CHANEY FORCES OVERTIME, BUT IRISH FINISH THE JOB
By Matt Maher
YOUNGSTOWN, OH – It was a wild night in Youngstown as the Chaney Cowboys welcomed the Saint Vincent-St Mary Fighting Irish into their gym. The night saw both teams trade leads several times and head to the free throw line a lot in this tight contest that saw The Irish come out on top in Overtime 69-66.
Chaney came out with some thunder to start the game where they saw themselves score 9 points against the aggressive defense from STVM who would put up 13 of their own. Chaney saw Latrell Kimbrough put up 4 points in the paint and the freshman wonder, Austin Brown, hit an early 3. The Irish had an impressive start from Raishaw Hamilton who scored 5 points and Jayson Walker who went 2-for-2 from the line.
St V kept the momentum going into the second where they would put up 10 points to Chaney’s 19. St V saw John Whorton come to life with 6 seemingly easy points from down low, DeCarlo Prince would also go 2-for-2 from the line. Chaney put it together in this quarter and saw 8 points off the bench from Cliff Scott and 6 points from 2 impressive 3’s from the hands of Bobby Johnson. The energy was set for the second half where we would see some thrilling plays from both sides.
What a response from the Irish coming out of the break! 24 points for Dru Joyce’s squad against the Cowboys and only 15 against would bring the score to 47-43. Elijah Carter would lead the scoring this quarter for Chaney with two of four made 2’s and 4 points. Asuante Mickle would also hit his first 3 of the game this frame. Prince showed amazing skill this quarter with 11 points Whorton would also find 5 more points on his night as well.
Quarter 4 was as exciting as a basketball game could get thanks to multiple lead changes and several ties between these two tough opponents which was only fitting. ST V scored 14 points including 5 more from Walker and 4 more from Prince. Chaney put up 18 primarily from the free throw line where, as a team, they went a perfect 8-for-8. Mickel and Clifton Scott both put up 5 of those points both with a 3 and 2 made free throw shots. Walker and Scott traded 3’s in the dying seconds of the game with Walkers coming with around 5 seconds left but Scott took the ball down the court and hit the most energizing buzzer beating 3 to tie the game up and send us to overtime.
The Battle continued but only for 4 more minutes as STVM outscored Chaney 8-5. Mickel put up a 3 but the Cowboys struggled from the line going 2-for-4 as a team where the Irish were perfect at 4-for-4. Add the perfect free throw shooting and two made 2’s and you find yourself with a hard fought Irish victory.
While Chaney couldn’t finish the job in extra time, they did put up a fantastic battle against one of Ohio’s most storied and successful programs in the past 2 decades. Chaney saw 4 players score in double digits including Asunte Mickel and Bobby Johnson who put up 11 points each and Austin Brown and Clifton Scott who both found 13 points. STVM (5-7) are back at home on January 12th when they host Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy from Dallas, Texas at 6:30PM and Chaney (2-5) stay at home when they play against their rival Youngstown East at 7:00PM.
