Staff photo / Preston Byers Cardinal Mooney’s Dante Turner (3) attempts a layup during the Cardinals’ win vs. Warren JFK on Friday in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Both Cardinal Mooney and Warren JFK proved Friday, in different ways, that it’s not as much about how you start, but rather how you finish.

The Cardinals, unlike their opponents, finished the second and third quarters nearly perfectly, which proved instrumental in their 53-42 win in Youngstown.

“I thought we limited the defensive mistakes much better than we have the previous couple games — and we were able to win some of those games — but I thought guys stepped up and made plays, whether they played 28 minutes or four minutes,” Mooney head coach Carey Palermo said. “There’s still some stuff we got to clean up, but I’m happy with our overall effort.”

Neither team proved capable of taking complete control of the game early on, as the lead changed hands four times over the opening eight minutes. Mooney, which took the first advantage of the period, took the final one as well to enter the second quarter with a 10-8 lead.

Kennedy created a slim margin for itself in the first half of the second quarter, although the Eagles soon ran into trouble.

After a Trevin Rinck field goal with 4:24 left in the quarter, giving JFK a 15-13 lead, the Eagles went the rest of the half scoreless as Mooney ratcheted up its full-court trap defense. Meanwhile, the Cardinals scored 12 points to build a 25-15 lead going into the break.

Much like the previous quarter, Kennedy began the third relatively strong. The Eagles scored 10 points in the first four minutes, trimming the deficit to six. However, the final four minutes resulted in just one more point for JFK, a Henry Phillips free throw with 16.5 seconds remaining, allowing Mooney to stretch its lead back to 13 before the end of the quarter.

“It’s something we emphasize. We didn’t finish quarters well, second or third quarter against South Range,” Palermo said, referencing Tuesday’s 59-50 Cardinals loss. “We had seven-point leads with 1:30 left in both quarters, and we ended up going into half up one and going into the fourth quarter up two. Just shouldn’t happen that way.”

During the fourth, the Eagles enjoyed a more complete offensive performance and scored a game-high 16 points. But the output was too little and too late for Kennedy, as Mooney scored 14 and did more than enough to keep the Eagles at a distance.

Mooney’s Dante Turner scored a game-high 17 points on the night. Teammates Kingston Powell and Ford Stacy added 12 and 11, respectively, while Rinck led the Eagles in scoring with 12. Phillips added 11 of his own.

“I thought, the last six minutes, we started moving the ball really well,” Kennedy head coach Mark Komlanc said. “We got some really good looks. Not all of them fell down, but that’s what we’re trying to get them to understand. That’s the next step. Defensively, I feel like we’re in a good place, because when they make mistakes, they know what they’ve done, they know they can fix it right away. Offensively, we struggle with that, and that’s just lack of varsity experience.”

Kennedy’s three-game skid, as well as its record to this point in the season — 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the Portage Trail Conference — reflects the Eagles’ inexperience. But they will have little time to reflect on that or Friday’s loss, as JFK travels to Massillon today for a 6:45 p.m. game vs. Perry.

“I look at it as a positive to go against Massillon Perry and an opportunity to get better and to challenge ourselves. But we are going to have to rest some people because physically, we’re broken down. It’s also going to be a huge opportunity for guys to step up. So that’s what tomorrow is going to be about.”

As for Mooney (7-4), Palermo expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance over the first half of the season and as the Cardinals gear up for their rivalry clash at Ursuline next Friday.

“You just have to stay focused on the process,” Palermo said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere, it always is.”