YOUNGSTOWN — The Ursuline boys basketball team held Cardinal Mooney scoreless for the final four and a half minutes to come from behind and win its eighth consecutive game in the rivalry, a 43-39 decision on Friday.

After the victory, Ursuline head coach Keith Gunther made his feelings clear on the eight-game winning streak.

“Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful,” Gunther said.

The teams kicked off the game at a blistering pace, scoring basket after basket as the packed gymnasium’s roar grew with each bucket. Mooney’s hot hand fizzled out first, though, and Ursuline closed the first quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 17-9 lead into the second.

Mooney scored six straight to pull back within two in a competitive second quarter in which Ursuline only scored six points.

Down by three, the Cardinals appeared as if they were going to waste the final possession of the half until point guard Jibri Carter drained a corner three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to halftime all tied up at 23.

In the third, Mooney established a lead that grew to as much as seven after a strong opening three minutes. The Irish fired back, though, and scored five straight to end the quarter to cut Mooney’s lead to two heading into the fourth.

Neither team scored for nearly the first three minutes of the final period before Mooney’s Rocco Turner put the Cardinals up by four. Jaylen Gunther immediately responded by drawing a foul and making both free throws to keep it at a two-point difference.

Eddie Nieves scored with just over four and a half minutes left, giving Mooney a 39-35 lead. Nieves’ basket would prove to be the final one for the Cardinals as Ursuline’s defense converged on Carter with constant double teams.

The hyper-focused defense forced Mooney to look elsewhere for consistent offense, but no one managed to step up in the fourth for the Cardinals.

Instead, Ursuline senior Geno Lucente made a three to pull within one before DeShaun Will scored a wide-open, go-ahead layup that Mooney did not contest because of confusion with a late substitute.

Just as Ursuline was inbounding the ball, Mooney attempted to make a late substitution, which led the operator at the scorers table to sound the horn. The officials did not allow the substitution, however, and Ursuline instead inbounded and got the easy basket as the Cardinals watched the Irish take the lead.

Mooney coach Carey Palermo said his players, not the officials, were at fault for the miscue.

“Our kids stopped playing at the horn. [Ursuline] didn’t stop playing. It’s the whistle. It’s not the horns,” Palermo said.

Jaylen Gunther put Ursuline up by three with a pair of successful free throws with 33 seconds remaining. And after Carter was whistled for a five-second inbounding violation with 11 seconds to go, Gunther went back to the line and made one more free throw to ice the game.

After the win, coach Gunther said his son’s final free throw was especially important.

“That free throw’s huge because they still get that opportunity to get the three and tie it,” Gunther said. “When you’re up four with eight seconds to go, just absolutely no reason you should lose.”

Carter finished the game with a team-high 15 points and was the only Mooney player to reach double figures.

Gunther heaped praise on Mooney’s senior point guard following the Irish victory.

“Jibri Carter, to watch his improvement from freshman to a sophomore to a junior to now, that kid is special. I didn’t know if he could get to this level, but man, is he impressive,” Gunther said.

Gunther called Lucente, who scored a game-high 16 points and is now 8-0 against Mooney, “unbelievable” and a model senior leader.

Lucente credited Gunther with the team’s focus on the Mooney game.

“Coach Gun’s always pushing us in practice, saying, ‘You can’t lose the biggest game of the year.’ This is the biggest game of the year for us, and we came out and we won,” Lucente said.

For Palermo and Mooney, which has not beaten Ursuline since Jan. 31, 2020, the Cardinals will turn their attention elsewhere despite the stinging defeat.

“We’re playing a good basketball team. We gave it our all and they beat us. … We recover because there are bigger goals out there. We’ve been to three straight district finals, we’ve won two. We’ve been in the regional final,” Palermo said. “This is a big game. It sucks. I mean, it really sucks, especially how hard we played. … You can’t explain it to the kids right now, but there are bigger games out there the rest of the way.”

Next up, Ursuline (14-3, 6-0) will play Archbishop Hoban on Tuesday, while Mooney (14-5, 3-2) hosts Chaney the same day.

pbyers@tribtoday.com