MOTIVATED MARLINS
Mercy turns up the pressure to run past Marian in final quarter
BLOOMFIELD HILLS >> The Farmington Hills Mercy Marlins cranked up the press in the fourth quarter and raced past the host Marian Mustangs 70-63 Friday night.
Trailing 46-41 entering the fourth quarter, the Marlins opened the final period with a 17-3 run, fueled by their press, which started forcing the Mustangs into turnovers and bad shots.
“We wanted to play more up tempo, try to make it a fast-paced game, hopefully get them tired a little bit. I don’t if that necessarily happened, but I think we zeroed in that the press really helped us in the fourth quarter,” Marlins head coach Gary Morris said.
Marian did not make a field goal for the first five minutes of the period, and by then, the Marlins had what was their biggest lead of the game at the time — seven points, and they would never relinquish it. When Marian started fouling to extend the game, the Marlins calmly drained their free throws, making 16 of 19 free throws in the fourth quarter including 10 of 12 after the Mustangs started fouling on purpose. It didn’t seem to matter who Marian fouled as four different Marlins made free throws in the final two minutes to seal the game.
“It always helps when you make free throws down the stretch. I didn’t realize we were that good, but that’s outstanding, 16 for 19. And it was a number of kids that stepped up,” Morris said.
Marian had led most of the first three quarters, largely due to the play of Mckenzie Swanson. The senior was dominant in the paint, scoring 19 points in the first half alone and finished the game with 31 points and eight rebounds.
“That was our game plan. I thought we had the height advantage, so we were going to try and
pound it in to her (Swanson). I thought she did well, but then they started doubling her,” Mustangs head coach Michelle Lindsey said. “But we’ve got to do better on kicking it out and rotating the ball.”
And for three quarters it worked. Swanson was scoring almost at will when the Mustangs could get the ball to her down low, and Marian never trailed in the middle two quarters, at times pushing the lead to as much as seven points.
Eventually a combination of double teams and the press slowed down Swanson, at least a little, though she still scored six or more points in every quarter.
But other than 17 points from McKenley Reid, who got hot late in the fourth quarter, no one else on the Mustangs was a consistent offensive threat — and no one else besides Reid and Swanson scored in the fourth quarter.
The Marlins were paced by Aizlyn Albanese, who racked up 19 of her gamehigh 32 points in the final period. Emily Walker added 13 points and Elle
Geerlings chipped in eight points. Albanese was held scoreless in the first period, but six different Marlins scored in the opening period, and Mercy came away with a 15-14 lead after the first period while they waited for her to get going.
With the win, Mercy improves to 2-1 overall and 2-0 in the Catholic High School League Central Division. The Marlins have a week off before traveling to South Lyon East for a non-league match up.
“It’s a nice win for us. We trailed a lot of the game, so we’re learning. We’re young. At times, we had three freshmen on the floor. So to win a game like this when you’re down going into the fourth quarter, that’s a nice confidence boost,” Morris said.
Marian is 3-1 2-1 overall, but the Mustangs are 0-1 in the CHSL Central. Marian’s next game is Tuesday when the Mustangs travel to Warren Regina to face the Saddlelites in another divisional game.
“We definitely saw some good things. We lost by 40 points last year, both games. So we definitely saw some positive things, but I think it comes down to team defense, and we’ve got to get the stops on defense,” Lindsey said.