Ursuline gets another chance at Cle. VASJ

March 21, 2015 at 12:10a.m.

CANTON

On Wednesday night, while Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph and Massillon Tuslaw were still warming up for their regional semifinal, Ursuline coach Keith Gunther stood outside the Irish locker room and told a half-dozen reporters that he wanted to play the Division III version of Kentucky.

“In reality, you know who we want to face,” he said. “There’s no question about it. We want to see Joe’s.”

In reality, what else was he going to say? VASJ took a 15-2 lead on the Mustangs and its student section was chanting “Start the buses” before halftime. To win, Tuslaw needed the Vikings to miss the buses. (Didn’t happen. The Mustangs lost 88-48.)

Ursuline is a different story. VASJ only beat the Irish 69-60 in last year’s regional final, and Vikings coach Babe Kwasniak sees a lot of parallels between Ursuline and the team that beat them in last year’s state final.

“I’ve said this all along — and I don’t like to look ahead — but if there’s any team that reminds me of Lima Central Catholic, besides Lima Central Catholic, it’s them,” Kwasniak said. “They’re guard-oriented. They shoot the daylights out of it. And I think they’re very well-coached.”

Like pretty much everyone else in Ohio, the Irish don’t have the size to match up with VASJ’s frontcourt. Ursuline’s lone big man is 6-foot-5 sophomore Armon Nasseri, who is blessed with arms long enough to tie his shoes standing up but will have to match up with Kansas recruit Carlton Bragg, a 6-10 senior, and Northwestern recruit Derek Pardon, a 6-8 senior.

But Ursuline has a scary three-guard attack, led by Wright State recruit Mark Hughes, who stands 6-3 and can usually get to the basket at will, then finish at a variety of angles. Add in hyper-athletic — and hyper-confident — junior Dave Collins (another attacker) and sweet-shooting junior Greg Parella and the Irish boast three players who can light it up offensively and create havoc defensively.

“We know they have two great big guys and a great [backcourt] player in [Marist commit Brian] Parker, but we definitely think we can play with them,” Parella said. “We schedule teams like Shaker Heights and St. V’s [Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary], so we’re definitely confident.”

Added Collins: “We want to get them this year. That’s what it comes down to.”

Ursuline (22-5) rolled through the district tournament, winning its four games by an average of 41.5 points, but it played a tough regular-season schedule, which paid off against Canton Central Catholic on Wednesday. Down 45-44, the Irish outscored Central 11-0 over the final 3:30. But if Ursuline has any hope of beating VASJ (20-4), it will need to shoot better from the field, making just 19 of 53 against Central.

“I was hoping they’d have their shooting game like that on Saturday,” Kwasniak said of the Irish. “They didn’t shoot it as well as they normally do.”

Ursuline has played in three regional finals under Gunther — it lost to Cleveland Central Catholic in 2011 — and has not been to the state tournament since winning it all in 1994. That’s also the last time a Mahoning Valley team won a boys basketball title.

“[VASJ has] been our focal point since the summer,” Gunther said. “That’s the [reason] for our schedule. That’s the team that everybody thinks that everybody has to go through to get to state. Our goal all summer long is to try to get to Columbus and try to bring another basketball state championship back to the Valley.”