Beverly comes up big in OT, lifts Ursuline

The Irish captured the SVC title with a 61-60 win over Mooney.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Ursuline High’s Jaleesa Beverly wanted a championship.

The senior forward made it happen by scoring all seven of the Irish’s points in overtime to lead Ursuline to a 61-60 victory over rival Cardinal Mooney and an outright Steel Valley Conference championship.

Beverly’s layup with 5.6 seconds left gave the Irish (13-7, 5-0) the game-winning points in a hard-fought 36 minutes of basketball.

“Unbelievable,” Beverly said. “We wanted this so badly and to be able to get this against Cardinal Mooney is thrilling.

“I wanted the ball and the chance to get us a victory and it all just worked out.”

Beverly fought through two Mooney defenders to get inside the lane and lay in the off-balance shot off the backboard.

Beverly’s heroics offset a tremendous effort by the Cardinals who were trying to earn a share of the conference championship.

Mooney (11-9, 3-2) nearly pulled off the upset at the end of regulation but senior Sarah Pelini’s off-balance runner in the lane was just off the mark at the buzzer.

“It came down to who made plays at the end,” said Mooney coach Jack Bermann. “We did everything we could but we just couldn’t get the shots to fall at the end.”

The play by both teams in the fourth quarter and overtime was well-deserving of a championship effort.

The lead changed hands 11 times in the final 12 minutes and the score was tied three times.

“It was an incredible championship game,” said Ursuline coach Sean Durkin. “That was the way this game was supposed to be.

“You had two teams that were great rivals. Friendly rivals playing in a game for the title and you couldn’t ask for anything more from either team.”

Bermann said that this was the hardest-fought game between the two teams since the 2000 district title game at United won by Mooney.

Mooney relied on the strong play of Pelini and Katie Hughes who led the Cardinals by scoring 39 of the teams 60 points.

Dominique Edgar-Zordich played a key role in the Cardinals rally in the fourth quarter that overturned a six-point Ursuline lead in the third quarter.

Zordich scored eight of her 10 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Although Beverly had all the points in overtime, it was a big shot by sophomore guard Jasmine Brown that forced the extra session. Brown’s jumper with 10 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 54-54.

Durkin said that Beverly was the logical choice in overtime.

Beverly said she wanted the ball in overtime.

“I felt like I could make a difference,” Beverly said. “Mooney was playing me tough all game but I had started to get my shots down the stretch.”

Bermann said his team did everything they could to stop Beverly.

“She’s a great player,” Bermann said. “We didn’t do enough of a good job of rotating over on defense to help out.”

The Cardinals also played overtime without senior Dayna Daltorio who fouled out and who could of been a factor helping out on defense at the end.