Parella propels Irish over Hoban

By John Bassetti

sports @vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Greg Parella had a game-high 24 points and made two free throws in overtime to ice Ursuline’s 71-67 victory over Archbishop Hoban at Ursuline’s gym Tuesday.

Clinging to a 69-67 lead, Parella swiped the ball from Anthony Christian as the Hoban athlete tried to penetrate the lane. Parella was fouled and sent to the free-throw line where the 6-2 senior made both of his attempts with 3.7 seconds left.

“We knew [Christian] was going to drive with his head down,” Parella said. “We knew he wasn’t going to pull up and shoot, so I stood tough and swiped it away. He doesn’t like to shoot, he likes to drive,” said Parella, who explained that Christian lost partial control of the ball before the Irish guard yanked it away.

Hoban (0-1) had a 10-point lead of 45-35 midway through the third quarter when Ursuline committed nine turnovers. The Irish (2-0) eventually caught up, thanks to an eight-point contribution by Armon Nasseri in the fourth quarter. The regulation score was 62-62.

Mike Hughes added 16 points for the winners and Nasseri tacked on 15.

Heading into overtime, Ursuline’s defense had to bear down and get tough, and its offense had to stay calm, especially since Hoban harassed the Irish with a facemask press throughout the game.

“It caused major problems,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said.

“We turned it over a lot and made poor decisions and threw the ball all over the place,” the coach said of Ursuline’s 23 turnovers in its second game. “We’ve got young guys who really haven’t played a lot of varsity, so it’s good for us to be pressed early and learn from those mistakes. Fortunately, we were able to pull this one out because it was a really, really ugly basketball game.”

Hoban coach T.K. Griffith knew that the game could have easily ended in the Knights’ favor.

“We competed hard and played to win,” said Griffith. “We took a couple shots that might be questionable, but it’s our style to be gunslingers and, if some go in, we probably win the game,” Griffith said of failed field goal attempts at several junctures in the fourth period.

“We’re better in chaos than we are in structure, so we over-penetrated and probably should have found the extra pass,” said Griffith, who emphasized that the Knights had two players — Christian and Garret Houser — at practice for only a day or two.

The 6-3 Christian, a Hoban co-leading scorer on Tuesday with 19 points, was MVP of the Division III state football championship game following the Knights’ 33-20 win over Toledo Central Catholic last Thursday.