Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Melvin & Milan Show carries
Valley Christian past Mooney
By DAN HINER
Youngstown
Cardinal Mooney had a chance to beat Valley Christian on the Eagles’ court. But a pair of 3-pointers by Valley Christian and turnovers by Mooney led to a 58-56 Eagles win on Tuesday night.
Milan Square hit a 3-pointer with 37.8 remaining to pull Valley Christian with one and Melvin Neail made another to put the Eagles ahead for good with 20 seconds left.
“We just tried to play like we always play,” Square said. “We know every single game we’re gonna come to fight and we know we’re never out of it, no matter how big the lead is or how much we’re down. We always try to come out and play hard. That’s just the kind of swagger we play with.”
Square scored a game-high 18 points for the Eagles and Neail ended with 13 points.
Cardinal Mooney (4- 6) sent Pete Haas to the free-throw line with 1.7 left for a 1-and-1. But the Cardinals’ leading scorer missed his free throw to end the game.
“The game didn’t come down to [Haas’ free-throw attempt]. We want Pete on the line in that situation and Pete will make those shots next time,” Mooney head coach Carey Palermo said. “We played with no intensity to start. We played with no energy to start the basketball game.”
The Cardinals led 56-50 with 1:23 left in the fourth quarter. But Mooney turned the ball over twice — once on a 10-second violation — to give the Eagles a shot to win the game.
It was another tough loss for the Cardinals. Palermo wants to see the team improve in late-game situations.
“Right now, we don’t do the little things well. Last game we lost by three, the game before that we lost by three — we blew a seven-point lead to Ursuline with 1:05 to go — and we blew a six-point lead tonight. They’re a very good team in the locker room, unfortunately, they don’t do the little things right now.”
Haas had 17 points and six rebounds. Mike Pelini also scored 17 points while Anthony Fire finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and a block.
The Eagles used a full-court press in the first half, forcing the Cardinals into 14 turnovers.
Valley Christian (9-3) led 32-23 at halftime, but the Cardinals outscored the Eagles 18-8 in the third.
Mooney trailed 40-36 entering the fourth quarter, but went on a 9-2 run early in the final period to take a 46-44 lead.
Another 6-0 run gave the Cardinals their six-point lead with 90 seconds left, but Square hit a jumper — leading to the back-to-back 3s.
“Its a great rivalry,” Valley Christian head coach Dolph Carroll said. “That’s the way all our games are. They’re very tough, physical-played games.”
The two private schools meet frequently, even at the elementary school level. So for Square and fellow seniors, the win has a little more meaning.
“It means a lot,” Square said. “We’ve been playing these guys since junior high. This is most likely our last time playing them. It was just fun to be able to say that for the rest of our lives, we have the end over ‘em. We beat ‘em the last time we played.”