Vivo powers Boardman girls past Mooney

Boardman junior Jenna Vivo poured in a career-high 26 points and senior Lauren Gabriele grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds as the Spartans, who had a comfortable lead for most of the game, held off Cardinal Mooney late for a 54-45 victory.

“It’s Boardman-Mooney. I don’t care what sport you’re playing, Boardman-Mooney is the rivalry,” said Boardman head coach Jeff Hammerton.

“I told the girls at halftime, we were up 13 (28-15), ‘If you don’t come out ready to go at the start they’ll cut it to single digits pretty quickly’ and they did. Give Mooney a ton of credit, they never stopped fighting and they made us earn that victory.”

Mooney led 3-2 for the only time in the contest as Boardman took a 15-8 lead after one quarter and led 28-15, their biggest margin of the contest, at the intermission. Vivo scored 15 in the first half.