YCS gets pretty (ugly) win

The Eagles pulled past East in the annual Youngstown-Warren Holiday Classic.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — It wasn’t pretty but Youngstown Christian head coach Dolph Carroll will take it anyway.

Carroll’s Eagles didn’t shoot well and committed too many turnovers but still pulled out a 54-48 victory over East in the Youngstown-Warren Holiday Basketball Classic at the Covelli Center Saturday afternoon.

“These are the games that you have to win if you want to be a good team,” Carroll said. “We didn’t play very well and at times we looked terrible, but we still won.”

The Eagles (3-0) shot just over 40 percent from the field and made just 11 of 18 free throws while committing 23 turnovers against the Panthers (1-2) who shot even worse from the field (17-of-53) and 13-of-20 from the foul line with 17 turnovers.

“It wasn’t very pretty to watch, but give East credit — their quickness and athleticism caused us some problems today,” Carroll said. “Mark [Cherol] and his staff do a great job.”

Both teams played pretty good defense and it was Youngstown Christian’s defense, which held the Panthers to just a single point in the third quarter, that eventually made the difference.

East missed all seven shots it took in that quarter and committed nine of its 17 turnovers, but still the Eagles didn’t take full advantage as they made just 3 of 14 shots from the field during that eight-minute span.

“We had our opportunities, but we just never did anything with them,” said East coach Mark Cherol. “We missed so many easy shots underneath and then we didn’t do a very good job at the free throw line either.”

Carroll said he wasn’t all that concerned about the team’s shooting at this point.

“It’s only the third game of the season and the only thing that I’m concerned about is that they are out their playing hard for a full 32 minutes and I think they did that today,” he added.

The Eagles’ scoring attack had four players in double figures led by junior Anthony Walker with 13, while seniors Torrell Grier, Caleb Yanno and John Pecchia all added 10 points apiece.

East had three players in double figures led by senior Justin Brown with 13 while senior Trumane Jenkins added 12 and senior Jarelle Burt had 11.

The Panthers outrebounded the Eagles 38-31 led by Jenkins with nine. Walker also had nine boards and four blocked shots for the Eagles.

The contest was a real dogfight over the first two quarters with the scored tied four times.

East used a 9-0 run midway in the opening quarter to take a 14-8 lead, but the Eagles came back to score the final 11 points, five by Yanno, to lead 19-14 at the end.

Youngstown Christian pulled to a 25-18 lead early in the second quarter, but the Panthers battled back behind Jenkins to tie the contest 27-27 before the Eagles took the lead at intermission 28-27.

Then nothing went right for East in the third quarter as the Panthers turned the ball over five of their first six trips down the floor, but the Eagles couldn’t take advantage missing their first six shots, but scored the final seven points of the quarter for a 35-28 advantage.

East did get the lead down to 35-31 early in the final quarter, but never got any closer. They were just 8 of 13 from the line in the quarter, while the Eagles made 5-of-7 over the final two minutes to put the game away.

“I wish we would have played better, but this [Covelli Center] is still just a great venue to play in,” Carroll said. “It was the first time for them here and they really loved playing here.”