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Akron SV-SM ousts Ursuline
Akron SV-SM continues mastery
of Mahoning Valley opponents
By BRIAN DZENIS
CANTON
Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary still has the Mahoning Valley’s number in boys basketball.
SV-SM ended Poland’s seasons in regionals each of the last two years. This time it was Ursuline’s turn to try and snap the skid.
The Youngstown Irish couldn’t beat the Akron Irish, falling 67-52 in a Division II regional semifinal at the Canton Civic Center on Thursday night.
Ursuline (19-7) was the last Valley team left standing in the postseason.
Turnovers and poor rebounding ended Ursuline’s season. The local Irish coughed up the ball 28 times and despite owning a size advantage, were beaten on the glass.
“We got out of our wits. We started playing a fast-paced game and started turning the ball over,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “Granted their pressure caused a lot of turnovers, no doubt about that.”
Poor control of the basketball translated into a seven-point halftime deficit. It was more of the same to start the third quarter until senior guard Greg Parella led a 12-0 run to get Ursuline back in the game. Parella scored eight of those 12 points in that run that briefly gave his team the lead.
That success couldn’t be sustained as SV-SM took back the lead the way they held it for the remainder of the contest — by forcing turnovers.
“I think we got comfortable when we went up one and then they got a lot of fast-break points because we were turning the ball over,” Parella said.
Parella finished with a team-high 22 points. He is Ursuline basketball’s all-time leading scorer with 1,410 points. He is undecided on his future plans.
“I have no idea yet, but I’ll pick a college to play basketball somewhere in the next couple weeks,” Parella said.
Mike Hughes added 15 points for Ursuline. There was little production in the post as the highest-scoring big was Devin Harden with seven points.
“I told them I thought the difference in the game should have been our bigs on the glass,” Gunther said. “I don’t think we attacked the glass like we could have.”
The leading scorers for SV-SM (24-3) were Jaylon Graves with 21 points and Henry Bradley who added 17 points. Depth was a major factor for SV-SM.
“When we made that run [in the third quarter], Mikey and I were really tired and they had more guys coming off the bench to press. It killed us.” Parella said. “Their pressure really gets to you. They have great defense.”
After an offseason that included some key departures and a move up to Division II, a district title made the season a success for Gunther. Leading scorer Mark Hughes graduated and is now playing at Wright State. Gianni Quattro decided to pursue AAU soccer instead of basketball and David Collins transferred to another school.
“For us to lose two returning starters with 22 points between those guys and Mark, who had 23 a game and to have to regroup, move up to Division II and win the district ... it was a great achievement,” Gunther said.