Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Ursuline rallies past Harding in fourth
By Joe Scalzo
Warren
With 90 seconds left in arguably the best regular-season game in the Mahoning Valley this season, Ursuline High boys basketball coach Keith Gunther turned to his best player, Wright State recruit Mark Hughes, and yelled, “You’ve got to stop passing the ball, Mark.”
“He always wants me to look for myself more,” Hughes said after Tuesday’s 72-71 win over the Raiders. “I’m a natural point guard so I’m always looking for everyone else, but sometimes I’ve got to step up and score.”
Like he had all night, Hughes attacked the basket, got fouled and made both free throws with 1:14 left to cut the Irish deficit to 71-70. On the other end, Harding’s 6-foot-5 junior Shakem Johnson missed a layup and 6-foot-9 sophomore Derek Culver missed the putback, taking years off Gunther’s life in the process.
“We got the [second] rebound and I thought, ‘Oh my god, what a blessing,’” Gunther said. “One of the shots was halfway down and came out. The other teetered and went out.
“If anybody says there’s not some luck involved, they’re crazy.”
The Irish got some more a few seconds later. After an Ursuline timeout with 27.4 seconds left, Hughes got the ball at the top of the key, drove right and missed the soaring bank shot, only to have the ball rebound back to him for the putback.
Johnson then missed an open corner 3 and Dave Collins grabbed the rebound for the Irish. Although he missed both free throws with 1.3 seconds left, Harding’s Gabe Simpson could only heave a 50-footer at the buzzer.
“It was a great win against a very good basketball team,” Gunther said. “It helps us for the tournament. If we’re fortunate to get out [of the district] and play one of the bigger teams from the Cleveland area, it lets our kids know we can win a game like that against a team with two big guys.”
Hughes finished with 32 points for the Irish (16-5), who outscored Harding 17-9 in the fourth quarter. Greg Parella added 16 points and Collins had 13 points and five rebounds.
The Irish also showed plenty of resilience, falling behind by 11 late in the third quarter thanks to a 22-4 Raider run. But Hughes made four free throws in the final 14 seconds to cut the deficit to seven, 62-55, and Ursuline forced five straight turnovers to start the fourth quarter and took a 64-62 lead with 5:08 left.
“I just pulled us together and said, ‘We knew they were gonna get a run sooner or later. We’ve got to stick with it. We know our run is coming,’” Hughes said.
Simpson led the Raiders (16-4) with 24 points and six assists but missed three of four free throws in the final four minutes. Johnson added 14 points and seven rebounds and Culver had 11 points and seven rebounds.
“We’ve got to be a little stronger in the fourth,” said Harding coach Andy Vlajkovich, whose team had 22 turnovers, including seven in the fourth. “I thought guys physically competed, but I think we’ve got to be a little sharper with some situations.”
Ursuline finished with a huge edge in free throws, making 26 of 33 compared to 7 of 14 for Harding.
“It is what it is,” said Vlajkovich, who joked that he was getting in touch with his inner Gregg Popovich (of the Spurs) or Bill Belichick (of the Patriots). “That’s my quote. That says everything I need to say without getting fined.”