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Haas about that: Mooney fends off Girard
Gallery
By Gary Housteau
GIRARD
The frigid temperature outside Girard’s gymnasium had to be about as warm as the Indians were shooting from the floor in the first half against Cardinal Mooney.
But Girard rallied in the second half, outscoring the Cardinals 35-23 after the intermission, only to fall short at the free-throw line with a pair of missed free throws with 1.2 seconds left to fall 50-49.
It must have something to do with that same hoop because Mooney scored just eight third-quarter points as its 27-14 halftime lead was cut to 35-25 heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when the Indians really poured it on.
Led by sophomore Austin Clausell’s 17-point second-half outburst, Girard took the lead for the first time at 38-37 on a three-point goal by senior Anthony Graziano with 4:37 left in the game and they pushed the margin out to as much as 42-37 before Mooney got back into it.
Girard never trailed again until the very end when sophomore Pete Haas scored six of his 30 points, 18 coming in the second half, to close out the scoring for Mooney. Haas made four consecutive free throws with the Cardinals trailing 49-46.
The Indians had a chance to tie or take the lead, but missed two foul shots.
“It was an exciting finish, it really was,” said Mooney head coach Carey Palermo. “But Girard, give them credit they could have caved, they could have packed it in, but they just kept coming all night and they turned it up.”
Clausell scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half while sophomore Mark Waid scored all 12 of his points after the intermission as well to lead the Indians furious comeback.
“We didn’t respond well in the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Palermo said. “But I’m proud as hell the last couple of minutes of the game. We really bared down and got back in it when we could have folded. But we figured out a way to win it.”
The loss dropped the Indians to 1-4 on the campaign.
“We played hard, we’re playing hard, we just have to finish. Really that’s it,” said Girard head coach Craig Hannon. “If we keep playing this hard good things will happen, but we’ve got to finish it off. We have to finish layups, finish free throws and finish the game.”
Unfortunately for Girard it came down to those two missed free throws.
“Tight games always come down to free throws,” Hannon said. “Turnovers and free throws and unfortunately tonight we had some untimely ones. I had full confidence that [we] would make them, just like any guy on our bench and it just didn’t happen.”
Said Palermo: “I said a couple novenas, I said I’d never cuss again. No that’s nothing on him. They played good enough to win. They did. Luckily the last couple of minutes we figured it out. He’s going to get them figured out. They’re a very young team too and you can kind of see it, it was really sloppy at times and it probably wasn’t fun to watch at some times.”
Mooney started four sophomores and a junior while Girard started three sophomores, a junior and a senior.
“I thought we played well enough to win for a lot of this game,” Hannon said. “And we have, other than maybe one game this year, we’ve been in every game we’ve been in. It’s just not happening, but it will.”