43
Mooney pulls away to stay unbeaten
Big second half enables
Mooney to remain perfect
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
The Cardinal Mooney boys basketball team is 5-0 and off to its best start under third-year head coach Brian Danilov after a 69-55 road win at Boardman on Saturday night.
For at least a half, however, it was the Spartans who looked like the offensive juggernaut.
But Andrew Armstrong scored a game-high 17 points, Trell Thomas and D.J. Anderson each added 16 and the Cardinals used a 42-point second-half outburst to remain undefeated.
“We like to rotate the ball and whoever has the hot hand, that’s the player that we want to feed,” Anderson said. “Boardman came out really hot and this is their court so we expected to see that kind of offensive effort by them tonight.
“At halftime, coach Danilov stressed that we needed to shut down the perimeter and make them drive. We were able to do that and played much better defensively in the second half.”
The Cardinals raced to the early 6-0 advantage on buckets by John Durkin, Armstrong and Anderson, increasing their lead to 12-6 on an Armstrong bucket at 3:12 of the first quarter.
Boardman (2-4) came storming back, however, hitting its first five attempts from beyond the arc and nailing six 3-pointers in the opening period for an 18-15 lead.
John Ryan and Brian Fryda each connected twice from downtown early.
“I didn’t think the game would be that tight after the first period, but give Boardman credit because they hit their shots,” Thomas said. “They made eight 3-point buckets in the first half, so we needed to close down that part of their game in the second half.
“Our defense really kicked it up a notch after halftime.”
Ryan’s third triple of the game and another hoop from beyond the arc by Sebastian Heinonen at 1:10 of the second period gave Boardman a 27-26 lead, but Nick Braydich made the first of his two free throws with just under a minute remaining to tie the game at 27 at halftime.
“Boardman is a well-coached group and both teams know each other really well so this was not a game that either team was looking past,” Danilov said. “This is a big rivalry game for both teams and we’re still developing our chemistry, especially defensively.
“We need to do a better job of talking on the court as we build that chemistry because there are moments when we look like we just met one another.”
Armstrong’s three-point play and layup 54 seconds into the third period increased the Cardinals’ lead to 32-27, but Fryda’s third triple of the evening at 6:18 cut the Mooney margin to 32-30.
Four points by Thomas and a three-point play by Anderson keyed a 9-2 run as the Cardinals opened a 41-32 advantage, and then settled for a 47-40 lead with one quarter remaining.
Seven points by Anderson in the final frame helped Mooney outscore the Spartans, 22-15.
“I told our guys that I was proud of our effort. Even with that effort, however, I felt as if they were the aggressors and that is where we took a step back tonight,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “You started to see that separation in the second half.”
Mooney canned 27 of 48 aerial attempts while limiting the Spartans to 19 of 47 from the field.