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Harris surges
Irish storm past Raiders
By BOB ETTINGER
YOUNGSTOWN
Ursuline point guard Dayshanette Harris knew the deck needed reshuffling.
Not only did she reshuffle, but she stacked that deck as the Fighting Irish sprinted to Monday’s 59-53 victory over South Range at Lyden Family Court.
“I had seen that we’d barely scored in the third quarter,” Harris said. “Something needed to change. I had to make that change.”
Harris netted 10 points as the Irish (11-8) used a 16-4 run over the final 5:30 of the fourth period to erase a 49-43 deficit.
“That’s one of the things the kids have been able to do the past couple of games,” Ursuline coach Vannessa Dickson said. “I knew if we went full-court, the effort would be there.
“We start great and we finish great,” Dickson said. “In the middle quarters, we struggle. It’s a big floor and we’re in shape. If we made the right decisions on the defensive end, we’d be there tonight.”
Ursuline was 7-of-8 from the foul line in the final minute as it pulled away.
“We made some uncharacteristic mistakes,” South Range coach Tony Matisi said. “But we sort of had a limited bench.”
Bree Kohler suffered a head injury and Izzy Lamparty fouled out.
“We had some kids in there who haven’t been in those situations,” Matisi said. “I just thought it was a great game.”
Maddie Durkin caught fire early in the third period to push the Raiders (16-3) on a 14-0 run to go ahead, 39-35, with 2:41 remaining in the third. South Range had trailed by as many as 10, 35-25, with 7:12 left in the quarter.
Durkin netted eight of the Raiders’ points during the spurt, Dani Vuletich added four and Samantha Patrone scored the other two.
Vuletich’s bucket put South Range up, 49-43, with 5:38 to play in the fourth.
Harris finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and five steals while Anya Curd had 23 points, 10 boards and a pair of steals. Lindsay Bell (2 points) also had 10 rebounds for Ursuline.
Durkin led the Raiders with 18 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and a steal. Lamparty scored 11 points and Vuletich added eight.
Four different players netted two points each as South Range used an 8-0 spurt to go up, 10-5, just past the midway point of the first period.
Curd scored six points and Harris had four as the Irish scored the final eight points of the first half and the first two of the second half to take that 35-25 lead.
“It’s a nice thing to have when you have Dee,” Dickson said. “[Harris] draws a lot of attention. When she draws attention, it allows the other players the chance to do something. [Curd] is a great finisher.”