Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor. Ursuline players swarm the floor in celebration after defeating Canfield to win the Division II regional championship on Saturday in Canton.

CANTON — Back on Dec. 9 when Ursuline and Canfield met on the hardwood for the first time this season, Cardinals coach John Cullen made a projection.

“That’s a game that might end up being a tournament game later on,” Cullen said at the time. “I hope so, because I think we will get better and so will they.”

His words ended up being prophetic, as two of the area’s best duked it out once again on Saturday at the historic Canton Memorial Fieldhouse in an all-local regional final with a trip to the Division II state final four in Dayton hanging in the balance.

Ultimately, the luck of the Irish was too strong during St. Patrick’s Day weekend, as Ursuline stifled Canfield 60-35 with its suffocating defense.

“I watched the film (of the first meeting) two days ago. I thought defensively we were horrendous in that game,” Irish head coach Keith Gunther said. “I thought we let (Dom) Cruz go off on us, and I thought we let them kill us at the three-point line. They really hurt us in that first game. … My whole focus (Saturday) was to not let them get shots off the three line, and try to get the ball inside to Jaden (Payne). I thought we were really effective defensively. We held them to (35), and I just thought it was the defense that won (the game).”

It was Ursuline’s first regional championship since its state title run back in 1994. The win is also Gunther’s first regional title in his 21 years as Ursuline’s head coach. Ursuline is also the first boys local team to make the state final four since LaBrae in 2013.

Last year, Gunther thought his team had the makings of a group that could make a deep tournament run. The Irish were stacked with upperclassmen, including two players that would go on to play Division II college basketball. Ursuline went into the playoffs with a No. 1 seed, but came up short, falling in the district title game.

Now, Gunther gets to make the trip to Dayton with his son, freshman Jaylen, who led the Irish with 16 points in the victory.

“Sometimes you don’t get to pick God’s timing,” Gunther said. “I thought it was last year, but God said no, you’re going to do it with your son this year. So I’m pumped about that. I couldn’t be more excited. There are ups and downs over 21 years — many times I thought about walking away. The one thing I’ll say, if you got a dream that’s been placed in your heart, you gotta stick it out sometimes. You don’t know how long it’s going to take for that dream to come true. Took me 21 years, but it’s here and I’m excited about it.”

Correspondent photo / Michael G. Taylor. Ursuline senior forward slam dunks the ball in the second half on Saturday against Canfield.

Ursuline’s offense carried it in its regional semifinal victory, as the Irish scored 85 points and had five players finish in double figures. But against Canfield, the defense paved the way.

The Irish held the Cardinals to 32.6% shooting, and limited some of Canfield’s best offensive weapons.

Thanks to tenacious man defense by Dashaun Will, Canfield’s leading scorer Dom Cruz was scoreless at halftime and finished with just five points.

“I told (Will) at halftime, I called him over and sat him down and said, ‘right now, you’re the MVP,'” Gunther said. “He looks at me and goes, ‘what do you mean?’ I said Cruz hasn’t scored. I don’t care, right now, you’re the MVP. (Cruz) is one of the best shooters in Northeast Ohio. I thought (Will) was relentless. I could tell he was getting tired, but he never let up.

“People think it’s all about offense, but if you want to win big games, it’s how you play defensively.”

Tony Russo finished with seven points for the Cardinals, while Ben Weaver led Canfield with 14 points.

“They slowed (Cruz) for most of the game, and he just never got into his rhythm and he usually does get into it,” Cullen said. “So it was a credit to (Ursuline). We got a lot of good shots, we just didn’t make too many of them. Early, we made some layups to get things started. But as the game went on, we just got tighter and tighter rather than looser and looser. It’s hard to tell somebody to relax and just shoot it when you’re down 20.”

The Irish made sure to set the tone early, as they immediately ran out to a 12-2 lead in the first few minutes of the game.

Jaylen was the catalyst for Ursuline’s first quarter surge, as he hit all four of his threes in the opening period to stretch his team’s lead to double digits by the end of the quarter.

“It was the same thing as the other night — my shot felt great in warmups, and I wasn’t missing, so I came out with confidence,” Jaylen said. “I was pulling them and it was going in, so I just kept shooting them with confidence.”

As Jaylen got Ursuline started, then Myles Miller took over during the second and third quarters. As the Irish’s sixth man, Miller finished with 12 points off the bench to help Ursuline keep its momentum going.

“Everyone just started getting buckets. I thought Myles Miller was huge,” Gunther said.

Payne then picked things up for Ursuline in the fourth quarter to help the Irish put the game on ice. He scored seven of his 15 points in that final period.

“It means a lot for us, and it means a lot to coach,” Payne said. “He’s always been dreaming about going to state. He wanted us to play hard to get to state and that’s what we did for him. I’m really glad that we’re representing Mahoning County to show who we are too.”

For Canfield, the Cardinals finished their historic season 23-5, which ends up tying the record for most wins in program history for a single season.

The Cardinals graduate four seniors, but will still return a sizable contingent from this year’s squad.

“Every practice was a joy to be involved,” Cullen said. “Every game, we learned from our mistakes and utilzed out strengths and tried to minimize our weaknesses. Their basketball IQ, as well as their skill level got better and better and better. That’s why by the end of the year, before this game, we were probably playing at the highest level we’ve played in many years here. We didn’t embarrass ourselves, (Ursuline) just played a much better game than we did.”

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BOX SCORE

Division II regional final

Ursuline 60, Canfield 35

C 10 6 10 9 — 35

U 20 12 15 13 — 60

CANFIELD (23-5): Dom Cruz 2-5 0-0 5, Ben Weaver 6-10 1-1 14, Drew Shapiro 0-2 0-5 0, Sam Castronova 0-3 1-2 1, Tony Russo 3-7 1-2 7, Jake Delisio 2-7 0-2 4, Landon Shina 1-4 2-2 4, Bryce Roberts 0-1 0-0 0, Nico Biondillo 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14-43 5-9 35.

URSULINE (24-3): Geno Lucente 2-6 2-2 6, Jaylen Gunther 6-12 0-0 16, Dashaun Will 2-5 0-0 4, Noah Bell 1-1 0-0 2, Jaden Payne 7-10 1-1 15, Myles Miller 5-7 0-0 12, Jared Klucenic 1-1 0-0 3, Xavier Clark 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 25-43 3-3 60.