For many teams, the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens playoffs don’t mean a whole lot. Seeds have been set already for the state tournaments and none of these games are do are die.
But Mary Louis is making this tournament its own personal revenge tour. And that started with Bishop Loughlin, a team that routed the Hilltoppers the last time they met.
“We wanted to beat them bad,” sophomore guard Jasmine Nwajei said. “Like kind of a no mercy thing.”
It took almost the entire game, but No. 3 TMLA finally got the vengeance it craved with a 64-57 victory over No. 6 Loughlin in the Brooklyn/Queens quarterfinals Tuesday at Nazareth in Brooklyn. Two late 6-0 runs were the difference for the Hilltoppers (17-6), who meet host and No. 2 Christ the King in the semifinals Thursday.
“Every game you play, you wanna win,” Mary Louis coach Kevin White said. “You play for pride. You come out and you gotta compete. It’s a game. … It means nothing for the states, but every time you step on the court you try to win.”
Loughlin (13-11) used an 11-0 run capped by an Aliyah Alston (14 points) 3-pointer with 1:12 left in the third quarter to take a 45-44 lead and the game stayed razor close until Mary Louis junior guard Reana Mohamed’s fearless drive in the fourth. Mohamed took the ball at the top of the key, lowered her shoulder and went in strong, making a layup and getting fouled. Her free throw gave TMLA a 57-53 lead with 2:23 remaining in the contest and shifted momentum from the upstart Lions.
“I felt like we weren’t gonna lose,” Mohamed said. “I wasn’t gonna allow my team to lose to this team again. We needed to make a statement. When we win games, it’s not out of luck. We can play.”
She finished with 20 points, Nwajei had 15 points and George Mason-bound guard Karin Robinson had 11 points, including two big free throws to put her team ahead 60-57 with 23.7 seconds left. After that, Loughlin’s Ayana Ratliff (nine points) missed a runner, Mohamed added two free throws and Nwajei sealed it with a steal.
Still, White wasn’t completely happy. He spent a long time with his team in a second-floor classroom. The same thing that has plagued Mary Louis all year – not playing well while ahead – crept up again.
“We played hard on the defensive end,” the coach said. “I didn’t think we played too intelligently on the offensive end. We didn’t take good shots.”
Afterward, he let reserve guard Shannon Delfini and Mohamed talk to the team. They basically said what he was going to say anyway.
“After the game’s over they all know what they’re supposed to do,” White said with a laugh. “The challenge is getting them to do it during the course of the game. I said, ‘Why do you know now?’”
What the Hilltoppers know is they have a rematch with Christ the King coming up, a chance to redeem themselves after two losses to the Royals. TMLA now knows it will play Bishop Ford in a play-in game next week for the ‘AA’ state tournament. But this tournament is still significant to them – especially beating Loughlin.
“We kept that last game in the back of our minds,” Mohamed said. “It meant much more now that before.”