Despite a late start, Beverly aids Irish win

After missing most of the first half, she regrouped to help sink East.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — By sitting for about 12 straight minutes of action during Thursday’s crucial Steel Valley Conference game with East, Ursuline senior forward Jalessa Beverly picked an unusual time to set an unofficial personal record.

After being assessed a personal foul plus a technical in the opening minutes, Beverly sat out the rest of the first half. She wasted no time re-igniting her engines, scoring a basket about 15 seconds into the third quarter to cut the East lead to one point.

Beverly added 10 more points down the stretch to help the Irish defeat the Panthers, 42-39, in the Ursuline gymnasium.

The victory kept the Irish (10-5, 3-0 SVC) unbeaten in league play.

Stepping up for the Irish was Jasmine Brown, who scored 14 points and had four steals. Victoria Miles contributed seven rebounds and two steals while Lucia Petrus scored the game-winning points after driving along the baseline for a shot.

“We got contributions from a lot of people,” Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said. “We didn’t play Lucia in the first half because she’s been kind of ill.

“We were hoping to keep her out because we have sort of a grinding schedule coming up,” Durkin said. “But we needed her to provide a little spark and she certainly provided that for us.”

Providence recruit Brittney Taylor led the Panthers (7-9, 2-1) with 17 points, while sophomore guard Alex Hines scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

“With Brittney being a penetrator, I’m sure that stopping her was the focus of their game plan,” East coach Tanisha Franklin said. “They did a good job of cutting off that gap that she was trying to penetrate. Alex did a good job coming of the bench and hitting some key shots for us.”

The Panthers dominated the boards with Monet Oliver pulling down 14 rebounds and Brianna Dawson getting 10 and a blocked shot.

Beverly said she had never sat for so long.

“It was horrible,” she said, “but I had faith in my teammates. Coach didn’t want me to get any more fouls in the first half.”

Durkin’s gutsy move proved to be the right one when Beverly took two more fouls within 15 seconds with about 2:27 to go in the game.

Durkin said it wasn’t a hard decision.

“We certainly didn’t want to set the tone that that was the way we were going to play,” Durkin said. “She’s a good kid and she made a mistake. Luckily, she game back and played great for us in the second half.”

Last year, Beverly was Taylor’s teammate at Rayen, which was coached by Franklin.

“The focal point of this game was the Steel Valley championship,” said Franklin, who said the emotion of former teammates facing off was erased after their first meeting. “Our goal is to win Steel Valley.”

Beverly said the Irish feel the same.

“This was a real big game,” Beverly said. “The first time, they beat us [but] this one counted in the Steel Valley Conference. Since we were 2-0, we knew that if we won this one we’d be in the driver’s seat.”

Dawson sank two free throws to give the Panthers their final lead, 38-36. After Beverly scored from under the basket, Petrus put the Irish ahead with 30 seconds to go.

After two Irish free throws, Taylor’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the backboard.

XPhotos from this game can be viewed at http://www.vindy.com/photos/galleries/2008/jan/24/east-vs-ursuline/