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YCS, Adams hold on against Mooney
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown Christian boys basketball team learned a lesson in ending battles Friday night.
The Eagles raced to the early 16-4 lead, and then had to withstand a late Cardinal Mooney rally in their 44-43 victory at the Cardinals’ Gymnasium.
DeVaun Adams came off the Eagles bench to score a team-high 14 points as they won for the second time in three outings.
“DeVaun is our X factor,” Eagles coach Dolph Carroll said. “He has speed and athleticism and shoots the ball really well,” Carroll said. “The best explanation I have for him is that he ignites us when we put him into the game.”
Carroll was pleased to see his team find the bottom of the net against the Cardinals. He had commented that they were struggling offensively.
Two 3-pointers each by Adams and Louis Lee, another by Jordan McDowell and a stingy Youngstown Christian defense helped the Eagles jump to a 12-point advantage after the first eight minutes of play.
Doug Caputo helped kick-start the Cardinal Mooney offense in the second quarter, but five more points by Adams gave the Eagles a 23-14 halftime margin.
“We knew that we couldn’t sit on the lead at halftime and my job, when Coach Carroll puts me in is to help pick up the tempo of the game,” Adams said.
“When they took the lead on us in the fourth quarter, we knew that we had to dig in defensively and that is exactly what we did as a team. We’d love to be 3-0 right now, but we’ll take being 2-1,”
Six points by Daylen Williams after the intermission put the Eagles up 32-24 and a 3-pointer by Lee increased the Eagles’ lead by nine.
However, the Cardinals were ready to strike back.
Mooney’s Ryan Farragher scored the next five points, Caputo added three markers and the next five points by Joe DeNiro keyed a 13-4 run for the Cardinals as they took their only lead, 37-36, with 2:16 remaining.
A bucket by Jordan McDowell and three free throws by Adams put the Eagles back on top.
“The one thing about this team is that they will never quit,” Mooney coach Chris Kohl said. “That was most evident tonight as they fought back despite being down by 12 points in the first quarter, eventually taking the lead in the final period.”
A number of the Cardinals players were on the football team, so it’s taking them time to adjust to basketball season, Kohl noted.
While the Eagles canned 10 of their 16 free throw attempts, Mooney (0-2) struggled at the charity strip making just 5 of 17.
Caputo led all scorers with 17 points.