Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Austintown Fitch senior Rachel Spalding eyes the basketball before a transition bucket during the second half at Ursuline. A career-high 21 point outing helped the Falcons soar to a 48-35 victory.

YOUNGSTOWN — It’s the second week of December, and teams are still trying to figure out and build their identities. At times, Austintown Fitch looked the part of a squad that can execute its game plan with great success.

For the Falcons, it’s about putting pressure on the ball handler and scoring easy buckets in transition. A 48-35 victory at Ursuline helped build confidence in that identity, led by a flurry of steals.

Coach Dan Horacek was pleased with the Falcons performance.

“I’ve watched (Ursuline) on tape, they’ve improved every game. I thought they improved tonight, they played so hard and it pushed our girls to their limits, credit to them,” Horacek said. “My staff told me to run a different defense. We ran a different defense really fast and it worked. We went 13T on them, and we were able to trap their ball handlers.

“That’s what we wanted to do, it’s what we practiced, and it worked pretty good tonight. That’s where we’re at our best. We have to get steals and score in transition. Execution in the halfcourt is still something we work on every day. It’s not there yet, 100%, but we’ll get there. Once we get that part, we can be really fun to watch.”

Ursuline (0-6) led early at 6-2, forcing an Austintown timeout with less than four minutes to play in the first quarter. Following that timeout, the steals at halfcourt started to pile up, allowing the Falcons (3-2) to end the frame on a 9-0 run.

That shift in momentum continued into the second quarter as Fitch extended its run to 21-0 before Ursuline found the scoreboard again with a Kennedy Carpenter score in the paint at the 5:31 mark.

Senior Rachel Spalding began to accumulate points off defense, scoring 15 first-half points as part of a career-high 21 point outing.

“We put in a 1-3-1 trap defense, and it’s worked really well. We forced a lot of turnovers and we wanted to speed up their game so we get points in transition, and it’s been working,” Spalding said. “Our coaches always say to start from the inside and out, so once we see a few layups going in, it makes our shots go in, builds confidence in our offense.”

“(Twenty-one points) helps build my confidence a lot. I’m thankful for my teammates. They pushed it up in transition well and got it to me on the block. Putting a few shots in always helps you, especially when we have a few hard games coming up.”

Austintown took a 32-11 lead into the halftime intermission, but the Fighting Irish were not going to be deterred. Ursuline slowly chipped away at the deficit, all while preventing Fitch from earning good looks at the basket. They held the Falcons scoreless for over five minutes before Spalding and fellow senior Samantha Severn helped engineer an 8-0 run that was capped off by two free throws by junior Amyia Harris.

Severn tallied 13 points for the visiting Falcons.

“We were aware that (Ursuline) is a great second half team, they always come out strong. We’ve always struggled coming out in the second half, but I think we’re starting to push through a little bit better than normal,” Severn said. “Seeing the score definitely makes us think that we can relax a little bit, but that’s never the truth. You always have to keep playing your hardest no matter what the score is, like it’s 0-0 the whole game.

“Our confidence is really lacking right now. We’re aware of the doubt that everybody has on our team this year, so getting these road wins is just something that definitely says, ‘Hey, we’re here.'”

Horacek added, “(Spalding and Severn) are our scores, when they score we do good things. Their supporting cast really stepped up in a lot of key times in that game.”

Ursuline was paced by senior Marina Bellitto and Carpenter’s six points.

The Fighting Irish are trying to put the pieces together in the early phases of the season. Coach LaVell Turnage sees every contest as an opportunity to learn something new.

“The biggest thing right now is experience, and that’s the best teacher in life. Not having a lot of girls with a lot of varsity experience, we play a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Turnage said. “We’re going to take our lumps and bruises, but at the same time, we got to learn from it, we have to be better. That’s why I always say that we have to execute in practice and focus on the little things.

“That’s kind of the hard part right now, we don’t have an identity, that’s what we’re trying to figure out as a team. We’re requiring other girls to step up in roles they’ve never done before. We have girls coming straight from 8th grade middle school basketball to varsity minutes. That’s difficult, but that’s a part of the journey. As long as we come in and execute and work on the little things day in and day out, I think we’ll be a better basketball team.”