Mooney rallies to spill Chaney, 69-59

L.J. Sutton, Mike Gemma and Tim Marlowe spearheaded the Cardinals.

YOUNGSTOWN —Once Cardinal Mooney found its rhythm, Chaney lost its focus.

Chaney was ahead for a full three quarters — thanks to a 35-point first half and good transition defense.

Mooney had L.J. Sutton to thank as the senior made 10 of his 17 points in the second half as the Cardinals posted a 69-59 Steel Valley Conference victory at Chaney’s gym.

The win was Mooney’s second straight and fourth in the last five games.

“We’d like to enter the postseason 12-8,” Dave Petty said of what Mooney’s record would be with wins over Boardman and East next week.

Petty was sitting in for head coach Steve Leslie, who was sidelined by the flu.

Sutton made 9 of 14 free throws and Mooney (10-8, 3-1 SVC) sank 25 of 34 to help sideline the Cowboys.

In the end, fouls were the difference as the Cowboys converted only nine of 15, but Chaney coach Bernie Bohla hit the nail on the head with his explanation.

“We didn’t execute very well like we did in the first half,” Bohla said of his team’s 35-25 first-half cushion. “In the first half, we played pretty good transition defense — our guys got back and knew where they had to go.

“In the third quarter, we just lost a little focus and Mooney took advantage of it. LJ. turned it up inside with key put-backs, Tim Marlowe did a wonderful job of controlling the ball and hitting his free throws and the others got some boards. That was the difference from the first half to the second half.”

Mike Gemma grabbed 14 rebounds for the winners, while Sutton had 12. Sutton also had six blocked shots.

Chaney’s Alan Burns matched Sutton’s game-high of 17 points while Myke Parker added 13 for the Cowboys (4-14, 0-4).

Petty said Chaney’s accuracy in hitting goal the first 2 1/2 quarters was offset by Mooney’s execution in the third quarter.

“We focused on where to get the ball, but we really didn’t turn it around until about four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Then we got the ball inside and our defense turned it up, started rebounding and holding them [Chaney ] to one shot. We finally played better defense and handling the board.”

Braylon Hudson’s basket following a steal by Helms gave Chaney a 26-14 lead midway through the second quarter. Randall Thomas scored his five of his seven points in the third quarter to help Mooney’s turnaround.

“Randall gave us a real nice spark,” Petty said.

“He came in and made some nice passes and hit a couple key shots,” the former Ursuline coach said of Thomas’ play off the bench lately.

Most of Chaney fouls were the result of Mooney going strong to the hole.

“At half,” Petty said, “we had to get the ball inside more — to L.J. and Gemma and that helped change the game and put them in foul trouble.”

Gemma and Marlowe both finished with 15 points, while junior Ronnie Martino added 10.

Bolha said that Chaney’s game plan was to keep Sutton in check.

“We had a three- or four-minute lapse in third and Mooney got a nice momentum swing going their way.

“After that, they pressured us in the fourth and we turned the ball over a little more than I had hoped we would. I knew we were going to turn it over some in the second half, I just hoped we would have controlled it a little better.”

Bohla said he was pleased with the Alan Burns’ first-half played, along with the effort of Mike Parker.

“Mike played a pretty well-rounded consistent game for four quarters and our post players, Tyray Helms and Isaiah Fason, gave good effort for 3 1/2 quarters. But, once again, I think L.J. kind of took over a little bit inside and that’s where I thought we had the edge.”

Aaron Poindexter spelled Helms and Fason off the bench.

“I’m happy with our effort,” Bolha said, “it’s just question of getting better at some things.”