Clippers turn on their jets in 4th to finish unbeaten

February 5, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

Mooney vs Columbiana

By GARY HOUSTEAU

COLUMBIANA

The final score wasn’t really indicative of how close the game actually was through three quarters but the Columbiana High School girls basketball team separated itself from Cardinal Mooney by slowing it down offensively.

The undefeated Clippers hit 14 of 17 fourth-quarter free tosses Saturday in gaining their 22nd win, 53-36.

Mooney led 15-7 on a 13-0 run to close out the first quarter. Columbiana got it back to even at 22 at the intermission and then they took a 35-32 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Junior Alexis Cross led the way with 13 of her game-high 14 points through three quarters.

“It was close,” Columbiana head coach Ron Moschella said. “I tried to slow it down, spread it out and get what we could get.

“Time’s running out so other teams get a little impatient and then it opens up lanes and then we can score or get fouled,” Moschella said.

Columbiana made almost double the number of free throws than shots from the floor (25-13) en route to completing their first undefeated season in school history.

“We really didn’t go after this, we wanted to win our league championship,” Moschella said. “And that was our goal, that was it.

“We never talked about going undefeated.”

Moschella, in his fifth season at Columbiana, gave all the credit to his players.

“When I came in they won five games,” the veteran Boardman coach said. “It’s not because of me, it’s the kids that worked hard to change the program around.

“And they’ve really changed it around,” Moschella said. “They’re really great kids.

“They’re respectful, they work hard, they listen to me and they put up with my gruff.”

Senior Mariah Rovnak, with 13 points and four boards, was proud of her team’s accomplishment.

“It feels amazing and I just love my team so much,” Rovnak said. “We definitely deserve this because we work so hard in practice and we just have a lot of heart as a team all together.

“We’re literally like a family and when we step on that court we’re playing for each other and not only ourselves.”

She started to tear up when she spoke about her coach.

“I love him so much,” Rovnak said. “He really pushes us to be better players and better people. He teaches us everything we need to know about the game and even about life.

“He’s always there for us to make us play harder, to make us better people,” the point guard said.” He’ll do anything for us and if we need anything he’s always there. I’m really going to miss him.”

Despite being undefeated, Cross said that her team played with a bit of chip on their shoulder.

“Our team worked really hard and we really deserved to have this and it feels really special that we got to do it,” Cross said. “Everybody thought we were going to lose this last game because it was a harder game but we stuck together and we won and did it.

“It’s really hard to be undefeated throughout the season so it’s good to see that we can work hard and get this win going into the tournament.”

Sophomore Kennedy Fullum, along with Brittany Mook, does a lot of the dirty work for the Clippers. Fullum had six points and grabbed 10 caroms.

“This is amazing,” Fullum said. “I always wanted to be a part of this team and do something this great that’s going to go down in the record books as the first undefeated season in Columbiana history.”

And the baby of the group who plays well beyond her years on the court is 15-year-old Kayla Muslovski, who scored nine of her 13 points in the fourth quarter.

“I’m really proud of my team and I’m speechless about the whole season,” Muslovski said. “It’s been really emotional getting close to the seniors and having them leave after this year but it’s an amazing feeling that we accomplished this together.

Caitlin Sapp led Mooney with 10 points.

Mooney head coach Erica Wilson gave Columbiana their due after the game.

“Congratulations,” Wilson said. “Honestly I’ve never been a part of a team that had an undefeated season so good job to all of those girls.

“They play very hard and they play until the buzzer so I respect that 100 percent,” Wilson said. They’re aggressiveness and their hustle is definitely their number one asset.”

Admittedly she wouldn’t mind having another crack at them in the tournament.

“Obviously we wanted our shot to give them a loss but I think we’re excited looking forward to seeing them again in the tournament,” Wilson said. “They’ll probably be the number-one seed so we know what we’re up against so we’re excited about it.”

The tournament draw is set for this afternoon.