Mount de Sales girls basketball beat Notre Dame Prep, 54-52, in overtime on Sunday night at Howard Community College for its first Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference title.
Katie Carroll had a game-tying putback with 12 seconds left in regulation then blocked her only shot of the game with five seconds remaining to preserve the two-point win. She finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Shelby Lewis, who sank a pair of free throws late in regulation, finished with an identical stat line.
“I was so nervous at the end,” Carroll said. “It was so crazy at the end and I was getting so overstimulated because there was so much going on. All of the cheering was making me stressed out.”
The top-seeded Sailors (23-6), who played in the A Conference for several years but never won a championship, and NDP (17-6) each had dramatic comebacks.
NDP trailed by 15 points late in the first half but rallied to take a four-point lead with 2:40 left in regulation on a basket by Emmy Kessler (eight points).
The Sailors seemed anything but stressed in the overtime when they jumped out to a 50-47 lead 45 seconds in on a 3-pointer by Mackenzie Conley (game-high 15 points).
“She does that all the time, always makes clutch shots,” Mount de Sales coach Trish Armstrong said.
Two free throws by Sarah Litz increased Mount de Sales’ lead to five in overtime, but a free throw and basket by Ella Melchionni pulled the Blazers within two.
A free throw each from Carroll and Conley gave the Sailors a 54-50 advantage, but freshman Aspen Kaiser cut the lead in half with a layup with 30 seconds left.
After Carroll’s blocked shot, Ella Powers deflected the inbounds pass and NDP’s desperation attempt was short. Lewis grabbed the rebound as the buzzer sounded.
“It was tremendous defense,” Armstrong said.
“The biggest thing that we talked about going into this game and going into this whole season was grit and we’ve had so many close games this season and what pulled us through was grit,” Lewis said. “I just put my hand on my heart in that huddle and I said, ‘Guys, this is when that grit matters,’ and you could just see it in how we fought in the and we got the first championship in the IAAM for Mount de Sales. I’m extremely grateful for Mount de Sales basketball. It’s been a great ride.”
Lewis, who will play at Carnegie Mellon next year, became the Sailors’ all-time leading scorer in their semifinal win over Severn.
“I’m just in shock. This wouldn’t have happened without God, he heard our prayers.” Lewis said. “Katie putting in that bucket, I mean as you could see that was a team game. If it wasn’t for all of our foul shots, all of our shots, all of our effort, our coaches, our fans we wouldn’t be here right now.”
In the first half, the Sailors looked like they were going to celebrate early.
They got balanced scoring from Carroll, Lewis and Conley, who combined for 18 points in the half, and they only committed three turnovers.
NDP got only two field goals by freshman Stacey Giannopoulos (11 points), didn’t connect on any perimeter shots and trailed, 24-11, at halftime.
It used an intense trapping press defense in the second half to claw its way back into the game.
NDP forced nine Sailors turnovers in the third quarter and got seven points from freshman reserve Victoria Mrugalski, six from Giannopoulos and four points and three steals from Ella Mercadante to pull within two, 36-34, at the end of the quarter.
“We just responded. We came out on the aggressive in the second half. I don’t know, I guess we just came out initially and got punched in the mouth and we responded well,” NDP coach Katie Marks said. “At halftime, we made some adjustments, but I think it was more we got settled in.”
NDP got six points from Kessler and big 3-pointers from Mercadante and Kaiser to take the lead in the fourth quarter. It had a chance to break the tie with 2.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but they missed two free throws.
“NDP played a great game,” Armstrong said. “They are very good at that press. They are a very good ball club and we respect them. They could have hung their heads at halftime, but they didn’t. But our kids knew that, they kept saying 16 more minutes, but they got rattled.”
The Sailors finally solved the press down the stretch and got the early lead in overtime.
“We had to score or get stops to be able to get into it and if we can’t do that, it’s hard,” Marks said. “We kept saying we’ve got to turn defense into offense.”
The game ended the careers of Mount de Sales seniors Lewis, Conley, Litz, Cecelia Hannibal, Marissa Fink and Gianna Romano.
“This is our first time and I just wanted a banner so bad,” said Carroll, a junior. “Trish has been coaching here for so long and I knew we needed to do it for her because her and coach Mike [Tirocchi] have been great coaches and I love all the seniors and they needed it.”
Have a news tip? Contact Craig Clary at [email protected] and x.com/ClaryCraig.
MDS — 12-12-12-11-7 — 54
NDP — 4-7-23-13-5 — 52
MDS: Mackenzie Conley 15, Shelby Lewis 12, Katie Carroll 12, Sara Litz 8, Ella Powers 7.
NDP: Stacey Giannopoulous 11, Victoria Mrugalski 10, Ella Mercadante 9, Emmy Kessler 8, Ella Melchionni 5, Aspen Kaiser 5, Charli Joyce 3, Julia Trentler 1.
