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Hughes’ leadership drives Irish victory
By Ryan Buck
YOUNGSTOWN
Ursuline senior Mark Hughes’ basketball skill set is nearly all-encompassing.
The 6-foot-3 guard can dribble, pass, defend, rebound and most certainly score — as evidenced by his game-high 23 points in Ursuline’s 70-46 win over LaBrae Tuesday.
What Irish coach Keith Gunther wants to see most from his standout, however, has little to do with his abilities, which are perhaps the best in the area this season.
As the Irish widened their lead over the Vikings into the fourth quarter, Gunther set his gaze firmly upon Hughes, who was bent over, hands-on-knees at his block along the lane.
“Mark!” Gunther said. “Leadership! Leadership!”
The Irish led 50-36 and their decisive size advantage and speed was setting in, but the lessons were ongoing.
Said Gunther of his lone senior, who signed a letter-of-intent to continue his basketball career at Wright State last month, “Mark, when he asserts himself, can make us win games without scoring because he can find that open guy, he can get guys in the right positions. That’s what we’ve gotta have from him. He’s not a real vocal kid, but I told him that he had to lead from the front and everyone else will follow suit.”
After a tight first quarter, Ursuline’s defensive pressure affected LaBrae enough to force 10 turnovers and limit the Vikings to eight points.
“We took a bad shot off an offensive rebound that led to a fast break for them, we made bad passes where we didn’t try to cut our distance down and instead made long passes and turned them over there,” said LaBrae coach Chad Kiser. “Another was an illegal screen called on an out-of-bounds play. So that’s three empty trips for us that they turned into points and really it’s a 12-point swing instead of us having a seven-point lead.”
Meanwhile, Ursuline (2-1) was getting started. Hughes and backcourt mate Greg Parella combined for 12 points in a second quarter run with Parella drilling a 3-pointer.
Hughes added six more in the third quarter and teamed with David Collins on several dynamic plays, including a fast-break bounce pass Collins converted for a 43-30 lead with three minutes left in the quarter.
With 3:30 left in the game Hughes — on his way to 10 fourth quarter points — stole an errant Vikings pass at midcourt and soared past two defenders for an emphatic slam dunk.
Justin Jenkins’ 20 points were not enough as the young Vikings (2-2) fell to a tournament-tested Irish team, which will likely make another run as far as Hughes will take them.
“I think they made us play ugly a little bit,” Gunther said of LaBrae’s pressure defense, which slowed his team’s pace in the first half. “We were rushing some things and panicking on some passes. They made us play a little bit out of sync.
“Fortunately for us Mark took over in the second half and ran the team well and made some great passes and scored some nice buckets. He was the guy who pushed us.”
Before this season, Gunther had a special assignment for Hughes.
“I’m really embracing that because I’m the only senior and we really need my leadership,” said Hughes, quick with a smile when he describes Gunther’s tough love. “I know everyone listens to me. I feel that if I can take that leadership role, I can bring us together.”