Ursuline rallies past Mooney in OT

By BRANDON JUDEH

sports @vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The seats were filled; the walls were lined, all in time for Mooney pride, as the Cardinals took on rival Ursuline.

With everything at capacity, it was no wonder 32 minutes weren’t enough to decide the outcome as the Irish needed overtime to shock the Cardinals 64-57 in a boys basketball game Friday night.

In the end, Mooney fans were left in disbelief as the Ursuline (13-5) faithful cheered so loud most would have though it was the home team.

“All our fans came out tonight, dressed in white, to cheer us on and they were so loud it honestly felt like a home game,” said sophomore David Collins.

The Irish looked lethargic in the first half as cold shooting and foul trouble put them in a 14-point hole heading into intermission.

“The problem with the first half was we were just standing and passing the ball around up top,” said Ursuline head coach Keith Gunther. “We told our guys at halftime to make some plays happen. We didn’t want them to just throw shots up.”

Ursuline drew even with the Cardinals for the first time at the 3:20 mark of the fourth quarter and sent the game into overtime when Mark Hughes hit a big 3-pointer with a little over a minute remaining.

“It was a crazy game; our team played hard and overcame a 14-point deficit and I was able to hit the big shot to send it into overtime,” Hughes said. “What a great feeling.”

Hughes finished with 11 points while Greg Parella chipped in with 12.

The Irish carried over that momentum into the extra period as they outscored the Cardinals 11-4.

Collins scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half and overtime.

Whenever the Irish needed a big shot, Collins was there.

“We knew that we needed to keep playing hard and step up our defense and just play as a team,” added Collins.

Gunther agreed Collins and Hughes both had big nights, but said another player won the game for Ursuline.

“It won’t show up in the stat line, but our unsung hero tonight was Gino Naples,” he said. “He took two or three charges, rebounded the ball and made some big plays for us down the stretch.”

Mooney coach Brian Danilov said his team had a lot of unforced errors, specifically turnovers.

“We had some breakdowns on the defensive end and I feel we stopped playing with the pace of the game and started to force stuff,” he said. “We can’t dwell on this loss though because [today] we turn around and play Niles.”

Leading the way for Mooney (8-7) was Joe Cunningham with 19 points, including five 3-pointers. Andrew Armstrong recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Mark Handel added seven assists.