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Unbeaten South Range holds off Mooney
Cunningham’s 19 points help Raiders remain unbeaten
YOUNGSTOWN
South Range had its way with Mooney for much of the first three quarters, taking a 44-27 lead into the fourth quarter Tuesday night.
But the Cardinals rallied in the fourth — getting within five points — before the Raiders stayed unbeaten with a 54-46 victory.
Mike Cunningham scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the second half for the Raiders who led 17-6 after one period, 30-17 at the half and were up 17 at the end of the three. South Range led by 17 again in the fourth at 46-29 before Mooney started to rally.
Jordan Stanford scored all of his eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers, in Mooney’s comeback while South Range went cold from the free-throw line missing four of 10 at the line in the final frame.
“They did a nice job of getting back in the game shooting the 3’s,” South Range head coach John Cullen said. “They’re outstanding shooters and you got to run shooters off the line, you can’t let shoot them and we did let them shoot a few. And once they got their mojo going, they made a nice little comeback there.”
Cullen named a couple of things that didn’t go well for his Raiders (6-0).
“Usually we make about 75 percent of our layups and we didn’t tonight, we were two for six in the fourth quarter,” the coach said. “And we’re shooting 74 percent from the foul line this year and we didn’t have it tonight. It’s a much different game if we make those free throws.”
Cullen credited Mooney for rallying to produce a frantic finish.
“To their credit they never gave up, they did a nice job, their coach had them ready to go,” he said. “But you have to finish the game better than that. We didn’t finish it very well.”
Jaxon Anderson chipped in with 13 points and Brady White had 10 for South Range.
Mooney head coach Carey Palermo said the Cardinals waited too long to begin their comeback.
“Yeah, we battled in the fourth quarter but you can’t wait until there’s eight minutes left in the game, you got to do it right from the rip,” he said. “They’re a very good basketball team. They move the ball very well and they’re very well-coached. But you can’t spot a team like that, I think we were down 11 in the first quarter, you can’t spot a team like that, that many points.”
Palermo said the Cardinals pressured the Raiders a bit more in the fourth.
“It was just more effort,” he said. “But that’s something we talked about the last two days in practice. We talked about it before the game. We worked on it, just pushing the tempo and making them uncomfortable. We know they want to get into the halfcourt and really move the basketball. Ultimately the comeback had to do with effort.”
Pete Haas led Mooney (0-5) with 12 points on four 3-pointers, and Anthony Fire scored nine.
“The first two-and-a-half or three quarters of this game is inexplicable, our effort, and ultimately that’s my fault,” Palermo said. “The kids need to play harder, but it’s my job to get them to play harder. So you can blame that all on me, that’s fine. But the effort has to change.”
The Raiders, on the other hand, are in good shape despite not finishing Tuesday night’s game the way Cullen would have liked..
“We haven’t played anybody that shot the 3 quite as good as Mooney did and I thought Mooney played harder tonight then when I saw them on film,” Cullen said. “So we’re just trying to build it up here. We play 11 Division II schools so we got our hands full. But I think by the end of the year we’ll be prepared for the Division III tournament if we keep going like this.”