hopes cooler heads will prevail this time.
"I think both programs are past that incident," said Gunther. "During the summer the Mooney kids came down and played at our open gyms and we all shook hands. It's a heated rivalry and both teams want to win more than anything.
"It gets more heated at tournament time, but the rivalry is so special that each team fights so hard and it gets physical sometimes, but that's just part of basketball. Both teams will come to play next week."
Ursuline-East Palestine
After East Palestine served notice that it came to play, taking a 12-9 lead after the first quarter, Ursuline got things rolling.
The Irish connected on six of their first seven shots in the second quarter and exploded on a 16-0 outburst to turn the three deficit into a 13-point lead (25-12) with 3:35 left in the second period. Ursuline outscored East Palestine 22-7 in the period.
That run and a 30-point, 10-rebound effort from D'Aundray Brown were the catalysts that propelled Ursuline a 66-44 victory over Tri-County League champion East Palestine.
With senior Jerome Jones having a tough night inside and battling foul trouble, it was D'Aundray's play that made the biggest difference.
"This was a good win for us with Jerome fighting foul trouble and only scoring five points," said Gunther. "They put two guys on him and knocked him around a little bit. Fortunately, other guys stepped up and made some shots.
"Our whole goal in the second half was to get the ball to D'Aundray in the middle of the lane. He flashed to the lane, was patient and attacked the basket. He really stepped up tonight."
Jones finished with just five points and spent most of the third quarter on the bench with four fouls. He picked up his fourth with 5:41 left in the third period.
But the Irish didn't need his services in the second half, outscoring East Palestine 17-8 in the third quarter to push their lead to an insurmountable 48-27 heading into the fourth quarter.
Mooney-Lisbon
The Cardinals fought off a pesky Lisbon squad in the second half, as sophomore L.J. Sutton carried the offensive load, scoring 15 points, as Mooney pulled out a 55-42 victory.
Despite going 6 minutes, 55 seconds of the second quarter without scoring, Lisbon trailed Mooney only 25-15 at intermission. The Blue Devils trailed by as many as 12, but Marcus Judy caught fire in the final two minutes of the second quarter.
Judy hit three straight shots to break the scoring drought and brought his team to within 22-15 with 19 seconds left in the first half.
Lisbon got within six (33-27) with 3:30 remaining in the third period. Mooney maintained a 10-point margin the rest of the way.
Sutton delivered what proved to be the backbreaker with 4:20 left in the fourth on his second dunk of the night. The basket gave Mooney a comfortable 46-33 advantage.
"I thought our defense was outstanding tonight. We were sluggish at times, but this time a year all you need to do is win," said Mooney coach Steve Leslie.
"We excited about the opportunity to play Ursuline. It's a huge rivalry and I think the place will be packed. This is what you want -- two good teams playing well going against each other in the tournament. We're looking forward to it."