Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Ursuline’s Jaylen Gunther (1) shoots over Cardinal Mooney’s Kaden Reese (2) on Friday night at Cardinal Mooney High School.

YOUNGSTOWN — For 16 minutes, the Cardinal Mooney boys basketball team gave Ursuline everything it could handle on Friday night.

The Cardinals controlled the pace of the game and led the state-ranked Fighting Irish by two at halftime. Then Jaylen Gunther happened.

Gunther scored 25 of his game-high 35 points in the second half as Ursuline shook off its slow start to beat its crosstown rival 55-39 on the south side of Youngstown.

“I thought how he played in the third quarter was the difference offensively in the ball game,” Irish coach Keith Gunther said. “We were struggling to score early, and I thought he kind of took over. … It was a great game. I thought [Mooney coach] Carey [Palermo’s] gameplan was unbelievable. I thought how they played was great, and I just thought it was a great victory for us. Hats off to them. They played hard and they played tough.”

In the first half, the Cardinals dictated the tempo. Defensively, they kept the Ursuline players in front of them and forced them into tough shots.

Then on the offensive end, Mooney created space by clearing out the middle of the floor around the basket. With the Irish playing man-to-man, the Cardinals created open driving lanes to the basket that led to easy layups.

As a result, Mooney was efficient, making 10-of-17 of its shots in the first half en route to a 23-21 halftime lead.

“We controlled the pace and we were poised,” Palermo said. “Not that we weren’t poised [in the second half], but I just felt like if we made a couple extra passes in that third quarter, I felt like the bucket would open up a little more for us.”

To start the third quarter, Ursuline wasted no time taking over. Noah Bell scored the first basket of the period for the Irish and then Jaylen Gunther took over from there.

Jaylen Gunther went 7-for-11 from the floor and scored 17 of his 35 points during the third quarter to dig Ursuline out of the hole and put the Irish ahead by 13 at the end of the period.

“That’s what good players do, they take over even though they were doubling him and being physical with him. That’s why we won that ballgame,” Keith Gunther said. “I thought how we played defensively, the stops we got on a consistent basis in the second half was the difference. Early on, I thought we were out of character. I thought we were getting caught up in the rivalry, and they took advantage of us because we were playing so hard defensively that we were out of control. They were driving by us as they were getting buckets.”

Mooney struggled to match the Irish offensively after halftime, as Ursuline outscored the Cardinals 34-16 in the second half.

“I think they sped us up a little bit and they’re really good,” Palermo said. “I thought Jaylen made some really tough shots and Noah got us on the glass a little bit. I think we got sped up, and in a game like this, you gotta play for 32 minutes.”

The Irish still took care of business and earned their 12th straight victory in the rivalry.

Bell finished with 12 points in addition to Jaylen Gunther’s 35, while Gavin Sentner paced the Cardinals with 14 points.

“I thought Eddie Barnes was unbelievable, blocking shots and rebounding. I thought [Alex] Simon came in, I thought George [Camuso] came in and gave us great minutes defensively and rebounding. That’s when you know you have a complete team, when your role guys are willing to go over and above without scoring to make you win. That’s what makes us good. … They’re just phenomenal because they know they don’t get a lot of credit on the news or in the paper, but they’re willing to come out and fight for us every day and make sure we win, and that’s really huge for us.”