Struggling Mooney survives late scare from Yo. Christian

The Eagles couldn’t overcome their big first-half deficit.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — Cardinal Mooney coach Steve Leslie liked the way his team started and finished its non-conference game with Youngstown Christian School.

He didn’t find much else appealing about the Cards’ effort other than being on the right side of a 49-44 score over the Eagles on the road.

“We’ll take it. It’s a good win right now,” Leslie said. “We’re struggling and not playing very good basketball. We’re struggling shooting the ball and it’s just not one or two players it’s the whole team.

“Hopefully this win can help us get back on track.”

On the other side, first-year YCS coach Dolph Carroll, a former assistant coach at Youngstown State, was proud of the effort his team put up against one of the toughest teams on the Eagles’ schedule.

“The kids played extremely hard,” Carroll said. “I’m proud of the effort that we did. We had our chances at the end after getting down.

“We could have folded in the first half but we kept after it and played with what we had.”

The Eagles (6-4) battled back from a 24-11 halftime and a 36-27 third quarter deficit to pull to within three-points of the Cards twice in the final minutes.

John Pecchia, who led the Eagles with 12 points hit a 3-pointer to cut the Mooney lead to 40-37 with 3:32 left.

The Eagles then sliced the lead again to three points at 41-38 on a free throw by David Colbert but could get no closer.

Mooney’s L.J. Sutton hit his biggest shot of the night from the top of the key with 1:32 left to push the margin out to five points.

Sutton then hit another basket and Mike Gemma followed with another as Mooney closed out the game.

Gemma and Sutton each scored a game-high 14 points to lead the Cards. Sutton also grabbed eight rebounds.

“L.J. [Sutton] hit a really big shot there,” Leslie said. “I’m going to give L.J. credit. He’s our player, he got about a 12-footer and he knocked it down.

“That’s what we need him to be for us to win.”

Leslie said that the Cardinals did a good job of regrouping and closing out the game in the final minute.

“I liked the way we finished strong,” Leslie said. “I liked the way we ended the game shooting layups.”

Mooney (4-5) opened the game with an 18-7 advantage in the first quarter but the shooting woes started for the Cards after that.

Mooney hit just 18 of 47 shots but thanks to a commanding edge on the boards they were able to keep the Eagles in check. Mooney outrebounded YCS 38-25.

The Eagles also got strong games from Colbert who had 11 points and eight rebounds along with sophomore Victor Shaw who tallied 11 points.