Ursuline wakes up in time vs. Southeast

By BRooke Meenachan

bmeenachan@vindy.com

Youngstown

Before Tuesday night’s postseason matchup against Southeast, Ursuline head coach Keith Gunther remembered the time his Irish were ranked No. 1 heading into the tournament. His team went 17-3 that season before getting knocked out in the first round against Springfield.

Even as the No. 2 seed, Gunther didn’t want to see it happen again.

“I could tell before the game they weren’t focused and weren’t ready to play. I told them the one thing you can’t do, you can’t give a team hope,” Gunther said. “Once they get hope and they feel like they can play with you then they start making shots and it continues to happen.”

That’s exaclty what happened for the Pirates before Ursuline pulled out a 68-53 victory to advance to the sectional final against Cardinal Mooney.

Southeast hit seven 3-pointers in the first quarter alone.

The Pirates had four players reach double figures.

Camden Proctor led with 16 points, Jordon Scott added 14 and Eric Lough and Avery Munger each scored 10.

“I thought our effort was horrible. They made shots, they got some big rebounds,” Gunther said. “I thought they did a really great job on Anthony Howell and I thought we got tight on offense.”

The Pirates doubled down on Howell, making it tough for the Irish to get him the ball.

But it allowed for Dakota Hobbs to take the lead.

“I told him before the game that he is one of the keys for us to winning games in the tournament,” Gunther said.

Hobbs finished with 18 points for the Irish.

“Even though Anthony was getting doubled, we still wanted to get second shots off of rebounds, we wanted him to get shots and we wanted him to work off the double team,” Gunther said. “When you’re bigger and stronger than everybody, I don’t care if you’re getting doubled, you still should be able to score the ball.”

Howell didn’t care either. He led all scorers with 20 points. Ursuline went on a 14-3 run to start the second quarter and take a 31-26 lead. They went into halftime tied 36-36.

“The only saving grace was the third quarter. We played much better defense and we took away the three line,” Gunther said.

The Irish held Southeast to just three 3-pointers in the second half.

“Coach said we had to lock up and play defense possession by possesion and score on offense when we can,” Howell said.

Ursuline also forced 12 turnovers, including seven in the final five minutes.

“That was the difference in the ball game. And that’s the one thing I don’t like. I don’t like teams that think they can turn it off and turn it back on, but I thought in the fourth quarter we turned it up defensively,” Gunther said.

They turned it up offensively, too — outscoring the Pirates 18-7 in the fourth quarter.

“It all comes back to defense going possession by possession and trying to get a stop. Once we get a stop, we keep it going,” Howell added.

The Irish advance to Friday night’s section final against the Cardinals.

“I’m excited. It’s Mooney, it’s a rivalry, but most importantly, I just want to win. I want to advance,” Howell said.