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Massillon squeezes past Ursuline
Stock’s foul shot
wins it for Tigers
By Dan Hiner
Youngstown
With 5.2 seconds left, Massillon boys basketball player Jaden Stock split a pair of free throws to give the Tigers a one-point lead. Vince Armeni attempted a 14-foot runner as time expired but came up short in Ursuline’s 51-50 loss to the Tigers on Friday at Ursuline High School.
Devan Keveey tied the game at 50 for the Irish with 20 seconds left when he grabbed his own miss and scored on a layup. Timeout was called after the shot and Stock was fouled on the Tigers’ next possession.
“I think we were pretty confident going into the timeout,” Keveey said.
Keveey, who was sick a couple days prior to the game, finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Irish (6-7).
“I felt little better today,” Keveey said. “I had left school yesterday feeling really sick. My mom’s a nurse and she gave me some medicine and stuff to make me feel better. I was feeling pretty good coming into the game.”
Both teams had chances to score in the final 1:02, but mistakes kept the game close.
With the score tied at 48, Armeni was called for traveling. But he didn’t have possession of the ball. The ball was knocked out of his hands and across the half-court line.
The turnover led to a Luke Sabo layup and a two-point lead for Massillon.
“Even their coach looked down at me and thought ‘wow’ and just gave me that look. They knew it was tipped and off [Armeni’s] leg,” Ursuline coach Keith Gunther said. “But I told our kids, ‘You expect officials to make every call right, it’s not gonna happen. You still gotta play through it, you still gotta make plays.’”
Massillon’s Jayden Ballard went to the free-throw line in the final minute with a chance to give the Tigers a three-point lead. But he lost an attempt after his foot was over the line. He missed the second attempt to keep the score 50-48.
Keveey hit the game-tying layup on the next Irish possession.
The Irish scored the first basket of the game, but trailed until Armeni scored on a floater in the final minute of the first half.
Brett Martin and Ballard each finished with 15 points for the Tigers (3-6). Martin grabbed three rebounds while Ballard had four.
Ursuline took a 27-25 lead into halftime and the game was back-and-forth in the second half.
Daysean Harris led the Irish in scoring before fouling out with 2:47 remaining in the fourth quarter. Harris finished with 15 points.
“When you score like that in the first half, obviously, the other team’s gonna make adjustments,” Gunther said. “That’s when you really try and key on moving the ball and getting your teammates open, and hopefully they can knock down some shots.”
Gunther wanted to see his role players step up on Friday with the team missing some players due to injury. The Irish are one game under .500, and believes with Keevey finding his groove and the role players improving, the Irish can make a run in the postseason.
“I think the key tonight is those guys realized we can play,” Gunther said. “Now here’s the thing, we bring the [injured] guys back and say, ‘We’re good without you but we should be great with you, so lets all grow and get better.’”