It wasn’t pretty, but Mooney finds a way to win

YOUNGSTOWN — For about 10 seconds on Tuesday night, it looked like Cardinal Mooney’s ugly victory was about to turn into an even uglier defeat.

The Cardinals were clinging to a one-point lead in the final five seconds and Ashtabula Lakeside had just missed a game-winning shot inside.

The ball bounced to the right where Mooney junior Danny Reese grabbed it just before Lakeside’s Rashad Bell bumped into Reese while going for the rebound.

The official blew the whistle and, for a moment, everyone in the gym thought he had whistled Reese.

“He wasn’t very demonstrative and he didn’t point to anybody, so I thought he called it on us,” Cardinals boys basketball coach Chris Kohl said. “I’d have had a heart attack. I would have been dead on the floor.”

After a brief huddle, the call went against Bell, giving Reese two free throws on the other end with six-tenths of a second left. He missed them both, but it didn’t matter as Cody Blizzard’s full-court prayer fell well short of the rim, giving Mooney the 51-50 victory.

“Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly,” Kohl said, “and boy, we fit that bill tonight.

“We. Won. Ugly.”

Reese finished with 10 points and his older brother, senior Eddie Reese, added eight points and six assists for the Cardinals (10-4).

“Eddie Reese played a real nice game for us tonight,” Kohl said. “He’s just getting better and better every season. And his brother hit some big shots for us.

“It’s nice to see Reese and Reese play well.”

Eddie Reese made one of the game’s biggest plays with about 20 seconds left, grabbing a loose rebound near the free throw line, then passing to a cutting John Stoops for what turned out to be the game-winning basket.

“It was an off night for us,” admitted the elder Reese. “But we got the W. That’s all that matters.”

Joe Stoops added 10 points for the Cardinals, who were coming off a 20-point loss to East. After a strong start to the season, which included scoring 85 points in the opener against a good Campbell team, Kohl think his team has lost its way a little bit.

“We’ve lost something,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a midseason slump or what.”

Added Eddie Reese, “Our energy level has gone down a little bit. But at practices lately it’s been getting better and better. Hopefully we can get back to scoring 70-80 points per game.”

Six-foot-5 senior Emilio Parks had a monster game for the Dragons (10-3), scoring 25 points with 16 rebounds. Blizzard added 14 points but Lakeside couldn’t overcome 23 turnovers.

Although Mooney’s offense wasn’t strong on Tuesday — the Cardinals shot just 15 of 46 from the floor — its defense was typically annoying. The Cardinals finished with 18 steals and 10 different players had at least one.

scalzo@vindy.com