Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Ursuline’s Terrance Pankey makes a move past a Chaney defender Tuesday night at Ursuline High School. Pankey scored a team-high 19 points in Ursuline’s 66-54 win.

YOUNGSTOWN — After building up a 15-point halftime lead, Ursuline was all of a sudden staring at a one-point deficit to Chaney at the end of the third quarter.

At that point, Irish head coach Keith Gunther had all kinds of thoughts running through his head in the team huddle between quarters, but his main focus was trying to calm his team down and prepare his players for the home stretch.

The Irish responded, opening the fourth quarter with a huge run of their own, as Ursuline staved off the Cowboys’ furious comeback attempt to beat Chaney 66-54 on Tuesday night.

“At that point, I’m usually a little loud and crazy,” Gunther said of the team huddle between quarters. “But we needed to figure out what to do to get buckets and what we needed to do to get stops. I really wanted the ball in Terrance (Pankey)’s hands to try to get downhill and make some plays for us, which he did. I wanted to get Vinny (Flauto) open and then I wanted to get the ball into Jaden (Payne) because he got a lot of offensive rebounds and put backs.”

Trailing by one heading into the final period, Ursuline opened up the quarter on a 10-2 run to put some distance between it and the Cowboys.

After scoring just four points in the third quarter, the Irish outscored Chaney by 13 in the fourth, leading to the final margin.

“I think we left a lot of points on the board, just missing at point-blank range,” said Chaney assistant coach Aundra Brown. “We missed a lot of layups and free throws. If you don’t do the little things, you can’t win a game like this and we didn’t do it.”

Gunther said he thought fatigue played a role in their lethargic third quarter, during which the Cowboys opened the second half on an 18-2 run.

“I thought we looked tired tonight for some reason,” Gunther said. “I don’t know. (Maybe) because we’re at the end of the year, but I thought for a rivalry game, we’d be pumped and ready to go. We just looked a little dead.”

Chaney took advantage, turning up the pressure during the period and forcing the Irish into uncharacteristic turnovers. The Cowboys were 9-for-16 from the floor in the third, and senior Jason Hewlett scored eight of his game-high 21 points.

“We had to battle and we knew coming in that it was going to be a battle,” Brown said. “Having our top scorer (Josiah Gonzalez) out hurt, we’re banged up at this time of year. But we knew anytime that we play them, win or lose, it’s going to be a battle.”

Chaney wasn’t the only one missing a key starter. Ursuline was without starting point guard Deshaun Will, who was out with the flu.

Not having their primary ball handler on the floor threw a wrench into what the Irish usually want to do offensively.

“(Will’s) a big part of how we play,” Gunther said. “He brings a lot of energy, he’s our point guard, he’s a great defender, a great shooter and he can handle pressure. I don’t think we would have turned it over as much if he would have been there. But we have to learn how to play without him. I told our kids, what if he was in foul trouble? Fortunately, we were able to win without him there.”

Ursuline put the ball in Pankey’s hands for most of the game in Will’s absence, letting him dictate things on the floor as the primary ball handler. Pankey finished with 19 points to lead the Irish, while Payne and Flauto each tallied 16.

“We still turned it over a lot more than we should have, but overall a great win against a really, really good team,” Gunther said.

With the win, Gunther became the winningest head coach in program history. He shared his thoughts on the historic milestone.

“It feels good — if you had told me 20 years ago that I would have been here for 20 years, I would have thought there’s no way,” Gunther said. “I’ve never had individual accolades or being the winningest coach on my mind or anything like that. I just love coaching the kids and I love seeing the kids go to school and I love making grown men out of young men.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled about it. Maybe some years down the line I’ll look back and really enjoy it. But my biggest thing that I care about is trying to get these kids to a level I think they can get to so that they have a special moment at the end of the season that is something they will never forget. That’s my goal. Someday I’ll look back on it all and I’ll be thrilled, but that’s not right now.”