Ursuline’s Parella shoots down Mooney

January 9, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

Ursuline guard

shoots down

Mooney in hoops

Holy War

By BRIAN DZENIS

YOUNGSTOWN

Early in the fourth quarter, Ursuline’s Greg Parella knocked down a 3-pointer to give his team a double-digit lead for the first time the whole contest. After doing so, he turned to the student section of his home gym and let out a yell.

For Friday night, Parella was the man and he was loving every second of it.

Parella made six threes in a 26-point performance as the Irish downed Cardinal Mooney, 67-58, in the boys basketball version of the Holy War.

“It’s such a big win. One of the goals we have all year is to beat Cardinal Mooney twice and we beat them once,” Parella said. “When we play them again, we hope for the same outcome.”

Last year, the Irish (7-4) depended on Mark Hughes to be the go-to scorer. With Hughes now at Wright State, Parella has become the go-to guard and he takes pride in playing Hughes’ role.

“I try to take over the game by making shots and doing the other parts of the game just like Mark did,” Parella said.

Mooney (5-2) was short starter Trell Thomas and Cardinals coach Brian Danilov declined to explain his absence. Mike William and Marco Quaranta were also out against the Irish.

“That’s not an excuse,” Danilov said.

Despite missing some guys, Mooney hung with Ursuline for the majority of the game. A back-and-forth first quarter gave way to a slow second. Mooney needed nearly half the period before a pair of Patrick Pelini free throws broke a scoreless funk. With the mini-slump out of the way, the Cardinals went on a 9-2 run to take the lead and hold to a one-point lead at halftime. Nick Koken and Pelini had success driving to the basket and earning trips to the free-throw line in that stretch.

“They hurt us off of penetration and we went to a 2-3 matchup zone,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “[We wanted to] try to make them move and pass the ball to try and take away penetration.”

At the start of the second half, the lead changed hands eight times before Ursuline finally pulled away. Andrew Armstrong kept Mooney alive in that stretch with four consecutive baskets. He finished the game with a team-high 22 points.

The Irish defense pushed the Cardinals to the perimeter, forcing them to settle for threes. That played into Ursuline’s hands, where its size advantage helped to corral Mooney’s missed jump shots.

“We came out pressing in the second half to try and get the game going up and down,” Gunther said. “It made us loose and comfortable and we started making shots.”

Another blow to the Cardinals’ chances came when the Irish entered the bonus in the second half. Armon Nasseri was good on the glass and at the foul line down the stretch to finish with 14 points and Mike Hughes added 13. Koken and Pelini each had 14 points for Mooney, but the pair did most of their damage in the first half.

Gunther said his team has adjusted well to playing as a Division II program, up from D-III last year. The regular season has been no different in terms of difficulty from previous years.

“What’s going to be different is the D-II tournament,” Gunther said. “That’s going to be a big step up for us and for the past couple of years, we’ve dominated D-III.

“We’ll have to work our butts off to win it this year.”