Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Cardinal’s sophomore Matteo Fortuna reacts after nailing a 3-pointer while being fouled in the first half. Fortuna converted the four-point play at the free-throw line.
YOUNGSTOWN — When the tournament is underground, playing for a “almost start” is a good opportunity to pounce on a team early and shift energy on the court in favor of one roster early.
Cardinal Mooney’s boy’s basketball team did just that Tuesday night as it began its postseason journey with a 62-22 rout of Mineral Ridge at home to kick-start the Division III Salem bracket.
The Rams came into the contest on a three-game winning streak, but Mooney wanted to find rhythm early and play its game.
The Cardinals successfully used a full-court press and earned buckets off turnovers to fend off the Rams early.
“You want to start fast, we have a good record, we’re 14-9, but in a lot of these games, we haven’t started fast offensively. Sometimes you settle for too many jumpers, just wanting to get something at the rim,” explained Cardinals coach Carey Palermo following the victory. “We wanted to get an open look and it just kinda feels like with our team, whenever someone makes their first shot or first couple shots, it’s just contagious to everybody else.”
Mooney senior Jack Pepperney hit the first of his three treys to begin the contest from the right side of the arc, sparking a 13-0 run for Mooney, which didn’t surrender a point until Payton Zupko floated one in for the Rams with 3 :08 to go in the first.
A strong defensive effort by the host Cardinals kept inducing turnovers that directly turned into points and they carried a 50-14 lead into the locker room.
In the postseason there’s never a time to lay off the gas, but Mooney found ways to keep fresh bodies on the hardwood throughout the evening. 11 different Cardinals found the scoring column, something that senior Mick Hergenrother found beneficial to the team as a whole.
“It’s huge, it takes a lot of pressure off other people, when everybody is scoring, everybody is getting involved, it brings the team energy, and we play a lot better when that happens,” said the senior guard, who scored 11 points. “It’s awesome, it helps us all out, it takes pressure off me and the other seniors, it’s great to see them step up, and their work finally paid off.”
Mooney (14-9) was led by sophomore Rocco Turner’s 13 points, including a pair of three-pointers and a continuation play conversion.
“I think when we start hitting shots, the defense comes with it, we play better defense when we’re hitting shots, but when we don’t hit shots, we rely on our defense to keep us in games and give us a chance ,” Turner said, saying that practice the press was an emphasis this past week. “You could feel it building up, we just feed off each other and then the team just gets going.”
The 66 points Mooney tallied was a season-high, beating the previous mark of 65 set in a 65-23 rout of Youngstown East on February 1st. Pepperney scored nine points while junior Jaxon Menough scored seven.
Mooney will advance to face Crestview, who had a first-round bye, this Friday at Cardinal Mooney High School, with a 7 p.m. tip-off.
Meanwhile, Mineral Ridge (6-17) sees their campaign come to a conclusion with Payton Zupko scoring a team-high seven points while Julian Ruzzi added five.
Despite the loss, assistant coach Eric Harper took time to thank his seniors, crediting Zach James and Zupko for their hard work this past season.
“This is my first year, and I’ve tried to take a couple of those seniors under my wing in the offseason, and kinda try to change the guard, the culture around Mineral Ridge in terms of offseason work and as far as what the program is about,” Harper explained. “It’s about effort, and it’s about just giving you all when your all is expected.
“Especially Zach, he’s one of the best kids I’ve ever coached as far as a lead by example but also taking kids to the side one on one and taking them under their wing. Payton really set the tone for us, scoring with his relentless energy on the court on both sides of the ball.”
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