Mary Louis was dominant and looking set to cruise to an easy victory over rival Archbishop Molloy. But Hilltoppers coach Kevin White knew better.
“We can’t put people away,” he said. “At halftime I said don’t be satisfied. But that’s just our makeup. It’s our DNA.”
Sure enough, TMLA found itself in a dog fight. After being down double digits until midway through the third quarter, Molloy tied the game up with less than a minute left. If not for a silly Stanners foul with 12 seconds left, the Hilltoppers might not have escaped with a 51-48 win Saturday afternoon in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I girls basketball in Briarwood.
“I guess we thought the game was in our hands already, so we could get comfortable,” TMLA sophomore guard Jasmine Nwajei said. “We should never get comfortable.”
Mary Louis (13-4, 7-3) held a 23-7 lead with 5:12 left in the second quarter. It took a 28-12 advantage into halftime and the Hilltoppers led by as much as 36-22 with 4:26 remaining in the third. But Molloy (8-10, 4-6) got hot and went on a 22-7 run to take a 44-43 lead with 3:03 to go in the game on an Elizabeth (Gurt) Lynch putback.
George Mason-bound senior guard Karin Robinson got Mary Louis back in front and a Nwajei 3-pointer with 1:52 left looked to be a dagger, giving TMLA a 48-44 lead. Molloy chipped away, though, from the foul line. Lynch and Amani Tatum each made 1-of-2 and Lynch drew a foul with 15.6 seconds left, making both shots from the stripe to tie the game at 48.
A stop would have – at worst – gotten Molloy to overtime after coming back from as much as a 16-point deficit. But the Stanners were overaggressive and fouled Robinson with 12 seconds left.
“We weren’t trying to foul,” Molloy coach Tom Catalanotto said. “We told them we needed the ball back. We knew if we fouled them we put them on the line. Obviously we didn’t want to foul.”
Robinson made both foul shots and Nwajei stole the ensuing inbounds pass to seal the victory for TMLA.
“We were gonna keep the ball in Karin’s hands the rest of the game,” White said. “It was Karin’s game to win or lose for us.”
Robinson finished with just 11 points, but Nwajei continued her hot stretch, dropping in 17 points. Junior guard Reana Mohamed added 10 points on her birthday. The play of the posts was also a positive. Liz Gully gave Mary Louis valuable minutes down low and had a huge block of Molloy junior Kamille Ejerta in transition when TMLA was up 48-45 with 1:16 left. Brianna Harris had eight points.
“She’s really contributed and played well,” White said of Gully. “She gives us a little bit of strength inside. That’s what we need. … We’ve been stressing [inside play] lately. Against South Shore I thought we had a distinct size advantage inside and we didn’t take advantage of it.”
The coach effectively used a box-and-1 defense on Tatum throughout the game with Nwajei and Mohamed both guarding the star point guard. But Ejerta (13 points) and Alexa (Weasel) Dietrich stepped up in the second half.
“I think it’s a concern,” Robinson said. “We don’t know how to put two halves together. The Bishop Ford game was a perfect example of us doing that. Since that game, we haven’t been finishing. We start off strong, but the finishing is kind of weak.”