Ursuline, Campbell reach final
It marks the third straight time the two have met for the Div. III district title.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SALEM — An all-too-familiar scenario unfolded at the Division III district tournament at Salem when Ursuline and Campbell Memorial won semifinal games Wednesday night.
The wins set up a third straight district championship showdown between the two rivals on Friday at 7 p.m.
Second-seeded Ursuline (12-9) overpowered third-seeded East Palestine 71-47 in the opening contest and top-seeded Campbell (16-6) turned back Canton Central Catholic in the nightcap 57-45.
Campbell defeated the Irish last year in the Division III championship game while Ursuline knocked off the Red Devils in 2006 to gain the regional berth.
Each year the No. 2 seed won the championship game.
“It’s become quite a rivalry,” said Ursuline coach Keith Gunther. “I’m sure it will be another great game.”
Ursuline made its way to the title game in easy fashion behind the play of junior forward Dominique Cole and senior guard Nick McCartney.
Both players scored 23 points as the Irish just had too much firepower at every position.
“We were beat by a much better team,” said East Palestine coach Tom Bingham. “They had better players than us at every position.
“We knocked down some shots to hang around for awhile but Ursuline was too tough.”
The Irish came out of the game with intensity and a great shooting touch.
Ursuline made 11 of 15 shots in the first quarter as McCartney poured in ten points from the outside and Cole added eight on the inside.
“We were clicking in all aspects tonight,” Gunther said. “Especially on the defensive side of the court.
“We’ve been coming together lately because we are playing as a unit.”
Gunther said the Irish, like Campbell, are much better basketball teams than their records indicate.
“Our schedule prepares us for the postseason,” Gunther said. “Our schedule exposes some of our weaknesses during the year but it helps us because we play a notch above the teams in this field.”
East Palestine (15-7) overachieved all year and they tried to stay with the Irish for a while.
J.C. Bolinger scored 18 points and sophomore Ben Gysin added eight points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Nine Ursuline players scored as the Irish opened up a 40-19 halftime lead and never looked back.
In the second game, Campbell had a tougher task for awhile against a Crusader team that had 6-7 and 6-9 senior post players.
The Devils countered a severe height disadvantage by contesting the game the entire length of the court.
“We wanted to make their big men come away from the basket so we could make things happen,” said Campbell coach Brian Danilov. “We were able to do that and be patient on offense.”
The strategy worked to perfection as Campbell got Central Catholic’s big men in early foul trouble.
Nick Foster (6-7) picked up his third and fourth fouls early in the third quarter.
Crusader coach Kevin Finefrock elected to put Foster back in the game with just over two minutes left in the third quarter and the senior proceeded to foul out before the end of the period.
With Foster out and Eric Coggins (6-9) playing with three fouls, Campbell’s Antwan Dawson went to work in the third quarter.
Dawson, who had only two points in the first half, poured in 11 of his 21 points in the third quarter as Campbell pulled away from a 23-16 halftime lead.
The Devils pushed the lead to 39-30 after three periods and put the game away by outscoring the Crusaders 18-15 in the final quarter.
“It was a great team effort,” Danilov said. “Canton played hard. Their record (9-13) is deceiving as is ours. They are a good team.”
Campbell got nine points and six rebounds from T.J. Robbins and seven points from Nate Hodge and Jerah’me Williams.
Canton was led by Coggins with 15 points and seven rebounds.