The Irish pulled away in the fourth quarter of a close game to defeat Marysville be the score of 61-50.
The Irish came out strong jumping to a 19-14 first quarter lead. Six players scored in the quarter led by Antonio Bisutti with 6, Justin Craig with 4, Joshua Ashwill with 3, and Raneal Ewing, Ryan Duncan and Gabe McGlone with 2 each. Ashwill's three came on a long range buzzer beater.
The Irish pushed their lead out to 10, 27-17 with 2:30 to go before half. Marysville went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 27-24 with seconds remaining, however for the 2nd straight quarter the Irish connected on a 3 point buzzer beater, this time by Ewing just short of half court, which gave the Irish a 30-24 halftime lead. Ewing led the Irish with 5 points in the quarter, followed by Ashwill with 4 and Travis Yates with 2.
Marysville continued their run in the 3rd quarter, taking a brief lead before the Irish moved ahead 40-39 entering the fourth. Ewing contributed 5 more points, while Bisutti and McGlone each had 2, and Yates 1.
The fourth quarter remained close for a while. After the Irish took a 46-41 lead, Marysville closed to 46-45 with 4:22 to go. A Duncan basket made it 48-45, but Marysville again closed to 48-47 with 3:25 to go. Two Ewing free throws, followed by a 3 pointer from Duncan gave the Irish a 53-47 lead with 2:16 remaining, but a Marysville 3 made it 53-50 with 2:05 to go. A Bisutti basket with 1:00 remaining made it 55-50, and a Ewing layup sealed the victory with :37 remaining.
Scoring was led by Ewing with 24, Bisutti with 10, Duncan and Ashwill with 7 each, Craig and McGlone with 4 each, Yates with 3 and Jalen Johnson with 2.
The Irish are now 4-6 on the year and 2-5 in the conference.
Box Score
DS: Ewing 8-6-24, Bisutti 4-1-10, Duncan 2-2-7, Ashwill 2-1-7, McGlone 2-0-4, Craig 2-0-4, Yates 1-1-3, Johnson 0-2-2. 3-point goals: Ashwill 2, Ewing 2, Duncan, Bisutti. Totals: 21-13-61.
Marysville: Will be updated later.
In a game of runs, the Irish JV team rallied for a 37-27 win over Marysville.
The Irish entered the fourth quarter trailing 23-21 after squandering a 19-10 halftime lead. Dominic Madison put the Irish ahead to stay at 24-23 with a traditional three point play.
Madison had stolen the ball after a Marysville defensive rebound, and, hit a short range bucket and the free throw that broke a 5 minute scoreless streak.
Tyler Zack had a steal on the next possession and Ryan Gibson nailed a long trey on a pass from Braxton Wallace to give the Irish a 27-23 lead.
The teams traded buckets with the Monarchs scoring their final points with 3:09 to go. The Irish closed the game with an 8-0 run to yield the final margin of 37-27.
Only three Irish players dented the scoring column with Madison scoring a game high 15 points. Gibson contributed 14 points. Wallace had 8 points and several assists on the night.
Kyle Poling scored a team high 8 points for Marysville.
With their fourth win in five games, the Irish improve their overall record to 6-4. They finished the first round of OCC Cardinal Division games at 4-3.
The Irish freshmen led throughout in pulling out a 38-29 victory over Marysville. The Irish jumped out to a 12-2 first quarter lead as all 5 starters (Jack Flood, Andrew McKinley, Matt Messick, Spencer Talentino and Darius McDonald) contributed a 2 points basket, and McKinley added two free throws with 1 second left. Talentino also drew a charge in the quarter.
The Irish scored 12 more in the 2nd quarter and increased their lead to 24-10 at half. Six of their points came off of layups after steals. Brady Blackwell led the Irish with 6 points in the quarter, while McDonald added 3, Flood 2 more and Messick 1.
Both offenses struggled in the 3rd quarter, won by Marysville 6-4. Messick and Talentino each contributed a basket in the quarter.
The Irish scored 10 more in the fourth quarter on balanced scoring led by Evan Ekis with 3 points. Also scoring were Jacob Shafer (2), McKinley (2), Flood (2) and Messick (1).
Scoring for the night was balanced and led by Flood, Messick, McKinley, and Blackwell with 6 each. Others scoring were McDonald (5), Talentino (4), Ekis (3) and Shafer (2).
The Irish are 3-6 overall and 2-5 in the OCC Cardinal. They play at Grove City at 10:00 AM on Saturday January 15th.