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Ursuline ousts Poland for a SVSM rematch
By Tom Williams
BOARDMAN
As the Ursuline and Poland boys basketball teams engaged in a nip-and-tuck start, Irish head coach Keith Gunther was hoping his best player, Greg Parella, wasn’t being distracted by what could have been his last chance for a milestone.
His concern was misplaced.
“With the pressure coming in of needing 16 points to become the all-time leading scorer, Greg played extremely well,” Gunther said after Ursuline defeated Poland, 73-61, in Saturday’s Division II district final at Boardman High School.
After scoring one point in the first quarter, Parella scored 12 in the next frame as the Irish opened up a 36-29 lead.
“That was pressure — I think it was kind of weighing on him early,” Gunther said.
Parella finished with 28 points to pass Tim Joyce’s record of 1,376 set in 1973. Eighteen came at the free-throw line.
Parell, a senior, a admitted he was nervous at the start.
“I couldn’t make shots early,” Parella said. “I guess I was pressing for [the record] a little.” While Parella was looking for a spark, Armon Nasseri was all but unstoppable in the first half, scoring 16 of his 23 points.
“Nasseri is such a nice player, a man around the basket,” Poland head coach Ken Grisdale said. “And Parella, he steps off the bus and he’s within range.”
Parella said he began to feel comfortable in the second quarter when he went 6-for-6 at the foul line.
The Irish made the most of their free throws, sinking 27 of 39 attempts. Poland made six of 10 tries.
Parella said he’s not sure he’s ever been to the foul line so often.
“Maybe against East,” Parella said. “I’m not sure.”
Next up for the Irish (19-6) will be a rematch with Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in a regional semifinal on Thursday at the Canton Civic Center. Gunther said his Irish lost by 16 when they played in Akron in December.
The Bulldogs (20-5) kept pace with the Irish for most of the first 10 minutes. With 6:16 remaining in the first half, the score was tied at 17 when Grisdale was called for a technical foul.
“I should have shut my mouth,” Grisdale said. “I feel I cost us the game.”
After sinking those two free throws, Parella followed up with a 3-pointer and Nasseri scored a put-back basket for a seven-point lead.
Late in the second quarter, Poland’s Nick Buccieri and Mike Gajdos scored buckets to reduce the lead to 30-27.
But that was as close as the Bulldogs would get. Parella and Mike Hughes hit 3-pointers to restore the seven-point edge.
“It feels great because we’ve all worked so hard,” said Nasseri, who also made eight rebounds and two blocks. “Finally, it just pays off. It’s amazing.”
Trailing by 10, the Bulldogs opened the fourth quarter with a 6-1 run sparked by 3-pointers by Jared Burkert and Buccieri. The Irish responded with a 6-0 run to restore the double-digit lead.
“They are all great shooters,” said Nasseri of the Bulldogs. “We tried to do whatever we could to stop them.
“But they hit tons of shots that we could not stop.”
In their final varsity game, Burkert scored 21 points, Gajdos 18 and Buccieri 14.
“They didn’t quit,” Grisdale said. “Things didn’t go as we hoped and they easily could have bagged it. But they were all over the floor, trying to give themselves a chance.”