Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer Cardinal Mooney’s team poses with the district championship trophy after defeating South Range.

SALEM — The South Range Raiders have participated in the Salem Boys District Tournament four times through the years, but they have never captured a district crown. The Cardinal Mooney Cardinals, on the other hand, have won the Salem tournament twice in the past three years.

The fourth-seeded Cardinals showed once again why they have been so successful in Salem as they subdued the Raiders 84-59 to capture their third district title in the past four years. With the victory, they improved to 21-5 on the year and will play Canton Central Catholic on Wednesday night at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.

“This was so important for us. We have been talking about it for over a year now,” Cardinals senior guard Ashton O’Brien said. “We wanted to come back here and get a win. Our guys are so tough, and we worked so hard for this. I’m so happy that we actually got by coming back and winning.”

“I am so happy for our seniors,” Cardinals head coach Carey Palermo added. “They have talked about this for the past 365 days. This has been the goal since summer, and we have put in the work. I’m just super proud of them.”

With the loss, the Raiders close the season with an impressive 18-7 record. It also marks the second consecutive year that the Raiders have advanced to a district championship game, having lost to Lutheran West last year in Warren.

“An 18-win season, one of the better ones in school history. There were a couple of 20-win seasons. Getting to a district final, we took a different path this year and gave ourselves an opportunity that if we played well, we could win,” Raiders head coach Pat Carden said.

The winning formula for the Cardinals this year has been their suffocating defense and a stable of confident outside shooters who light up the scoreboard with their three-point shooting. That formula took a little while to get started against the upset-minded Raiders, but as the game progressed, they found their groove.

“They care about one another,” Palermo said. “They spend a lot of time outside of basketball together. They are unselfish.”

O’Brien scored 27 points to lead the Cardinals in the scorebook. Rocco Turner added 17, Jibri Carter with 16, and Eddie Nieves chipped in with 14. O’Brien also yanked down six rebounds to pace the Cardinals on the boards.

The Raiders showed why they were a district finalist as they came out on fire to start the contest. Following a basket and a three by Landon Moore, the Raiders had jumped out to a 16-7 lead by the 2:51 mark of the first quarter. However, the Cardinals seemed to start to gain some traction late in the period as they closed the frame with a 10-2 run to close the deficit down to two at 20-18.

“They (South Range) are a really good team. They were hitting their shots, and we knew that they were tough. We had to just keep playing hard and that is what we did,” O’Brien said.

Following a three by O’Brien and a basket by Eddie Nieves, the Cardinals took the lead at 22-20 at the 6:15 mark of the second period. The two teams traded baskets until late in the half when Dylan Turvey hit a jumper to stake South Range to a 30-29 lead. The Cardinals responded with a three and a last-second layup by Will Desmond to provide the Cardinals a 34-32 lead at halftime.

“We talked about the 50-50 balls and toughness, which is what our team is built on,” O’Brien said of the halftime message. “We knew if we were gritty, we would get the win in the second half.”

After a tremendous battle by both squads in the first half, the Cardinals started to take charge of the game in the second half. Following a three by the Rocco Turner at the 5:26 mark of the third period, the Cardinals had jumped out to a 10-2 run to start the half.

Luke Rohan almost single-handedly willed the Raiders back into the game as he connected on three treys in the third quarter to help the Raiders cut the deficit down to four at the 3:30 mark of the frame at 49-45. The Cardinals slowly increased their advantage as the quarter wound down as they held a 60-50 lead by the close of the period.

“They (South Range) are a great basketball team. They are well coached,” Palermo said. “Lando Moore, (Dylan) Turvey, and (Luke) Rohan, their three main players are awesome. They kind of got off, especially in the first half.”

Rohan led the Raiders with 25 points in the game, followed by Moore with 21. Those 21 points by Moore broke the single-season point record at South Range with a total of 521. Turvey led the Raiders with 8 rebounds.

Following consecutive threes by O’Brien and Turner, the Cardinals boosted their advantage to 15 at 69-54 at the 4:38 mark of the fourth quarter. They finished the contest with a 15-5 run to win by the final 25-point margin.

“We kind of ran out of gas at the end,” Carden said. “We made our run right away. At the end of the third quarter, it was only four with something like 45 seconds left. But they made everything in the second half.”

The Cardinals have already played Canton Central Catholic in the regular season, so both teams are well aware of each other. The Cardinals won that first encounter 61-52 in late January.

“We are going to need to defend them better than we did during the regular season,” Palermo said of the rematch. “The game was a lot closer than the score, so they are going to be ready to play us. We are going to do what we do.”

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