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Venzeio powers Irish over Warren JFK
By Steve WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
Ursuline had it all going for itself in Tuesday’s 80-46 win at Warren JFK. Here’s the overwhelming evidence.
Late in the fourth quarter with Jordan Felleti taking the ball out of bounds near halfcourt, the Fighting Irish guard attempted to throw a lob pass toward the hoop to a cutting teammate. But just like most of Ursuline’s long-range attempts on the night, the ball found the bottom of the net.
It was ruled a turnover. Still, it was telling nonetheless.
“You know it’s your night when that goes in,” Irish guard Vince Venzeio said.
While Ursuline (8-5) knocked down 14 3-pointers on the night, Venzeio was the hottest. The junior connected on 7 of 11 shots from beyond the arc to pace the Irish with 21 points and tie Ryan Burton’s 2008 school-record for most 3-pointers in a game.
“It takes a lot of hard work and practice,” Venzeio said. “We’ve been shooting a lot in practice — everyone’s concentrating on shooting the ball.
“And all my life, my dad has had me with the right mechanics — always been stressing it. I mean, that’s all he’s done with me for 17 years. But I’m just really thankful for tonights game.”
In all, 12 different Ursuline players reached the scoring column. Armon Nasseri added 13 points, Greg Parella scored 11 and Anise Algahmee had 10 points.
The Irish were keyed by a 25-7 first-quarter advantage in which it forced six JFK turnovers using a 2-3 zone trap.
“Our pressure coming out of the game got us a lot of easy buckets — our halfcourt pressure,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “It got us some easy buckets and gave us some easy looks and I thought that was the key to the first quarter.
“The second quarter, the one kid was kicking our behind pretty good and kind of got them back in the game. And I thought we got a little bit selfish and lazy on defense.”
Justin Bofenkamp, who paced JFK (2-7) with a game-high 28 points, sparked the Eagles in the second as they outscored Ursuline 17-14. But the Irish recovered with a 21-7 third quarter to put the game away.
“We really haven’t handled pressure well at all this year and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” JFK coach John Richards said. “We’re careless with the basketball and poor in our decision making and we definitely need to get better with it.”
In the fourth quarter with the game well in control, Venzeio re-entered in an attempt to break the single-game 3-point mark. He got up one more 3, but front-rimmed it before exiting the contest.
“That doesn’t really matter to me,” Venzeio said. “It would have been great to break the record, but I’m just really thankful with what I did.”
Added Gunther: “When you let him open, he’s gonna make shots. There’s other games where teams don’t let him touch it and make it more difficult. But when you have other guys that are making shots, it makes a difference.”