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Ursuline rallies to down East
Keevey’s 6 in 21 seconds ignites Irish
By BOB ETTINGER
YOUNGSTOWN
Ursuline High School senior Devan Keevey was just trying to assist the boys basketball team the best way he could. But when the moment came when the Fighting Irish needed a jolt, it was Keevey who administered the electricity in a 68-50 victory at East on Friday night.
“I was just trying to make sure we got out of here with a win,” Keevey said.
After buckets from Golden Bears Carl Sadler and Deland Richardson to open the fourth quarter, Ursuline (0-3) led 50-46 with 7:14 to play in the fourth. East had erased a 14-point deficit to get back in the game.
“We just couldn’t pull away,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “We had many opportunities. We had that run before halftime and were up 15.
“I thought we’d compound that in the second half,” Gunther said. “We made a lot of mistakes. We should take our hats off to East. That’s a team that just doesn’t quit playing hard. Devan had one of his better games and it’s nice having R.J. [Clark] back.”
In the span of 21 seconds, Keevey brought the Fighting Irish lead back to 10, 58-48, with six straight points, punctuated by a dunk on which he was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim.
“I was just trying to rebound and play defense,” Keevey said. “If the ball came to me, I’d try to score. I was just doing whatever I needed to for us to get the win.”
The spurt stymied East and the Golden Bears later gave up eight straight points as Ursuline (1-2) pulled away.
“It was turnovers,” East coach Kevin Cylar said. “We didn’t value the basketball.
“We haven’t learned how valuable that basketball is,” he said. “We played with great effort. We have great team camaraderie.
“We’re just too young in basketball experience and we don’t know how turnovers are going to affect us. Until we learn that, we’re going have these types of outcomes.”
Clark paced the Fighting Irish with 17 points, Keevey checked in with 15 and Travis Easterly and Luke Pipala (11 rebounds) each had 11.
Sadler’s 17 points and Deland Richardson’s 13 led the Golden Bears.
Clark had set the blueprint for Keevey’s run with one of his own in the second period as Ursuline used a 13-2 run to close the first half and take a 38-22 lead at the intermission. Clark netted seven of nine points during the run with a drive to the hole, a 3-pointer and a steal and a layup in his first game back from injury.
East erased that deficit with a 12-2 run of its own late in the third. Sadler scored eight of those points using a pair of triples and a putback.
“We’ve got a lot of heart,” Cylar said. “We’ve got a lot of football players. These are tough guys.”
They just lack some basketball IQ right now. The way to learn is to go to class.”