Mount senior Julie Hoover (center) drives between Spring-Ford's Julianna Alessandroni (left) and Cassie Marte. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

By Tom Utescher

Within the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, Mount St. Joseph Academy experienced wins over Gwynedd Mercy and Sacred Heart and a setback dealt by St. Basil's in mid-January, but it was in a non-league loss last Saturday that the Magic actually played some of their best basketball of the season.

The Mounties ventured up along the Schuylkill to take on Spring-Ford High School, always a solid performer in PIAA District 1 and the large school state champion back in 2013.

The locals led 36-34 a minute into the fourth quarter, but then the host Rams went on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes. Although Mount St. Joe climbed back within three points of the leaders (41-44) relatively quickly, Spring-Ford pulled away down the stretch to log a 55-46 victory, improving to 13-4 overall while remaining 7-2 within the Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC).

The Rams made one of two free throws early in the fourth quarter, but once they got into the foul bonus with 4:16 remaining, they shot 10-for-10 from the stripe the rest of the way. This accounted for most of their final 13 points of the afternoon. The Mount drove back down Route 422 with an 8-11 mark, while their AACA record was unchanged at 5-4.

"It kind of hurts to look at the final score, because we were ahead a number of times in the second half, and even when we were down, until the end of the game it wasn't by much," commented first-year Mount head coach Claire Perry. "This is a good team and we stayed with them, so one good thing to take away from it is that if we play this way in our league games, we'll be fine."

Senior guard Ashley Smith, who'd hit a three-point game-winner at Gwynedd Mercy exactly a week early, funneled in six three's at Spring-Ford for a game-high 18 points. Junior guard Grace DiGiovanni came off the bench for eight points, and Mount seniors Kieran Glowacki and Julie Hoover had seven and six points, respectively.

Spring-Ford point guard Sydney Wagner started out with a jumper from just below the top of the key, then she made her way to the foul line in each quarter and made the Mounties pay for their infractions. A senior who has signed with Florida's Stetson University, Wagner went 10-for-10 on free throws to match forward Cassie Marte for the winners' team high, with 12 points.

Marte, a sophomore forward, has already committed to play lacrosse at Lehigh University. In basketball, Spring-Ford has another senior signee besides Wagner; 5'10" forward Maddie Haney will be playing in Northwest Philly for Philadelphia University. There, she'll be able to remain a "Ram" and will be one class below MSJ grad Caityn Cunningham, who's currently a freshman on the team.

Sophomore forward Abby Goodrich produced eight points for Spring-Ford on Saturday, and six came from senior Lauren Mensch.

Mount St. Joe's Smith, who had dropped 15 points in a Mount loss to Archbishop Carroll six days earlier, started out last Saturday with a trey from the left wing. She popped in two more triples during the opening quarter, and supplemental scoring from seniors Grace Gelone and Sarah Rothenberg and from Glowacki and DiGiovanni allowed the Magic to take a 17-13 lead into the second period.

The Magic's scoring dropped off considerably in the second quarter, with only a free throw by freshman Lauren Vesey and a late three-pointer by Glowacki moving the visitors' side of the scoreboard. Spring-Ford was able to take a three-point lead before Glowacki struck from the right corner at the end of the half, tying the tally at 21-all for the intermission.

"We shot better from the outside than on our lay-ups," Coach Perry remarked about the Magic's offensive effort overall. "Now the thing is to finish the high-percentage shots we're creating."

Smith made her fourth and fifth shots from the three-point loop early in the third quarter, and although the Mount fell a little behind their hosts after that, a nice feed from Hoover set up a transition score for Glowacki that tied the score at 29-29 midway through the period. Later, additional MSJ lay-ups by junior Megan Dodaro and by Hoover had the visitors ahead 33-31 as the final minute approached.

Spring-Ford senior guard Lexie Nugent made one of two free throws, then with just five seconds left a jumper by Julianna Alessandroni nudged the Rams ahead, 34-33, for the start of the fourth period.

The opening minute of the closing quarter featured a sixth triple by Smith as the Magic seized the lead for the final time, 36-34. Alessandroni answered in kind for the home team, touching off a decisive 10-0 surge that included two buckets from the paint by Goodrich and three made free throws. With the Rams in front 44-36 at the middle of the period, the Magic made a little run thanks to a trey from the right flank by DiGiovanni and a drive down the lane by Hoover.

That closed up the score to 44-41, but Spring-Ford was soon back up by half-a-dozen as Marte made a three from the left corner. This shot, which rippled the net with 2:50 to go, would be the last field goal of the afternoon for either team.

DiGiovanni made three-of four foul shots for the Magic in the final two minutes, but the hosts, first in the regular bonus and then the double bonus, had Wagner and Marte each go four-for-four to set the Rams' final margin at nine points.

Alessandroni and Nugent each wound up with five points for the winners.

Haney, the Philly U. recruit, had three, and senior Alyssa Conway and junior Sarah Cooper contributed two points apiece.

Returning to the issue of the Magic's missed lay-ups, MSJ's Perry said, "With those shots, and just in general, we need to take our time and be a little more composed. We didn't have a ton of turnovers, but we did have some at critical times. The thing I'm happy to see is that we keep taking little steps forward."