Mooney limits Spartans to 41

L.J. Sutton was held to two points but his teammates stepped up in Mooney’s win.

By ERIC HAMILTON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — If someone had told Boardman boys basketball coach Jim Goske that his team would hold Mooney’s senior standout L.J. Sutton to a season-low two points Thursday night, he would have been confident of a victory.

Unfortunately for him and his Spartans, Mooney had a lot more offensive firepower than just Sutton.

Senior Tim Marlowe (12) and junior Ronnie Martino (18) combined for 30 points and junior Randall Thomas provided nine points off the bench to lead the Cardinals to a 51-41 victory on Senior Night at Mooney High.

“I would have thought we’d win, obviously,” Goske said. “Sutton is a great player and we were able to stop him tonight. But it says a lot about how good a team they have when you get two other guys in double figures. They really played well and took it to us in the first half.

“They hurt us offensively with their defense and took us out of some things we like to run. We played only one hard quarter and that was the third. You can’t have three single-digit quarters and expect to win. We just needed to execute better tonight and play a full four quarters.”

With Sutton unable to get into the offensive flow, guards Martino, Marlowe and Mike Gemma kept things running. The trio poured in 18 points in the first half as the Cardinals built a 22-15 halftime advantage.

After Boardman (8-12) had tied the contest at 15-all late in the second quarter, Mooney finished the period with a 7-0 flurry to swipe the momentum.

The lead ballooned to 27-15 in the third quarter, as Martino scored two straight buckets. But the Spartans clawed back into the contest with a 9-0 jaunt and cut the deficit to 27-24 with less than four minutes left in the third. Mooney led 37-33 heading into the fourth stanza.

The fourth quarter belonged to Mooney (11-8). Boardman went cold from the field, going over 5 1⁄2 minutes without a field goal. The Cardinals took advantage and padded their lead to 41-33 on a pair of free throws from Sutton — his only points of the game.

The Spartans finished the fourth with just two field goals and eight total points.

“Defensively, we were able to switch things up a little bit and they really helped us,” Mooney coach Steve Leslie said. “Tonight wasn’t one of L.J.’s best offensive nights, but he was able to help us in other ways like rebounding and setting solid screens for our guards.

“Marlowe and Martino were tremendous tonight and Gemma had some big baskets, too. And we got some good things off the bench. We were able to get a lot of people involved and get into a nice flow. I think it shows that we’re becoming a pretty good team right now.”

Boardman was unable to use its size advantage in the paint, although Devron Martin did his part with 10 points, including eight in the second half. Ryan Pesta led the Spartans with 11 points.

“I thought if it was a physical game like it was that it would be to our advantage,” Goske said. “But Mooney took it to us and decided not to let Boardman push them around. They pushed us around instead, to their credit. Shame on us for not pushing back when we needed to.”