Despite a two-point loss to a strong Spring-Ford High School team on December 30, Mount St. Joseph Academy played pretty good basketball throughout last month. The Magic ended the 2021 portion of the season with a record of 2-1 in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies (the loss came by a single point against Villa Maria) and 6-3 overall.

Fortune did not smile on the Mounties in the first half of January, though. They went 1-2 in league games and 0-2 in non-league encounters. The victory during this 1-4 stretch came against Nazareth Academy, which is under .500 overall and is winless in the AACA. In other league contests the Magic were dealt double-digit losses by Gwynedd Mercy Academy and Villa Joseph Marie.

Between the two AACA losses came a setback against Lansdale Catholic, and last Saturday Mount St. Joe reached the middle of January with a 45-31 loss to the visiting Academy of Notre Dame. This non-league defeat evened out the Magic's overall record at 7-7, while they remained 3-3 in the AACA.

Concerning the developments of the past two weeks, MSJ head coach Matt Feeney commented, "We were turning the ball over too much, not making the easy pass and trying too many difficult passes. We've gotten better at that as of late; I thought we played pretty well against Notre Dame most of the game, and they're a very good team."

The Mount led the game by a point in the middle of the third quarter before the Irish went ahead and pulled away. Junior forward Georgia Pickett played a nice game at both ends of the floor and led the hosts with 10 points, while her classmate, guard Chloe McGrorty, played tough as always, finishing with nine points.

Junior forward Katie Halligan of Notre Dame registered a game-high 16 points, while senior shooting guard Maeve McErlane scored 10 and senior point guard Julia Dever had six points.

McErlane has signed with DePaul University, and the Mount game was an anomaly for her as she was shut out for three quarters and did not score at all from the three-point line. The senior has been troubled by a chronic minor injury; she did not play at all the previous day in Notre Dame's 54-21 win over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy.

The Irish left Flourtown on Saturday with a record of 10-2 overall and 4-0 in the Inter-Ac League. They'll play the other undefeated team in the league, Penn Charter, this Wednesday.

Led by five points from Halligan, Notre Dame got out to a 9-1 lead at the Mount. With 2:17 remaining in the first quarter, the Magic marked down their first field goal when a baseline jumper by McGrorty was assisted by fellow junior Lauren Hoffman.

It was all Mount the rest of the period, with Pickett and juniors Kiersten Pumilia and Erica Martin adding field goals to level the scoreboard at 9-9.

While AND's McErlane was unable to connect on jumpers from inside and outside the three-point line, Halligan kept producing down low, leading all scorers at the half with a dozen points. Martin and Pickett each nailed a "three" for the Magic, who trailed by a single point at the intermission, 18-17.

Through the early minutes of the third quarter, the Magic sandwiched three-point field goals by Hoffman and McGrorty around two inside baskets by the visitors. This moved the Magic ahead by a point, and after a lay-up by Dever for the Irish, Pickett pulled in an offensive rebound and hit a short jumper to put the hosts back up by one, 25-24.

After that, though, the Magic would go well over 11 minutes with the offense turning out just one free throw (by Hoffman late in the third quarter) and one field goal (a McGrorty lay-up early in the fourth).

Taking a modest 29-26 lead into the fourth quarter, the visitors built up a 45-28 advantage over the course of the period before Pickett popped in a "three" from near the top of the key with three seconds to go.

"We did not play a good fourth quarter, and if you only play three quarters against a team like that, you're going to lose," Coach Feeney stated.

Following Pickett and McGrorty on the Mount scoresheet were Martin, with five points, Hoffman, with four points, and Pumilia, with three. Notre Dame's supporting cast included freshman Scarlett Henry (five points), senior Grace Hannah (four), and junior Annie Greek and freshman Chloe Knox, with two points each.

Heading into the second round of Catholic Academies games, Feeney noted, "We're making some adjustments. We're working on limiting turnovers and raising our level of intensity on the defensive end. If you look at most of the games we lost, we were giving up way too many points. As coaches, we need to do a better job of putting in defensive schemes, and then the kids need to execute them at a higher intensity."