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Ursuline withstands Girard’s late rallies
BOARDMAN
The Ursuline High School boys basketball team was able to withstand two big second-half surges by Girard.
The Irish held on to win Thursday’s Division II district semifinal, 62-53, at Boardman High School.
The final score certainly wasn’t indicative of how close the game was. Girard, who trailed 32-22 at the intermission, had a 13-0 run in the third quarter to tie the game at 37.
“I think we did a better job on the defensive glass in the second half,” Girard coach Craig Hannon said. “I thought early on they really hurt us and got second shots.”
After Ursuline pushed the lead back out to 10 to start the fourth quarter, the Indians had a 9-1 run to close the deficit to 50-48 with 5:23 remaining.
“It was a good victory against a very resilient, tough team,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “We knew they were going to [provide] a tough battle.
“When we went up 10 at the half, I told our kids ‘Don’t think it’s over,’” Gunther said. “And we kind of relaxed a little and they played us tough and made some big buckets.
“I thought we came out and jacked too many 3s, we didn’t drive and we didn’t pass the ball inside and we weren’t making 3s,” Gunther said. “But our kids didn’t panic and they started to get defensive stops which I thought was the key to the game.
“And then Anthony [Howell] got some big buckets, Dakota [Hobbs] got some big buckets and Anise [Algahmee] hit a big 3 and made some big plays down the stretch.”
Hobbs led the way on offense for the Irish with 10 of his team-high 16 points in the second half but he was given the chance to up his game on defense against Girard by Gunther.
“Tonight we had a game plan to stop them defensively and that would get us the victory,” Hobbs said. “We had a couple of lapses, but for the most part we played pretty well on defense and we were able to get the job done.
“Coach told me the night before he needed to step up and change the game defensively and I did my best and as team we did our best to accomplish that.”
Howell had a big game on both ends of the court with 13 points, seven in the second half, and a team-high seven rebounds.
“It was fun watching the big boys bang and play physical,” said Gunther about Howell and Girard’s Julian Berry. “And [Berry] has been out most of the year and when he came back he changed the whole complexity of their team and took them to another level.”
Berry, a senior, had seven points and a game-high 12 rebounds as he along with sophomores Austin Clausell and Austin O’Hara and senior Anthony Graziano helped keep the Indians close after the half.
“We were able to get the ball off the rim and go and push because they crashed so hard,” Hannon said. “So we were able to transition and were able to get out and run a little bit which we’re comfortable doing.”
Clausell had a game-high 17 points while O’Hara tossed in 14 points and had six boards and Graziano had 11 points on three 3s and six caroms.