Irish start strong, finish wrong vs. Fairless
Ursuline couldn’t stop
Falcons senior Jordan
Jennings in a 65-61 loss.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NORTH CANTON — After his best player, senior guard Jordan Jennings, scored a school-record 54 points in a loss to Canton Timken Friday night, Fairless High boys basketball coach Matt Kramer delivered a message to him for Saturday.
“I told him, ‘When I had my 54-point game in high school, I backed it up with a big game,’” said Kramer. “I didn’t tell him I never had a 54-point game in high school.
“He doesn’t need to know that.”
Jennings got the message. After a slow start, he scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half as the Falcons out-hustled and out-muscled Ursuline for a 65-61 victory in the first game of the Pizza Oven Classic at North Canton High School.
Ursuline coach Keith Gunther, whose team defeated Chaney Friday, built his defensive game plan around forcing the left-handed Jennings to go right. It worked at first, but Jennings’ craftiness, along with some defensive breakdowns, allowed him to get into a rhythm.
“He had a great second half,” said Gunther. “Those [16] points made a world of difference.”
Jennings also had four rebounds, six assists and three steals for the Falcons (10-4), who outscored the Irish 45-25 over the second and third quarters.
There was no secret to how Fairless did it, either. Ursuline had just two rebounds in the second quarter and just four in the third quarter.
“They killed us on the offensive boards,” said Gunther. “We’re a little soft.”
Senior guard Nick McCartney led the Irish (9-5) with 23 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. He hit a pair of 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter that brought the Irish back from a double-digit deficit, but Gunther was unhappy with a couple of his defensive lapses, particularly against Jennings.
“If we couldn’t keep him from going left, we didn’t want to help because he’s a good passer,” Gunther said.
The most confounding thing for Gunther was that the Irish got off to a terrific start. Fairless was coming off a frenzied game against undefeated Timken — a 110-87 loss — and the Irish patiently worked the ball inside the first eight minutes to dictate the tempo and take a 19-8 lead.
“They died early, we died late,” said Gunther.
Once Fairless got its legs, the Irish didn’t have an answer.
“You can’t even measure how much [Friday’s game] had an effect on us to start the game,” said Kramer. “We’re a jump-shooting team and to turn around that quickly ...
“Once we warmed up to it and got our feet back, we played a better game.”
John Colla scored 12 points — all on 3s — and Dominique Cole added 12 points and seven rebounds for Ursuline. Jamel Turner battled foul trouble, but still managed 10 points for the Irish, who got scoring from just five players.
“We’ve still got time,” said Gunther.
Josh Penland scored 20 points, Josh Brinley had 14 points and eight rebounds and Ben Bratcher added seven points and 10 rebounds for Fairless, which advanced to the regional semifinals last season in Div. II.
“We’re a team,” Kramer said. “We’re not just Jordan.”
scalzo@vindy.com