Ursuline, S. Range girls advance to Division III final

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

MINERAL RIDGE

The saying, “it’s not how a team starts, but how it finishes” is normally an accurate one.

Sometimes though, like Ursuline showed Thursday night, a great start definitely helps.

Ursuline (15-7) opened the game against United with an 11-0 run, then survived a frantic fourth quarter to earn a spot in Saturday’s Division III district final against South Range after a 52-43 victory at Mineral Ridge High School.

“Our kids made big plays down the stretch that covered up some mistakes earlier in the game,” said Ursuline coach Sean Durkin, whose team never trailed, but had difficulty holding on to the ball in the second half.

“We just did a couple of silly things and those mental breakdowns allowed them to get back in the game.”

The effort, cemented by Irish guard Aurielle Irizarry’s 13 fourth-quarter points, including 4 of 4 from the free throw line in the game’s final minutes, helped Ursuline knock off United in the district semifinals for the second straight year.

United didn’t go down without a fight, but never fully recovered from Ursuline’s overpowering opening quarter, where it built a 19-8 lead.

“We came out a little tight,” United coach Roger Zeigler said. “After a minute or so of that I thought we forced a couple shots.”

And a minute or two after that, the Eagles (18-5) were in a double-digit hole.

United found itself trailing by three with less than two minutes to play and had multiple opportunities to flip the script, but never got over the hump.

“We missed three or four foul shots that could have helped us,” United coach Roger Zeigler said. The Eagles shot 9 of 20 at the free throw line.

And the Eagles couldn’t find an answer for Irizarry, who led all scorers with 22.

“I needed to step up for my team,” Irizarry said.

SOUTH RANGE 52, CHAMPION 33

The Raiders, up by 11 after three quarters, rattled off nine consecutive points to start the fourth. It was the second big scoring outburst of the night for South Range, which had a 10-0 run in the first quarter after falling behind early.

South Range coach Wayne Johnson said the offense opened up as a result of some heavy defensive pressuring, which forced 15 first-half Champion turnovers and nearly held the Golden Flashes (17-6) to under 10 points at halftime.

“We thought we could get up and play 96 feet,” Johnson said. “They didn’t get a whole lot of real good looks at the basket.”

South Range also dominated on the offensive glass in the first half, limiting Champion (17-6) to one offensive rebound. The Raiders grabbed 10 of their own.

“Rebounding killed us and turnovers killed us,” Champion coach Jeff Thompson said. “The second half we got shot opportunities and were working like the devil, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”

Emily Seman scored 11 and Tabitha Stanton added nine points for South Range (21-2).

“They’re the best team out there,” Johnson said of Ursuline. “We’ve just got to go out there and keep playing like we’ve been playing and do the best we can.”