Ursuline, Liberty advance

February 29, 2012 at 12:08a.m.

HOWLAND

Fending off determined opponents, the Ursuline and Liberty high boys basketball teams captured victories Tuesday night in the opening round of Northeast District Division III tournament at Howland High School.

Ursuline (11-10) scored the first eight points of the game, but Grand Valley (13-8) quickly came back, and kept the game close until the end. The Irish triumphed by a final tally, 66-59.

“I’d rather have a first-round game like that than a blowout,” Irish coach Keith Gunther said. “You get some toughness out of that, you learn you can play in the clutch, you learn you can finish in the clutch.”

After a slow start, Liberty defeated Pymatuning Valley, 61-48, in the other game.

Ursuline led 23-18 after the first quarter, but the score was tied 35-35 at halftime. The Irish surged ahead in the second half, leading by as many as 10 points.

But the Mustangs rallied again, and Ursuline led by only three points, 60-57, with 44 second remaining.

The Irish sealed the victory by sinking six free throws in the final 44 seconds, while limiting Grand Valley to a field goal.

Grand Valley, Gunther said, “didn’t go away.”

Rebounding was another important factor. Grand Valley out-rebounded Ursuline 11-10 in the first half.

But by the end of the game, the Irish held a 38-25 advantage in retrieving missed shots.

Junior Keith Jackson snagged 13 rebounds to lead the Irish.

At halftime, Gunther said, “We told our big guys to hit and go, because we got size. We told them to go to the glass and get the rebound, don’t worry about boxing your man out.”

Junior Ryan Strollo scored 23 points to lead the Irish.

“Coach tells me it’s my job to score,” Strollo said. “He tells me every open shot I get just take advantage and shoot it.”

The first half seemed to be a shootout between Strollo, who tallied 17 points in the first half including five three-pointers, and Grand Valley senior A.J. Henson, who put 22 points on the board.

Henson scored a game-high 31 points.

“I wouldn’t have got all those shots if it wasn’t for the other players on my team,” Strollo said.

Sophomore Korri Maynard provided a second-half spark for Irish, scoring 11 of his 19 points after halftime.

“We had a strong second half,” he said.

After the other game, Liberty coach Dan Bubon blamed his team’s slow start on “tournament jitters.” Liberty (11-10) trailed Pymatuning Valley (13-8) 17-12 after one quarter.

Bubon said his team worked on strong defense in preparation for the game against the Lakers.

“We gave up 17 points in the first quarter, but then we only gave up 31 for the rest of the game,” he said, adding that his team’s stronger defense was the key to the win.

“The defense woke up. We relaxed,” Bubon said. “I have all the confidence in the world we can beat anybody here. But you got to win the first one.”

Asim Peas, a sophomore, led Liberty with 11 rebounds, and was his team’s second-leading scorer with 15 points.

“It’s a tournament game, so we knew it going to be like that,” said senior Jalen Mann, who led the Leopards with 19 points.

“We knew we had to come back out in the third quarter and play hard to win,” Mann added. We knew what was on the line, we knew what we had to do.”