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Beacham leads Ursuline girls past Harding
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Ursuline’s Macey Gunther puts up a shot under the basket as Harding’s Chelsea Dipaolo defends during Wednesday’s game at Warren Harding. Ursuline won 52-40.
Beacham scores 32 points to lift Ursuline past Harding
By Steve Wilaj
WARREN
It may get her into hot water sometimes, but Ursuline High’s Tanaya Beacham plays with a mean streak on the court that completely contrasts her kind, soft-spoken off-court nature.
Not afraid to get physical and mix it up from time-to-time, she draws that fire from a specific mindset.
“It’s you just have to go hard,” Beacham said.
She certainly did in Wednesday’s 52-40 victory against Warren Harding, shining in an otherwise ugly game with 32 points and nine rebounds. Beacham also found herself in a couple altercations with the Raiders.
“She’s passionate and she’s emotional,” Irish head coach Sean Durkin said. “But not in a bad way.”
The 6-foot-1 sophomore forward made 11 of 15 shots, including two 3-pointers. Many came in the second half to put Harding away.
“She made some very big plays,” Durkin said. “She’s a very good player. She did some things on the glass as well as offensively and came through when we needed her to. We’re gonna need her to do that all year.”
Beacham said she has no problem accepting that responsibility.
“I have to do what’s best for my team,” she said. “It was just for me to take over and have a good game so our team could get that win.”
Harding (1-4) implied a box-and-one defensive strategy on Beacham that only contained her for so long.
“Starting out we did a pretty good job with it,” said Raiders coach Frank Caputo. “Then they hit a couple shots that kind of got us out of it. But when you have a player like that who could dominate a game, you have to try to switch something up.”
Simone Comer was the next highest scorer for the Irish (1-3) with six points. Meanwhile, Harding was led by Maya Bell’s 12 points and Chelsea Dipaolo’s 11.
The Raiders cut the deficit to 21-19 in the third period in what Caputo said was his team’s best quarter so far this season.
“We came out in the second half with a lot more energy than we came in the game with,” he said. “That’s one thing we’ve been working on, so I was happy they finally came out with a little intensity.”
Still, Harding couldn’t overcome its 24 turnovers, which Caputo said was the difference in the game.
The Irish were sloppy as well with 16 turnovers, but Durkin said Ursuline will take a win any way it can get one right now.
“Certainly wasn’t very aesthetic, but we needed a win,” he said. “Harding came in and scrapped and was competitive, but I thought we fought too. Early in the year we just need to figure out how to win some games and today we did that.”