Sports

Mooney advances to Elite 8 with win over Canton Central Catholic

By Mike Brown
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OHSAA logo Photo provided

CANTON — Youngstown Cardinal Mooney won its eighth straight game and 14th in its past 15 as the Cardinals ousted Canton Central Catholic 66-52 in a Division III regional semifinal boys’ basketball game in the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse Wednesday night.

The win sends the Cardinals (22-5) into the D3 regional title game Saturday afternoon against defending D3 state champion Cleveland Heights Lutheran East (20-5) at 2 p.m. at the Canton Fieldhouse. Lutheran East advanced on Tuesday in its regional semifinal with a 90-49 win over Fairview. The winner of Saturday’s Mooney-Lutheran East game advances to next week’s state tournament in Dayton at UD Arena.

Jibri Carter led Mooney with 26 points

Mooney’s 5-9 senior guard Jibri Carter had an outstanding overall game against Central Catholic and took game-scoring honors with 26 points. Mooney ended with four players in double figures as Rocco Turner added 15 markers and Ashton O’Brien and Eddie Nieves added 11 points each.

Luke Vlacovsky led Central Catholic with 20 points

Central Catholic, which bowed out with an 18-8 record, was led in scoring by Luke Vlacovsky with 20 points.

Cardinal Mooney, which trailed Canton Central 20-16 after one quarter, turned up its defensive pressure in the second quarter, forcing several turnovers out of the Crusaders and helped turn a deficit into a 21-20 Cardinal lead. Mooney never looked back, taking four-point leads over the Crusaders at intermission (31-27) and at the end of the third quarter (44-40).

The Cardinals, led by Carter, had a big fourth quarter. They opened the stanza on a 16-7 run to take a 13-point (60-47) advantage with over three minutes left and went on to close out the 14-point (66-52) triumph and a spot in the Elite 8.

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