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Coatesville sends Mount home from District I tourney
by TOM UTESCHER
Four days after their Athletic Association of Catholic Academies campaign
ended with a semifinal playoff loss to eventual champ Villa Maria, the
Mount St. Joseph Academy Magic closed out their 2005-2006 basketball season
in the first round of the District I Class AAAA tournament.
Coming in as the 21st seed with an overall record of 14-9, the Magic
traveled out to Coatesville High School last Saturday, where they fell
to the 12th-ranked Red Raiders (14-11) by a score of 63-51. Down by as
many as 11 points during the first half, the Mount climbed back within
three points of the Raiders early in the third quarter, but 13-for-17
foulshooting in the second half (15/19 overall) helped Coatesville widen
the gap once more and then keep the Mount at bay late in the game.
Raiders star Amber White was 12-for-15 at the stripe all on her own,
finishing with a game-high 36 points after scoring 20 of her team’s
27 points in the second half. A senior guard bound for North Carolina
State, White had already exceeded 2200 points in career scoring before
Coatesville took on Mount St. Joe.
In Saturday’s game, the Raiders also received a dozen points from
Shaquira Timmons, nine from Jasmine Lewis, and six from Mia Matuszewski.
The Mount enjoyed relatively few opportunities at the free throw line,
connecting on six of its ten attempts. The local ballclub got double-digit
offense from three starters, sophomores Laura Johnson (19 points, six
assists, two steals), and Sarah McGorry (10 points, eight rebounds, three
steals), and freshman Elle Hagedorn (13 points, eight rebounds, three
steals).
The other two starters, senior Rebecca Naab (seven rebounds) and junior
Meg Sabia, each added a field goal, and junior forward Caitlin Eccleston
subbed in to score five points and grab a team-high 12 rebounds.
In the first five minutes Coatesville hit a series of short jumpers and
got out to a 10-2 lead, then at the start of the second quarter White
drove the lane to put the hosts up 22-11. Johnson hit a lay-up and a free
throw, and backed out for a three-pointer to move the Mount back into
contention. She bagged a total of three treys before the intermission
as she and Coatesville’s White each ended the half with 16 points.
MSJ’s Hagedorn had seven points at the break, when Coatesville led,
36-29.
The Raiders were able to contain Johnson in the second half, but offense
from McGorry and Hagedorn closed up the score to 38-35 early in the third
period. After that, White took over, dropping 20 points on the Mount in
the last dozen minutes of the game. The Magic rushed many of their own
shots, converting 10 of 33 field goal attempts in the second half.
At the three-quarter mark the Raiders were up 47-41, and were already
in the foul bonus. A 6-1 surge by Coatesville at the beginning of the
fourth frame pretty much sealed the fate of the visitors. Back-to-back
buckets by Eccleston and Naab cut the lead to 58-51 with under two minutes
to play, but the last five points of the day belonged to the Red Raiders.
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