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Mooney leads wire-to-wire in beating JFK
YOUNGSTOWN
Nick Koken’s 3-point goal 10 seconds into the game gave Cardinal Mooney a lead it didn’t relinquish and the Cardinals relied on the scoring and rebounding strength of Andrew Armstrong to dispatch Warren JFK, 52-41, in a battle of Division II and IV independent teams.
The win was Mooney fifth in six games, while JFK (2-6) extended its slide to six.
Armstrong had 16 points and 12 rebounds — both game highs, while Koken, a senior guard, had 12 points, five assists, five steals and four rebounds. After getting off to a slow start with multiple missed shots, Patrick Pelini recovered to add 11 points for the Cardinals, who out-rebounded JFK, 39-29.
“We expected them to come out and play really tough,” Mooney coach Brian Danilov said of some rough-and-tumble moments that stemmed from physically aggressive play on both teams. “Our kids won a hard-fought game.”
Mooney’s only loss to date came against Cleveland Benedictine, 46-44.
“However, we have a lot of room for improvement in a lot of areas,” Danilov said. “We’ve got to do a better job of moving the ball and moving bodies.”
Armstrong’s presence in the paint is one of Mooney’s assets, but Danilov is looking for teammates to take a role, too.
“We have a couple strong guys down low, including Armstrong, but Koken, for example, rebounds great for a guard,” Danilov said. “But we need the whole team to rebound. We need to rebound as a team.”
While the Division II Cardinals are off to a 5-1 start, JFK is in a slump.
Coach John Richards is looking forward to two transfers becoming eligible soon.
“Due to transfer rules, they’re currently ineligible, but they’ll both be eligible a week from Saturday,” Richards said of Antonio McQueen and Hyland Burton, who were on the bench in travel gear on Tuesday night. “They’re very integral pieces, once we get them back.”
Richards appreciates his Eagles’ hard play, but he’s not pleased with inconsistency that helped result in two single-digit quarters: second and fourth.
“We preach defense, rebounding, free throws and turnovers to these guys; I sound like a broken record because it’s the same thing every night, but we’ll get back to work on it again,” Richards said. “We’ll keep working at it. I really like the effort, but we’re just a little too inconsistent, so we need to clean some things up.”
Justin Bofenkamp had a team-high 13 points, followed by Alex Burzynski’s 11 for JFK, which made just four of 11 free throws to nine of 16 for Mooney. Nate Woods had 10 rebounds for the Division. IV Eagles.