Senior Ashley Smith (left), who would score the game-winning buzzer-beater for the Mount, is guarded by Gwynedd Mercy's Carly Heineman. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The highly anticipated basketball rematch between Mount St. Joseph and Gwynedd Mercy Academy lived up to its billing last Saturday in the Gwynedd Monarchs' fan-filled gymnasium.

Getting out to a 22-13 halftime lead, host GMA appeared to be on its way to avenging the previous weekend's 50-43 loss to the Magic, but the Mount responded with an 8-0 third quarter and only trailed 22-21 heading into the final period. The visitors were also behind by a single point as the final seconds of the game ticked away, then from the top of the key MSJ senior Ashley Smith launched a three-point buzzer-beater that gave her team a 33-31 victory.

Smith hadn't been on target from the perimeter for much of the afternoon, but she began to find her stroke early in the fourth quarter, knocking down a "three" about two minutes into the period.

"My shots weren't falling during the game, but I knew they were going to drop at some point," the senior said. "Last year I had a buzzer-beater lay-up against Council Rock North, but I don't think I've ever had a buzzer-beater on a jump shot like that, so it was really exciting."

First-year Mount head coach Claire Perry was proud of the poise her team showed during its final possession.

"They were composed and read the defense, and they made the right pass and Ashley popped it up and hit it," the Mount St. Joe mentor commented. "She's been practicing how to use a fake to get off those shots, and to get them off quickly, and she had a chance to do it today."

Each team had come into the seventh outing of its 14-game Catholic Academies schedule with a record of 3-3; the Mount owned an overall mark of 6-8, while Gwynedd was 6-4. Back in the 2015-16 AACA tournament finals Gwynedd knocked off defending champ MSJ to capture the title, but on January 7 the Magic won this season's initial encounter as forward Grace Gelone (a Norwood Fontbonne Academy graduate) recorded a double-double.

The senior would lead the Mount scorers again in last weekend's rematch with Gwynedd, ringing up 11 points in this lower-scoring affair to tie for the game-high with GMA junior point guard Maura Conroy. The Magic received six points apiece from Smith and senior classmate Julie Hoover, while on the Monarchs' side junior guard Carly Heineman was close behind Conroy, with 10 points.

Mount St. Joe freshman Lauren Vesey (center) is doubled-teamed by Bridget Casey (left) and Sarah White of Gwynedd Mercy. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Heineman had also spearheaded the effort to turn this well-attended contest into a fundraiser in honor of Marisa Nero, a second-grader who is battling Leukemia. Marisa is a student at Bucks County's Groveland Elementary School, and Heineman became aware of the youngster's situation because her father, David A. Heineman, is the principal at Groveland.

At Saturday's game it was announced that a check for almost $1500 was being donated to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on behalf of Marisa, who was present for the ceremony at center court [to learn more about Marisa, go to #mightymarisa on Facebook].

When the game got underway, the Magic scored first on a lay-up by Hoover almost three minutes into the action, but Gwynedd countered with a basket from the paint by senior Megan Dougherty, a bank shot by Heineman, and a pair of lay-ups by the speedy Conroy. The teams then traded points until the opening round ended with a 12-6 Gwynedd advantage.

The Mount had Hoover and junior Grace DiGiovanni penetrate to score in the second quarter, but the Magic also committed a number of fouls on the defensive end. Gwynedd shot six-for-10 at the free throw line during the period, while the Mount went one-for-two courtesy of Gelone.

The Mounties trailed 22-13 at halftime, and had nine team fouls in the book to the Monarchs' three. The team foul figures would be exactly the same as that in the second half.

In general, the Mounties were able to shrug off the numerous whistles, for as Smith said, "You can't get every call, so you just have to brush it off and keep going."

Coach Perry noted, "We've been trying to stay at six fouls or less in a half, but today we went over that, and in the first half we just allowed too many points. We've been practicing our help defense, so in the second half we just needed to do what we'd been working on without fouling so much."

Smith added, "At halftime we talked about keeping our heads up. We were down by nine points, and we'd gone on 9-0 runs before."

Gwynedd had pressured the Magic into a number of turnovers in the first half and had scored in transition as a result, but the Mounties took better care of the ball when they came back out for the third quarter. They also contested more of Gwynedd's shots when they were on defense.

Hoover fed Gelone for an early Mount lay-up, and later their senior classmate Sarah Rothenberg stuck a jumper from the right baseline, forcing a Gwynedd time-out with the score now tightened up to 22-17. After Gelone converted a loose-ball rebound into a basket in the paint, she picked up her third personal foul with three-and-a-half minutes left in the third period.

The Magic forward would be tagged with her fourth personal in the final period, but managed to keep herself in the game until the end.

Rothenberg drove the lane and scored to get the Mount within one point of the leaders at the three-quarter mark (22-21), and after the fourth round began with GMA's Conroy hitting one of two free throws, Hoover banked in a shot from above the foul line to tie the game at 23-all with 6:45 left to play.

A jumper by Danielle Senour gave Gwynedd its first field goal in 11 minutes on the game clock, and over the next few minutes Conroy added a pair of lay-ups in transition for the Monarchs. During this stretch Smith banked in a three-pointer from the right wing and Mount junior Megan Dodaro scored on a drive, so as the clock dropped under two minutes remaining the Monarchs were up a point at 29-28.

Next, Gwynedd got into the foul bonus with 1:46 to go and three different Monarch players went to the free throw line in a 50-second span. The hosts kept getting opportunities because they rebounded the misses of their foul shots, but the bottom line was that they missed them all. They took four shots and two of them were the first shots on one-and-one's, so GMA missed out on a possible total of six points in less than a minute.

At the other end, the Mount's Gelone was fouled while shooting and she knocked down both of her free throws, nudging the visitors ahead, 30-29. Gwynedd came down the floor and missed a lay-up, but Heineman collected the rebound just outside the paint and drove back in to score.

When Mount St. Joe called time out, the officials adjusted the clock to 12 seconds remaining, with Gwynedd now ahead 31-30.

When play resumed, Smith explained, "We were trying to get it in to Grace."

Gelone had made five of her six free throws up to that point, so Gwynedd was looking to deny her the ball entirely and not run the risk of fouling her.

"They triple-teamed Grace, and it was what I wanted," Perry related.

Rothenberg wound up with the ball and then was hemmed in by the Monarchs down in the corner, but she had the presence of mind to get the ball up top to Smith.

"I saw that Sarah was having a tough time," Smith said, "so I yelled to her 'Sarah!' and she passed me the ball."

Smith quickly set her feet a little above the top of the key and released her dramatic winning shot. Among the two factions, commiseration abruptly switched to celebration, and vice versa.

DiGiovanni and Rothenberg each came away with four points and Dodaro had two for the winners, while Gwynedd got five points from Dougherty, three from Senour, and two from Georgia Cattie.

Perry summed up, "We didn't let the crowd get to us or let the calls get to us. The key word was composure."