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Reese powers Mooney victory
By Pete Mollica
YOUNGSTOWN
According to Cardinal Mooney boys basketball coach Chris Kohl, “Whatever way Danny Reese goes, so goes the Cardinals.”
Saturday night Reese went pretty well.
Reese, a senior and the only returning starter for the Cardinals, scored a game-high 26 points, 18 of them in the second half, as Mooney (2-0) rolled to a 49-36 victory over Campbell at the Covelli Centre.
“He’s our leader, our only returning starter and our go-to guy and he’s capable of taking charge of the game like he did tonight,” said Kohl after the Cardinals handed the Red Devils (2-1) their first defeat.
“Overall I was very pleased with our play,” Kohl said. “We’re starting three juniors and a sophomore along with him and the young kids did a great job tonight.”
Campbell struggled in shooting, both from the field and the foul line. The Red Devils hit on only 27 percent from the field and was 8-of-17 from the charity stripe.
“We were pretty awful shooting tonight,” Red Devils head coach Brian Danilov said. “I quit counting the number of layups we missed and when we would dive through and missed the layup and got fouled we missed the free throws to boot.”
The Cardinals also played outstanding defense in the second half and held the Red Devils to just three points in the final quarter.
“I can’t say enough good things about assistant coach Mike Butch and his defense, they just did an outstanding job in the second half,” Kohl said.
The two teams battled though the first three quarters.
Mooney jumped out to a 5-0 lead and still led 9-2 before Campbell cut the lead to 9-5 on a three-point play by Lester Hughes. But the Devils still trailed 11-8 at the end of the quarter.
The Cardinals built the lead back up to 16-11 on a three-point play by Reese before Campbell battled back to tie the score at 20-20 on a free throw by Dwaylon Letlo. The game was deadlocked 22-22 at intermission.
The third quarter was a nip-and-tuck battle with the score being tied four times and the lead changing hands twice before Reese ended the quarter with another three-point play and Mooney took a 36-33 lead into the final eight minutes.
Reese opened the fourth quarter with a long 3-point goal and the Cardinals never looked back again. Reese finished with four straight free throws as Mooney scored the final seven points, all by Reese to wrap up the win.
Campbell was led by Letlo with 11 points, while Hughes and Anthony Naze each added nine points. Mooney finished the game 15-of-20 from the foul line as Reese hit 10 of 11, including his last 10 in a row.
“I’m really excited about this team,” Kohl said. “We got games against Harding and Ursuline coming up and we’ll be in there against the giants. Our biggest man is 6-5, but these kids love to play and I’m sure it will be exciting for them against that competition.”