Mooney rallies to shock Ursuline

By John Bassetti

The Cardinals overcame a 33-19 deficit for a Steel Valley Conference win.

YOUNGSTOWN — It was a night of fouls, fouling-out, technicals, histrionics and untucked shirts.

It all lent itself to a lot of energy in the Ursuline gym on alumni night when former Irish students thought they were witnessing a blowout.

As the fourth quarter began, all those things were irrelevant because it came down to pure basketball in the last 17 seconds.

That’s when Ursuline trailed 49-47. After a timeout, Dale Peterman got the ball and was dribbling out front with Mooney’s Karrington Griffin defending.

Peterman made his move and released the ball, but it was short. Mooney took possession and Griffin burned time off the clock until teammate Ronnie Martino was fouled and made one of two free throws for a 50-47 finish in the Steel Valley Conference game.

Coach Chris Kohl said it was one of Mooney’s best fourth quarters of the season and a big win for the program.

“We dug ourselves in a hole and were down by 14 [33-19] but the guys really responded,” Kohl said. “We were 5 of 16 from the floor at halftime, so we told our kids to keep pushing the ball, take it to the basket and get to the foul line.”

Mooney’s scoring increased progressively as it started with 7 points, then tallied 9, 12 and 22 over the final three quarters.

Ursuline didn’t score a field goal in the final period until Jordan Dubose’s 3-pointer with 51.1 seconds remaining.

“I feel like we’re not playing with energy,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “I thought we played great defense the first half and third quarter when they couldn’t make any shots. But then we couldn’t make any. If we could have put the ball in the bucket, we’d probably put the game away.

“They hung around and started knocking down a couple buckets until the game got close,” Gunther said. “I think our immaturity showed when we turned the ball over in the fourth down the stretch.

“Mooney didn’t get stopped down the stretch and we missed some key free throws. They didn’t panic and they kept pushing.”

Griffin was inserted late in the third quarter.

“When they need a defensive player, they put me in,” said the junior who had six points.

But defending Peterman was his big moment.

“Coming out of the timeout, they told me to get Peterman and lock him down and don’t let him score,” Griffin said. “My friends on the bench told me to watch the crossover and watch the pump fake and I just tried to stay on my feet and move.”

Dubose, a sophomore, led Ursuline with 15 points via a combination of strong offensive rebounds in the middle quarters, along with a pair of 3-pointers.

Kohl credited assistants Chris Amill and Mike Butch for substituting Griffin.

“At halftime, we told the guys that shots are going to drop, so just keep playing hard, work the man-to-man defense to get some turnovers and our bench gave us a nice spark,” Kohl said. “Karrington Griffin did a nice job for us and finally the shots started to drop. I was happy for the effort we gave in the second half of the game.”

Substituting was a factor.

“He’s quick, low to the ground and covers a lot of territory real fast,” he said. “He had a couple baskets and got a steal, so we didn’t have anybody who scored a lot of points, but that’s team balance. Finally, we were consistent on both ends of the floor tonight.”

As for the disadvantage size-wise:

“Coming in we knew they were going to be big. Sometimes a little bit of quickness negates tallness. That’s one of the things we kind of worked on. We told the kids to push the ball up the floor.”

Martino was Mooney’s top scorer with eight with Eddie Reese adding seven. Donald D’Alesio had eight rebounds and Pat DePizzo seven for the winners (7-8, 1-2 SVC).

Peterman finished with 12 points, while Dubose grabbed 11 rebounds and DeVonte Jenkins nine for the Irish (5-10, 0-2).