Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes Ursuline’s Terrance Pankey (left) drives to the basket against Canfield earlier this season.

YOUNGSTOWN — In Ursuline’s dominant wire-to-wire win over Salem on Thursday, Terrance Pankey did a little bit of everything.

Early in the game, the senior brought the ball up the floor, studied the court in front of him, then blew past his defender into the lane. As a help defender tried to cut him off, Pankey simply stopped on a dime, Euro-stepped around him and calmly finished at the rim.

Then, a couple possessions later on defense, he was guarding the Quakers’ point guard at the top of the key. As the ball handler waited for a pick, Pankey stepped in, knocked the ball away and threw it ahead to a teammate for a fast-break layup. Then on the ensuing offensive possession, he beat a Salem player to a loose ball off an offensive rebound and laid it off the glass for a second-chance bucket for the Irish.

All the ways that Pankey can make his impact felt on a game is nothing new to head coach Keith Gunther.

“He’s the focal point of everything that we do,” Gunther said. “He can play every position on the floor — at the one through the five. When you have a kid that’s that talented, he’s your go-guy. So when he goes, everybody else follows suit.”

But Pankey wasn’t always like that.

When he was in eighth grade, he was used to being bigger, faster and stronger than everyone else he played against. But he got a rude awakening when he got to Ursuline as a freshman and was thrust onto the varsity team.

“I was skinnier and scrawnier than everybody, but I learned my role my freshman year,” Pankey said. “I was a catch-and-shoot shooter, and I played defense.”

Of course Pankey wanted to be a part of the varsity squad from the get go, but having to play against kids that were two, three or even four years older forced him to adjust and grow up in a hurry.

“My seventh grade year, me and my Dad made a goal for me to start varsity freshman year,” Pankey said. “I knew it was going to be tough, but it’s just all about competing and doing the dirty work — doing things nobody else was doing, like rebounding or getting a piece of a steal or getting the first hand on the ball.”

Since then, Pankey has become the multidimensional threat that he is now — a guard/forward that can score, rebound, defend and distribute the ball.

“I just think as a freshman coming in, you’re like a deer in headlights — you’re still in that learning process” Gunther said. “Now, he totally understands all aspects of the game — from the beginning of the game, the middle of the game and late-game situations. He’s been through the fire.”

According to Gunther, the biggest improvement in Pankey’s game this year has been his jump shot, which is something he spent a significant portion of the offseason working on, especially this summer during his AAU season.

Pankey also has helped make the players around him — such as Jaden Payne, Vinny Flauto, Geno Lucente and Dashaun Will — better, Gunther said.

In the past, like last season’s playoff loss to Howland, opposing teams could key in defensively on Pankey and force other players to beat him. With four players, including Pankey, averaging double figures in scoring so far this season, opposing teams can’t defend Ursuline the same way they have in the past.

“Now he realizes those other guys are just as important as him,” Gunther said. “Just in case a scenario like that happens again, if your other guys can play, it makes it easier on him. So if (other teams) want to go ahead and take Terrance out, it means things will open up for somebody else. Inevitably when the other guys are scoring, then it’s going to open back up for Terrance, and he’s smart enough now to realize that.”

Having been a part of the varsity squad for four years, Pankey has always had to be something of a leader.

“Sophomore year, we didn’t really have any senior leaders, so I had to step up,” Pankey said. “So it really feels like it’s almost my third year of being a senior because I really had to step up around all the rest of the guys.

“At the end of the day, I have to lead by example because they’re going to follow what I do…like playing defense hard.”

But now as a senior, that leadership role comes with more responsibility now.

“The leadership role changes now because everybody looks up to him,” Gunther said. “When you’re younger, you can be a leader, but the underclassmen don’t really look up to you. Now, when things get going down the stretch, everybody’s looking to see what Terrance is going to do. He’s going to make the play for us, and I think that’s the greatest part of leadership — he’s going to get the steal, he’s going to get the rebound or he’s going to get the bucket to make sure we win.”

So far, after his 19-point performance in the 82-47 win over Salem, Pankey has led the Irish to a 5-1 start that includes wins over strong teams like Girard and Canton Central Catholic. Also, the Irish have been ranked in or around the top 10 in the state in Division II.

“He’s really in a good place right now,” Gunther said. “He’s playing hard and he’s playing with confidence.”

The reason for that, Gunther thinks, is because Pankey already has his future determined and set in stone. Pankey committed to Division II powerhouse West Liberty in August and signed his national letter of intent to join the Hilltoppers at the beginning of November.

“I think the biggest thing is when guys who are collegiate-(level) basketball players and don’t have a scholarship yet, they stress,” Gunther said. “I think last year he was really stressed to get that scholarship. Now that he’s got it, he can just go play. Getting a scholarship puts a lot of pressure on you, and now he doesn’t have that pressure, so now he can just go out and be a leader and have fun and play ball.”

Pankey agreed and now that his recruitment is done and out of the way, he can dedicate all of his focus to his senior season for Ursuline.

“It was a sigh of relief,” Pankey said about signing his LOI. “The recruiting process was a struggle. I didn’t know if I was going to get offered in the summertime or if I was going to get offered after the basketball season. But what’s good is that I found my home. I love the coaches and I love the players, and [former McDonald star] Zach Rasile, I’ve got a close connection with him.”

Now, despite eclipsing the 1,000-point plateau for his career last week, Pankey has his sights set on greater things for the rest of his senior campaign, including the Ursuline career scoring mark and leading the Irish to a state title.

“The goal was never just to hit 1,000 points, but to become the leading scorer, which I think is a little over 1,300,” Pankey said. “We really want to win states. We realize it’s going to be a tough task because it’s a super long, long road. It’s not for everybody and we realize that, but we still want to do it.”