Boardman rolls; Touvelle nets 19 in 51-24 victory

By Greg Gulas

BOARDMAN — A little impatient, a little off-the-mark and so much still to correct might be the best way to describe Boardman High’s season opener with against Mooney.

Monica Touvelle scored a game-high 19 points and the Boardman defense held the Cardinals’ offense to just 25.6 percent shooting from the field as the Spartans defeated Mooney, 51-24 in girls basketball action Monday at the Spartan Gymnasium.

“It took a while for us to get going, but there were times during the game that we did execute like it was the mid-season,” Touvelle said.

“This is a game that will really help us as we continue to work on our execution, both offensively and when we are on the defensive side of the ball,” said Touvelle, a Youngstown State University recruit.

Tied 4-4 after the first three minutes of play, the Spartans went on a 9-2 run, keyed by Touvelle’s seven points as the Spartans built a 13-6 lead heading to the second quarter of play.

Touvelle’s seven points and six markers by Kayleigh Lipke keyed a 20-point second quarter as the Spartans built a 33-13 lead at intermission.

“We were a little impatient tonight, trying long passes at the wrong time but when we ran our offense, we were able to put points on the board,” Boardman coach Ron Moschella said.

“Monica [Touvelle], Doriyon [Glass] and Darryce [Moore] are our leaders, but our juniors are learning and that is where the three aforementioned girls come in,” Moschella said.

“This group is going to have to grow up fast as we play Hathaway Brown this Thursday and they will definitely be ready for us,” Moschella said.

Lipke, who scored 11 points but pulled down a game-high nine caroms, scored the first five points after intermission to key a 9-3 Spartan run as Boardman opened a 42-16 advantage with just eight minutes remaining.

Touvelle scored five of her team’s final nine points in the fourth quarter as the Boardman rolled.

“Boardman is a great defensive team,” Mooney coach Jack Bermann said. “They constantly apply pressure and force you into doing things that you do not want to do when you have the ball.”

The Cardinals canned 10 of 39 field goal attempts, failing to connect from beyond the arc while the Spartans were 21 of 47 from the field while hitting two three-point field goals.

“Defensively, we played well at times but this was not a good rebounding night for us,” Bermann said. “We’re a work in progress and for lack of a better coaching clich to use, we need to work on getting better each and every practice.

“We’ll learn a lot from this game and hopefully that will benefit us down the road,” Bermann said.

The Spartans (1-0) had 16 steals and held a 30-28 rebound advantage, forcing the Cardinals (0-2) into 24 miscues while registering 16 steals that led to 14 overall points.