Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Ursuline's Jaylen Gunther puts up a floater in the first half of Thursday's regional semifinal against VASJ at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse.

CANTON — Despite being just a freshman, Ursuline’s Jaylen Gunther is no stranger to the big moments.

He’s been the Fighting Irish’s leading scorer this season and 20-plus point games have been the norm for the youngster.

It’s no surprise, then, that Gunther continued to showcase his scoring prowess in the Division II regional semifinal Thursday night. Leading Ursuline with 24 points, Gunther spearheaded one of the Irish’s most complete performances of the season, as Ursuline blew out Villa Angela-St. Joseph 85-44 to advance to the regional final.

“It’s just the work and the work that I put in,” Gunther said. “People don’t see that I’m in (the gym) three, four times per week before school at 5 a.m. I’m lifting before school every day. It’s just working and it’s helping me out a lot. So if I just keep doing that, I think I can continue to progress as a player and get to the next level.”

Ursuline shot an explosive 55.6% from the field against the Vikings and had five players score in double figures. The Irish hit 10 total threes and also shot 50-plus percent from beyond the arc.

On the defensive end, Ursuline limited VASJ to single-digit scoring in three of the game’s four quarters. It was as dominant a showing as the Irish have had in a season full of them.

“From a standpoint of moving the ball, playing well together, pounding the ball inside, knocking down shots, playing unselfish — I thought it was our most complete game that we’ve played, and it happened at the right time,” head coach Keith Gunther said. “We just gotta make sure that we understand our gameplan, and we understand what we gotta do to win.”

From the opening tip, Ursuline immediately ran out to a 9-0 lead and never looked back. By the end of the first quarter, the Irish already had a double-digit lead.

But the Vikings fought back in the second quarter. VASJ started matching Ursuline shot-for-shot. Sean Shenker hit three straight threes for the Vikings and they were in business.

But VASJ cooled off by the time the second half started. Ursuline continued its onslaught, and it was off to the races from there. Jaden Payne was able to use his size to finish in the post, which allowed Jaylen Gunther, Dashaun Will, Noah Bell and Myles Miller to be able to start driving and cutting to the basket.

“I thought in the first quarter we came out great offensively and defensively, but we got a little lax in the second quarter defensively,” Keith said. “We gave their shooter three threes in a row and he knocked them all down. So we made an adjustment at halftime. We said we’re going to take him away. He’s not allowed to get shots. We’re going to pound the ball into Jaden, and we felt like once we started pounding the ball, that opened up drives to the basket and a lot of different things. So it was just a great team effort.”

Of Ursuline’s five double-figure scorers, in addition to Gunther’s 24, Payne had 14 points, Will had 12 points and Bell and Miller each finished with 10 points.

Waiting in Saturday’s regional final is a familiar foe.

Ursuline will face Canfield at 7 p.m. at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse with a trip to the state semifinal in Dayton on the line. The Cardinals defeated Warrensville Heights 68-46 in the second regional semifinal on Thursday night.

Ursuline and Canfield previously faced off early in the season back in December. The Irish defeated the Cardinals 70-60 in that neutral-site matchup at Poland.

“Canfield, we know them extremely well,” Keith Gunther said. “We know how good they are. We know how gritty they are. We know how tough they are. We’re in a good position right now. We’ll scout, put a great gameplan together tonight and (Friday) and then come back on Saturday at 7 p.m. and try to win a game to go to Dayton.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.