43
Gillespie helps Chaney rally past Ursuline
Gillespie scores 22
in Cowboys’ victory
YOUNGSTOWN
No helicopter parents were visible during the Chaney-Ursuline game — at least not the hovering kind — but senior Marquel Gillespie played a whirlybird of a second half when he scored 15 of his game-high 22 points to help Chaney pull out a 54-51 victory at home.
The Cowboys (5-3) outscored Ursuline (3-4), 34-20, in the second half after the Irish’s 13-0 run in the second quarter had the visitors, seemingly, sitting pretty at intermission, 31-20.
“Coach told us to keep our head up and play our game and that’s what we did,” said Gillespie, a 6-2 forward. “I wanted to help my teammates and my coach was telling me to pick it up. The whole team picked it [defense] up and I’m glad. We came to play and I’m proud of my team and my coaches.”
Of the two divergent halves, Chaney coach Marlon McGaughy said: “We couldn’t make a layup or box out [in the first half]. Our fundamentals failed us. In the lockerroom, I told them to keep their composure and take one shot at a time to get back in the game.”
Of Gillespie, McGaughy, a 1982 South High graduate, said: “He’s a consistent player who can play defense and shoot the ball. He has a high motor and tries to get everybody involved in the game.”
Jamison Tubbs added 12 points for the winners, who made 11 of 18 free throws to the visitor’s 6 of 17.
Ursuline coach Keith Gunther didn’t appreciate his team taking an ill-advised shot when the Irish clung to a 51-50 lead.
“We should’ve just held the ball and gone to the free-throw line, but we take a bad shot and they get the rebound and a bucket on a layup and we foul them and now they go up. We made so many mental mistakes in the fourth quarter and part of that was [not making] free throws.”
After Travis Easterly’s three-point play and Devan Keevey’s basket pushed Ursuline’s lead to 51-47, Sharrrod Taylor’s 3-point goal from the left corner cut the Irish lead to one.
“I thought we were unselfish and great, defensively, in the first half, but we were selfish and not passing the ball in the second half,” Gunther said. “We took some horrendous shots and just kind of fell apart and stopped playing as a team and played as individuals. The other thing that killed us is going 2 for 11 at the foul line down the stretch.”
Following’s Taylor’s 3-pointer, Gillespie’s basket with 50.7 seconds remaining put Chaney ahead for good, 52-51, before he added the final two points at the foul line with 24.4 seconds to go.