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Ursuline, United to meet for Div. III title
Ursuline, United to meet for Div. III titleBy Jim Flick
The victories by the Ursuline and United on Thursday in the Division III girls basketball tournament were a study in contrast.
Ursuline (15-7) dominated from the start, compiling a 15-3 lead on the way to a 53-26 win over South Range (14-9).
United (20-3) fought a back-and-forth battle with Pymatuning Valley (19-4). The Lakers came within a point of tying the game in the fourth quarter before the Golden Eagles pulled away for a 47-36 victory.
Ursuline and United are scheduled to square off for the sectional championship at 2 p.m. Saturday at Mineral Ridge High School.
“We kept playing our game, kept being aggressive, kept going at them,” said Ursuline coach Courtney Davidson.
“I told my team that they [South Range] would be out here to fight and we really had to match their intensity,” she added.
The Raiders got within 10 points of the Irish, 28-18, just before halftime. But Ursuline dominated the second half, holding South Range to just four points in the third quarter and four in the fourth quarter, while scoring 23.
Davidson commended the play of 6-foot-1 senior Courtney Powell, who scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.
“We tell her every day, ‘If you’re the biggest kid on the floor, you got to have that intensity and say that I’m going to get every rebound.’”
“We always want to go out strong,” Powell said. “We all motivate each other.”
“We just wanted to come out strong and set the tempo of the game,” said Brianna Curd, a senior who scored 15 points for the Irish.
The Ursuline players “are very athletic,” said South Range coach Wayne Johnson. “Every shot was defended. Their pressure got to us more than I anticipated. It was physical.
“They just took over in the middle of the third quarter and there wasn’t a whole lot we could do about it,” Johnson added.
Lexi Naples, a junior, was South Range’s scoring leader with 10 points.
UNITED 47, PY VALLEY 36
United led 13-3 late in the first quarter, but Pymatuning Valley stormed back in the second half, out-scoring the Golden Eagles 15-9 to tie the game at 22 at halftime.
The Lakers scored the first field goal of the third quarter to break the tie, but United started a 12-point run in the third quarter and that didn’t end until early in the fourth quarter, giving them a 34-26 lead.
Pymatuning Valley responded by scoring seven unanswered points in the fourth quarter to nearly pull even with United. But the Golden Eagles outscored the Lakers 13-3 in the final minutes of the game to earn the victory.
“We knew it would be a game of runs,” said United coach Sam Mathias. “It’s all momentum for these girls. They got to keep believing in themselves.
“Our defense is what we pride ourselves on, that offense is just their bonus for the night.”
United’s scoring leaders were junior Cassidy Yoder, senior Taylor Smith and sophomore Mackensize Gatchel, who each scored 10 points.
“We were a little bit worried” about Pymatuning Valley’s repeated comebacks, said Yoder. “But you can’t let your vibe down. We just kept going and it turned out all right for us.”
Pymatuning Valley’s scoring leader was senior Shauna Soderstrom, who put 12 points on the board for the Lakers.