by Tom Utescher

An important Catholic Academies basketball game had been postponed to last Monday due to the major January snowstorm, but when Mount St. Joseph Academy and Gwynedd Mercy finally got together for the second game in their 2015-16 regular-season series, they didn’t exactly produce a flurry of points.

Longtime Mount Magic mentor John Miller likes to have his squad hold opponents to a point total around the mid-30’s. His team succeeded in limiting the host Monarchs to 36 points, but the Mounties only scored 27 themselves, suffering a loss that would cost them the top seed for the AACA playoffs.

Back in December at the Mount, the Magic had topped Gwynedd, 50-43. However, Gwynedd would win both of its games against a third AACA title contender, St. Basil, while the Mounties lost to the Panthers the first time out. The Magic achieved a split with St. Basil by winning the rematch on a late bucket by senior forward Kristen Lucas, who had just returned to action from an ankle injury incurred in a holiday tournament.

Gwynedd Mercy head coach Tom Lonergan related that in the December loss at Mount St. Joe’s, his Monarchs had given up too many points to the MSJ perimeter shooters.

“We knew we had to do a better job of contesting that three-point line than we did in the first game,” he said. “The only real adjustment we made was having the girls really get up on them, and we did a good job of that.”

After several missed field goal attempts by both ballclubs at the outset, GMA senior guard Brigit Coleman scored the first point of the night from the free throw line. Her classmate Erica DeCandido, a swift, athletic forward, deposited the first field goal of the evening from the left baseline with more than two-and-a-half minutes elapsed.

Just after that, Mount senior guard Libby Tacka converted a lay-up off of a steal to get the Magic offense moving. It didn’t move far; visiting fans would watch Tacka’s two points get stuck on the scoreboard for more than 11 minutes before the Mounties scored again.

The Monarchs slowly extended their lead, with a jumper by DeCandido and a drive by junior guard Danielle Senour making it 7-2 at the quarter. DeCandido started the second frame with two more field goals, and she would score the last basket of the half, as well, leading all scorers with 10 points at the break.

In the final two minutes of the second quarter the Magic had junior Ashley Smith drive in to score and then the visitors added a pair of free throws by another 11th-grade guard, Julie Hoover. Still, Mount St. Joseph trailed 17-6 at halftime.

As the third frame began, the teams raced up and down the floor to make three baskets in transition, two for the Mount’s Tacka and Lucas, and one in between by GMA’s DeCandido. After a Gwynedd time-out, the visitors crept another point closer as two DeCandido free throws were followed by a lay-up off a steal by Tacka, who also made a free throw awarded on the play.

With less than 90 seconds to go in the third period, it was now an eight-point contest at 21-13, but the hosts would finish out the quarter with an 8-3 spurt.

In the past, MSJ mentor Miller has warned his charges not to underestimate the shooting range of Gwynedd’s Coleman, but this cautionary note apparently slipped the Mounties’ minds. From a few steps beyond the three point arc, Coleman hooked up twice. GMA sophomore guard Carly Heineman hit a pair of free throws and MSJ’s Tacka bagged a “three” as part of this late third-quarter outburst, and the tally was 29-16 for the start of the fourth period.

Another Tacka triple and a transition lay-up by fellow senior guard Caitlyn Cunningham helped the Magic trim back a bit of its deficit as the final quarter unfolded, and Gwynedd helped out by missing the first foul shot on each of its first two one-and-one’s. Still, the Monarchs were up by nine points (33-24) with less than a minute-and-a-half remaining in the game.

Now, the Mounties received an industrial-strength three-pointer of their own from Smith, who found the cylinder from beyond the top of the key. The final minute began with the count at 33-27, and Gwynedd turned the ball over on its next possession. A missed Magic shot was rebounded by the Monarchs’ Coleman, who was fouled but couldn’t pull any points out of a one-and-one.

On a drive to the hoop at the other end the Mount had the ball stripped away and then had to foul Gwynedd’s DeCandido. After she made the second of her double-bonus free throws for a 34-27 tally with 39 seconds left, Mount St. Joe went up the floor and lost hold of the ball once again.

Gwynedd called time out.

“There were 22 seconds left and we had a seven-point lead, so they needed three possessions,” Lonergan noted. “We emphasized to the girls that we had enough points to win if we played smart and didn’t give them those possessions. We wanted to take some time off the clock by extending our pressure up the floor.”

With 19 ticks to go, MSJ’s Cunningham committed her fifth foul and Coleman made both of her double-bonus free throws to give Gwynedd a nine-point advantage. The Magic got off one last two-point field goal attempt, and off the miss the Monarchs’ DeCandido came down with the rebound as time ran out.

The GMA forward, who will play for Tufts University, had a game-high 17 points while Coleman, who has signed with the University of the Sciences, scored 15. Heineman and Senour each added two points for the victors.

West Point recruit Libby Tacka led the Mount with 13 points, and was followed by Smith, with seven points, and Lucas, with three. The Magic received two points apiece from Cunningham and Hoover. Cunningham will continue her career at Philadelphia University, which is a member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference along with USciences and Chestnut Hill College.