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Ursuline’s quick tempo too much for Rootstown
Hughes tops UHS
with 22 points
By Steve WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
You could tell by its intensity and energy. You could tell by its sharpness and aggressive style. And you could tell by the 13 forced turnovers and 26 points it delivered in the first quarter on Tuesday against Rootstown.
Ursuline High is ready for tournament basketball.
“It’s here and you can tell our energy level is up,” Fighting Irish coach Keith Gunther said. “Even in practice, you can see it. It’s just that tournament time of year and our kids turned it up tonight. Hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Second-seeded Ursuline left no doubt in its opening game of the Division III tournament, easily defeating the Rovers, 81-39. The Irish (14-7) were paced by an 18-point first quarter advantage.
“We really turned it up defensively,” Ursuline guard Mark Hughes said. “When we get stops and push the ball, it works out good for us.
“Intensity was a big emphasis. Coach has been telling us all week to keep the pressure on teams, get turnovers and get some easy buckets.”
The Irish did just that in the first half, as they forced 18 turnovers and outscored Rootstown, 21-5, in the second quarter to jump out to a 47-13 halftime lead.
“When you’re playing a team you feel you’re more athletic than, we wanted to jump on them right off the bat,” Gunther said. “We just want our kids to play loose, get the ball up and down the floor and let it go.”
That wasn’t a problem for Ursuline either, as the Irish shot 28 of 60 (46 percent) from the field.
Hughes led the Irish with 22 points, while Greg Parella scored 11 and Dave Collins and Arman Nasseri each added nine. Gianni Quatro also scored eight points off the bench.
Gunther said he encourages the run-and-gun style to prevent opposing teams from settling into a zone defense.
“My thought is to get the ball down the floor and let it go,” he said. “If we make it, we make it. If we miss, we miss. So we let it go and let our bigs go rebound the basketball.”
Hughes, who made seven of 13 shots and also grabbed a team-high six rebounds, said he doesn’t mind the up-tempo style one bit.
“I know we have good guards who can make shots and we have bigs who can make plays,” he said. “It’s cool, we have a 10-second shot clock to get one up. So it’s very fun to run-and-gun.”
Connor Formick had team-highs with 14 points and nine rebounds for Rootstown (4-19). Josh Kaut also had eight points. But the Rovers shot just 16 of 43 from the floor.
The Fighting Irish will next host Grand Valley on Friday at 7 p.m. GV beat Ashtabula County rival Pymatuning Valley, 73-70, on Tuesday night.
“It’s a great start for us in the sectional and we just have to keep building and keep getting better,” Gunther said. “We just have to fine tune everything at this point.”