The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
No. 8 Mercy tops No. 4 Career
No. 8 Mercy trips up No. 4 Career in SCC showdown
NEW HAVEN >> Just another night in the Southern Connecticut Conference where if you’re the hottest team, you’re probably going to get beaten.
The latest team to carry that mantle was Career (ranked 4th in the GametimeCT.com/New Haven Register girls’ basketball poll) which had beaten three top 10 teams in the last 12 days. But 8thranked Mercy ended that streak with a 53-50 victory Tuesday night.
“It’s a big win, but we need to perform in the postseason,” Mercy coach Tim Kohs said. “We’re talented enough. We need to play consistent basketball. You watch us four or five possessions in a game and you’ll say they can’t be beat. Then watch four or five and you’ll say they can’t beat anybody.”
Since Jan. 27, Career had beaten Hand, Ridgefield and top-ranked New London, which hadn’t lost in 43 regular season games.
“I’m disappointed about tonight,” Career coach Steve Bethke said. “At this point of the year you want to play good basketball. I just told the girls to play four teams in a row like that and win three of them, now they know they can play with anyone in the state.”
As usual among the top tier teams in the league, it came down to the final few possessions.
Carmen Rosemond tied it at 5050 with 3:38 to play on a free throw. After that, both teams turned the ball over Keri Kernisan nailed a trey from the right corner to put Mercy up, 53-50, with 1:07 left.
“Kernisan’s shot was huge,” Kohs said. “She’s not a great shooter, but she has chutzpah. She’s a confident
kid.”
Kayla Williams missed an off-balance shot for Career with 32 seconds left, but on the ensuing possession, Kameryn King stepped out of bounds for Mercy, giving the ball back to the hosts with 23 seconds left.
After Career’s Kayla Franklin missed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left, Meghan Deville had a chance to ice things for the Tigers twice and missed front ends of two one-andones, the second coming with just 2.5 seconds.
Hargrove, who led all scorers with 22 points, was well short with a half court heave at the buzzer.
“They did a lot of things extremely well,” Kohs said. “We are awful defensively defending the ball off the dribble and we know it and Hargrove exposed us. We had two different girls on her. Kernisan did a good job but she was in foul trouble.”
Early in the game. Mercy zipped out to an 11-0 lead over the first 3:45 of the opening quarter. The Tigers were able to hit shots from both the outside and get inside on a smaller Career defense. Meanwhile, the Panthers struggled from the field, missing their first four shots and turned over the ball on their fifth trip.
Finally, Maya Lee got Career on the board with a layup with 3:55 remaining in the quarter. From there, the Panthers went on a total run of 9-1 to close the gap to 12-9 after the first quarter.
Career put even more pressure onMercy’s guards in the second quarter but Isabella Santoro canned a pair of free throws to give the Tigers a 14-11 leadwith 6:13 left until halftime. However, Maya Lee hit a free throw and followed it up with a traditional threepoint play to give the Panthers its first lead of the night, 15-14.
“We started great and the game changed when they pressed us,” Kohs said. “We turned the ball over, but we made unforced errors against the press. You’re learning in Game 18 what you would have liked to learn in Game 7.”
There were three lead changes and three ties over the remainder of the first halfwithMercy taking a 28-23 lead at the break thanks to a bucket by Keri Kernisan and a 3-pointer from the top of the key just before the buzzer by Tia Giansiracusa.
The third quarter was more of the same with Mercy holding the lead most of the time.
The Tigers took their biggest lead of the quarter on a pair of Giansiracusa free throws with 59 seconds to go. However, buckets by Kayla Williams and Hargrove closed it to 39-38 going to the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, neither team could take