Austintown Fitch uses stifling defense to run past Ursuline 55-28

Solid fundamentals could key Austintown Fitch to a tournament run in March.

The Falcons used stifling defense on Wednesday night, holding Ursuline to one point in the second quarter and spread the ball on offense to run past the Fighting Irish 55-28.

Coach Dan Horacek praised the Fitch (5-1) defense, saying it was some of the best “man defense” they played in years,

“Our man defense was incredible tonight,” he said. “I thought the whole team bought in to stepping up and shutting down (Ursuline). (They have) a good basketball team with good players. But my kids stepped up to the challenge of man defense.”

Austintown Fitch was led by Alya Ray with 18 points, while Rachel Spalding added 14 points.

“I’m lucky to be a first-year coach with players who have played together since they were in fifth grade. They know how to get each other open. There’s a lot of times I don’t call anything (on offense). They freelance it. I am a lucky guy that has a team that’s able to do that.”

“We’ve been practicing really hard and everything came together tonight,” “Ray said. “We worked as a team.”

“We like to share the ball a lot,” Ray said.

Lily Scott led Ursuline (2-3) with 11 points.

Irish head coach LaVell Turnage said his team is working through injuries and had a few players sick.

“Other players have to step up,” he said. “Some things were out of our control tonight. But that’s part of life and basketball.”

Fitch will travel to Kenston on Saturday while Ursuline will travel to Cheney on Monday.

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