January 24, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount hoopsters outlast Rams in three OT’s
by TOM UTESCHER

Mount St. Joseph Academy junior Elle Hagedorn had 13 points and six rebounds.

Last winter, Spring Ford High School was responsible for one of just two losses suffered by Mount St. Joseph Academy during the regular season. Last Saturday at the Play-by-Play Girls Basketball Classic, the Mount Magic returned the favor, knocking off the Royersford franchise and dropping the Rams’ record to 18-2.

To simply comment that Spring Ford didn’t go down easy would be an understatement; it took Mount St. Joseph (16-1) three overtime periods to pull out a 62-58 victory. Although both teams are members of the PIAA, they won’t meet again in the postseason, since Spring Ford plays at the AAAA level and the Mount is a AAA ballclub.

Two days earlier, in their only other outing last week, the Magic raised their record in Catholic Academies competition to 9-0 by beating visiting Nazareth Academy, 57-38. Swing player Elle Hagedorn led the charge with 18 points, and guard Laura Johnson chalked up 13 points and 10 assists.

On Saturday, the Magic created some early turnovers but missed their first three shots from the floor. They finally got on the board with a pair of free throws from six-foot forward Sarah McGorry, who would earn game the game MVP award for the Mount with 24 points and seven rebounds. She proved too agile for Jasmin Hinnant, the only Rams starter of similar height.

The Springford guards showed great quickness slashing to the basket, though, making a much higher percentage of their lay-ups than the Magic, and mixing in a few three-point field goals, as well. Overcoming an 11-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter, the Rams rallied to take a four-point lead near the end of the second quarter, but the half ended the way that it started, with McGorry making a pair of free throws to narrow the gap to two points, 24-22.

At the interlude she had 12 points, and the Magic had gotten seven from Hagedorn (13 points, six rebounds total), one from Ryann Gallagher (seven points, eight rebounds), and two from Johnson (10 points, five assists, four steals), who was well defended by Springford’s speedy Ashley Wood. With two three-pointers in the first half, shooting guard Allie Kakareka led a list of six scorers for the Rams. Mount guard Jen Sabia (eight points, four assists, four steals) didn’t score before the break, but she had two points in the second half and six during the overtime periods.

As the second half unfolded, it became apparent that neither team was going to break the game open. Over the first nine minutes McGorry was limited to a pair of free throws, but she would put up another 10 points after that.

“They were double-teaming us, but we realized that if we ran our plays through we would get some open shots,” said the Lafayette-bound senior, who was hampered somewhat by a respiratory ailment.

It wasn’t easy, in general, for the Magic to catch their breath. Except for a brief appearance by reserve guard Claire Kueny in the first half, the Magic relied on their starters the whole way, while the Rams used nine players.

“Ryann was playing well on their number four player, who was a little bigger than she was, and I wanted to keep Elle on their shooter, Kakareka,” MSJ coach John Miller said. “”With Claire, Laura and Jen on the floor at the same time, I was afraid it might make us too small.”

McGorry noted it was tough to defend the Rams because, “They’re good shooters and they like to drive the ball. It was difficult to help on defense, because three of us were guarding girls that we couldn’t really leave.”

With a 44-44 count at the end of regulation, the contest proceeded into a four-minute overtime period, in which two McGorry free throws were matched on a drive by Kakareka. A second OT failed to break the deadlock, with Kakareka hitting a lay-up and sinking a short jumper off an inbounds pass, while MSJ’s Sabia drove for two points, then added two more from the free throw line as the Rams committed their ninth team foul.

The tally was 50-50 for the start of the second OT, which began with a trey from the top of the key by Johnson. Springford got two lay-ups from Megan Beddard and one from Kakareka while the Magic added a free throw and a lay-up by McGorry, creating one last tie at 56-all.

Sabia made one of two free throws, then on the front end of a one-and-one Kakereka missed the hoop and MSJ’s Gallagher rebounded the ball. Soon after that the Mount moved up the court, with Johnson passing the ball down the left wing to Hagedorn, who leapt towards the hoop and twisted past a defender for a lay-up. A Rams miss from the floor was rebounded by Gallagher, and then Sabia hit the second of two free throws, putting the Mount up 60-56 with under 40 seconds remaining.

Springford missed two more shots, but tied the ball up with the possession arrow in its favor. A three-ball hoisted by Kakareka failed to go down and again Gallagher came up with a key rebound for the Magic. After Johnson nailed the second of two foul shots, the Rams’ Beddard drove for a lay-up with 10 seconds left, making it 61-58. Five seconds later, Johnson made the first of two tosses from the charity stripe. Springford’s Hinnant rebounded the missed second shot, but the ball was just over midcourt when Kakareka had to launch a desperation “three,” which was well short of the mark.

The Rams received 17 points from Beddard, 14 from Karareka, and ten from Wood, who each had three rebounds. Steph Bentz (four points) and Brittany Harrington (two points) pulled down six and four rebounds, respectively.

“I was worried about us wearing down in the overtime,” Coach Miller admitted. “You could tell Laura was getting tired and Sarah hasn’t been 100-percent physically for the last three days. As always, the girls gutted it out and showed a lot of character and perseverance.”