East beats Mooney second time, 44-34

By Chuck Housteau

Monet Mitchel-Oliver, Briana Dawson and Reshayla Taylor led the Panthers to their eighth win.

YOUNGSTOWN — The East High girls basketball team served notice that the Steel Valley Conference championship might take a while to be decided.

Mooney came into Thursday’s league contest at East at the top of the conference standings but East knocked the Cardinals from the ranks of the undefeated in league play with a 44-34 victory.

The Panthers (8-7, 1-1) defeated Mooney for the second time this season, although this was the only contest that counted in the league standings.

East won the first encounter, 45-44.

“It was much of the same,” Mooney (9-7, 2-1) coach Jack Bermann said. “Last time we played them, we didn’t shoot well from the free-throw line in the first half and lost. We let them get a put-back on offense late in the game.

“That was kind of the tale of the game today.”

Mooney shot just five of 15 from the foul line in the first half and East put the game away by getting offensive rebounds and second-chance efforts at scoring in the second half.

The Panthers outscored Mooney 12-2 in the final seven minutes of the game and pulled away from a 32-32 tie to grab a 10-point victory and throw the SVC championship race back in a scramble.

“We pulled away in the fourth quarter,” East coach Taniesha Franklin said. “It was a toss up until that point. It was anyone’s game until we pulled away late.

“Mooney’s a good shooting team and so that was our strategy to contest shots and our girls did a good job of doing that.”

East harassed Mooney’s shooters and forced the Cardinals into eight critical turnovers in the final quarter.

The Panthers could have made the victory even easier if they were more successful with layups and free throws in the final minutes.

East missed three layups and was just six of 12 from the foul line down the stretch.

“This puts us back in the race for the Steel Valley Championship,” Franklin said. “We were down 0-1 and we had a win against Warren Harding within our grasps.

“Hopefully this will give us momentum.”

East got 13 points and 11 rebounds from sophomore Monet Mitchel-Oliver while junior Briana Dawson added 10 points and 10 boards. Senior Reshayla Taylor added eight points and 10 rebounds.

Neither team shot the ball well in the game because of the tight defensive pressure employed by both squads.

Mooney shot just 19 percent from the field in the first half and scored only four points in the second quarter.

East couldn’t take advantage of Mooney’s poor shooting from the field and foul line and led 16-13 at the break.

Mooney’s Katie Hughes scored eight of her team-high 13 points in the third quarter as the Cardinals started to get untracked offensively.

East kept pace with the strong inside scoring by Taylor and Mitchel-Oliver while Dawson was on the bench with four fouls.

“We did a good job with Briana on the bench,” Franklin said. “I was trying to stall so Mooney wouldn’t get the lead because Briana is our go-to player, but the girls did a good job of holding [Mooney] off till we got her back in the game.”