Boardman defense clamps down on Mooney

By greg gulas

sports @vindy.com

youngstown

The Cardinal Mooney and Boardman girls basketball teams opened the season on the Spartans’ floor on Nov. 29.

Jaclyn Yankle and Maggie Monahan combined to score 41 points that night in a 62-58 Cardinals’ victory.

On Saturday, it was the Spartans’ Jenna Vivo and Krista Johnson who wreaked havoc on the Cardinal Mooney defense.

Vivo scored a game-high 17 points while Johnson added 10 points and six rebounds as the Spartans’ posted a 44-29 victory over their South side opponent.

The win was the fourth in the last five contests for Boardman (6-6) while the Cardinals (5-7) fell for the sixth time in seven outings.

“We didn’t have a good defensive effort the first time that we played, so coach [Jeff Hammerton] had us watch that game film all week in order for us to see where we needed to improve. We’re a hungry team right now and defense has been the key during that run,” Vivo said. “We’re coming together more and more each time out and the chemistry is there as well.”

Boardman is at the .500 mark this late in the season for the first time under Hammerton, who is in his third season.

“When we started the season 1-4, I wrote that record on the chalkboard in our locker room and then quickly erased it. I told the team that we were going to start all over and since then, we’ve gone 5-2,” Hammerton said. “Over those seven games the key has definitely been our defense. We didn’t pressure them the first time we played and Yankle and Monahan combined to beat us inside. The game plan was to pressure their guards in the backcourt so they couldn’t get the ball into their hands and our girls executed that plan perfectly. Give Cardinal Mooney credit, though, because they found a way to get it done in the second half and never quit.”

Vivo scored 10 of her points in the opening period as the Spartans raced to a 19-4 advantage after the first eight minutes of play.

With Johnson adding seven of her 10 points in the opening half, Boardman was able to forge a 31-11 halftime advantage.

“Our goal today was to shut them own defensively, keep them off the boards at both ends of the court and limit all second chance opportunities,” Johnson said. “Our defense has definitely come up big over the last seven games and we’re more comfortable now with each other than we were at the start of the season.”

Monahan scored eight of her team-high 12 points after intermission. The Cardinals held Boardman to just a bucket and two free throws as they outscored the Spartans, 16-4 in the third to pull to within 35-23.

Mooney got no closer as Boardman reeled off seven of the first nine points in the fourth quarter for a 42-25 advantage en route to their 15-point victory.

“We’re just in a funk right now and having trouble getting into a rhythm to start the game. We’ve dug a hole for ourselves in the first and second quarter in all five losses and each time played better in the second half. That’s been the routine,” said Cardinal Mooney head coach Erica Wilson. “We’ve created a lot of our own problems, but the upside today was the fact that we didn’t give up and continued to play hard in the second half.”

Cardinal Mooney committed 20 turnovers to just nine for the Spartans.