GMA has wild comeback to climb the Mount
Monarchs’ defense holds the Magic to two fourth-quarter points
RADNOR » Bianca and Sofia Coleman have played a lot of basketball games together, but the Gwynedd Mercy Academy seniors had never been in one quite like Saturday night’s.
After what might have been the worst collective first half they, classmate Maddie Newell and the rest of the Monarchs had ever played, they were starting a comeback bid when teammate Hannah Griffin slammed hard to the floor at Cabrini University. Griffin stayed down for a while before eventually making her way off the floor and to a nearby medical center to get checked out all while giving her team the last bit of motivation it needed.
Top-seeded GMA put together a dominant closing quarter to best No. 4 Mount Saint Joseph 4329 in their AACA semifinal game, outscoring the Magic 22-2 in the final eight minutes.
“It was all defense,” Bianca Coleman said. “Our defense won that game for us.”
The Monarchs’ defense wasn’t readily available for most of the first half, although to be totally fair, neither was their offense. GMA came out colder than a penguin habitat and never warmed up in the first two quarters, shooting a frigid 4-of-27 from the floor and 0-of-12 from behind the arc.
Mount Saint Joseph didn’t have near as many shot attempts as the Monarchs but given that the Magic were making most of theirs, it seemed like a fair tradeoff. Lauren Hoffman started the scoring with an and-one and the Magic junior led the way with nine points in the first half while Kiersten Pumilia had a pair of treys for six points as the Mount buried 4-of-6 looks from behind