Stepping up, moving on

By Joe Scalzo

Pair of Cards advance in Div. 2 tourney

AUSTINTOWN — Cardinal Mooney High girls basketball coach Jack Bermann has waited a long time to win a sectional tournament game, so it figures the final few seconds of Wednesday’s contest would drag on for several minutes.

“That was the longest 1.8 seconds I’ve ever seen,” he said following his team’s 52-51 victory over Hubbard in a Division II sectional semifinal at Fitch High School.

Here’s what happened. After Hubbard senior Cara Julian scored with 2:08 left to cut the Eagles’ deficit to 50-49, the Cardinals went into a stall, running nearly two minutes off the clock before Hubard was forced to foul.

Angela Stana made both free throws with 19.4 left and, on the other end, Mooney junior Dominique Zordich forced a jump ball with 1.8 seconds left.

The possession arrow pointed to Mooney, so the game seemed over. But after a Hubbard timeout, the official scorekeeper admitted it was a mistake and the Eagles had the ball.

That prompted another timeout.

Then, Hubbard’s first two out-of-bounds plays were so well-defended, the Eagles were forced to call two more timeouts. When they finally put the ball in play, the Cardinals tipped it and Hubbard’s Allie DeLuco’s only option was a layup at the buzzer.

“Probably the strength of Mooney’s team is their out-of-bounds defense,” said Eagles coach Ross Stoffer. “They’re very good at denying and with that much time left, they had us at a disadvantage.

“We tried three or four different plays but they didn’t work. You’ve got to give their coach credit for that.”

Bermann was just relieved to finally get a win.

“This has always been our Achilles heel — the first-round game,” said Bermann, who lost to Kenston, Struthers and Salem over the last three years. “We haven’t been to the second round since we’ve been here.

“We didn’t lose to cupcakes, either.”

Senior Katie Griswold scored 14 of her 16 points in the first half as Mooney (10-11) grabbed a 32-26 lead. 0

Griswold also had five rebounds and four assists, while Katie Hughes added 16 points and nine rebounds and Zordich had five points, five rebounds, three assists and seven steals for the Cardinals, who will play third-seeded Struthers at 4 p.m. Saturday.

“Hey, all the pressure’s on Struthers,” said Bermann. “We’ll just come and play and whatever happens, happens.”

Julian scored 21 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Eagles (6-15), who lost seven games this season by five points or less.

“This team has been battling back all year,” said Stoffer. “Unfortunately sometimes we come up short.

“But that effort comes from the seniors. We have there seniors guards, Cara Julian, Brittany Bullock and Michele Starkey and they’re always giving effort, never quitting.”

Canfield 63, Aurora 26

In the early game, junior Jillian Halfhill scored 24 points and added four steals as the second-seeded Cardinals rolled up a 19-7 first quarter lead and never looked back.

The Cardinals forced 25 turnovers — 19 off steals — and played high-energy defense throughout.

“Our girls are beginning to realize you can’t take time off,” said Canfield coach Pat Pavlansky. “Just because you might be better than a certain individual or a certain team, you have to play at a certain level so it’s a habit to play at that level all the time.

“I think our girls had a great opportunity to learn that throughout this season against the teams that we played against and you saw some of that tonight.”

Anokha Padubidri added nine points and six steals for Canfield (13-8), which will play Southeast and its 6-foot-2 senior Mya Levels on Saturday.

“We’re looking forward to that,” said Pavlansky. “We’re real happy with the girls and how hard they’re working and how much they’re still trying to get better because for us it’s a brand-new season.”

scalzo@vindy.com