Gwynedd Mercy locks things down in AACA semifinal win over Villa Joseph Marie
LOWER GWYNEDD >> From the start, Villa Joseph Marie ball handlers were afforded very little room to breathe, and only three first-half field goals.
The Gwynedd Mercy Academy defense had firmly put its grip on this Catholic Academies League semifinal.
“That’s pretty normal for us,” junior forward Sofia Coleman said of the GMA defense, an ever-tightening force in the Monarchs’ 13-0 season thus far.
The top team in District 1-4A played like it on Saturday, winning 47-17 over Villa to advance to Monday’s AACA Final against District 1-3A leader St. Basil.
“It’s definitely a big win (over Villa). We played this team three times so we had to keep up our intensity, play as a team and not make silly mistakes,” said Coleman, who scored a game-high 14 points. “We knew that Julia Beck was a threat. She’s a good player and we had to make sure we had help on her so she couldn’t start to make all of her moves.
“We had to close out on the shooters and just play our game.”
Beck was held to just three points in the first half – seven total – as GMA built a 31-9 lead by the break. The running clock kicked in late in the third quarter.
At the other end, GMA’s offense picked up steam and was operating nice and smoothly by the second and third quarters. Coleman hit a pair of threes.
“It felt good because the past few games, I hadn’t been playing as well as I could have,” Coleman said. “Teams have been playing Kaylie (Griffin) really hard so knowing there was gonna be an open lane for easy layups, that’s been something we’ve been working on in practice.
“It’s good to see that happen in a game.”
Kaylie Griffin still had nine points and Hannah Griffin had 12 for the Monarchs.
On one sequence in the third, Kaylie Griffin hit a jumper and then moments later fed Maddie Newell for an easy bucket in transition. That spiked the lead to 37-11.
“In the second quarter, they certainly rebounded and were able to go into halftime certainly feeling good about themselves, at both ends of the floor,” Monarchs coach Tom Lonergan said of his squad. “Maddie (Newell), although she did get into foul trouble early, is a tough kid for us and really plays physical for her size.
“She had some really good help from her teammates from behind too. When you have that, it makes you more confident that you can go out there and do what you need to do.”
GMA hit four 3-pointers in the first half to help extend its lead.
Next up is Basil.
“Hopefully we can come in and play our game again. Basil is extremely well coached,” Lonergan said. “It should be very interesting.”
AACA Semifinals
Gwynedd Mercy Academy 47, Villa Joseph Marie 17
VJM 4 5 2 6 – 17
GMA 11 20 13 3 – 47
VJM: Julia Beck 3 1-3 7, Maggie Hensel 1 0-0 3, Isabella Solov 1 0-0 3, Hailey Linden 1 0-0 3, Maria Gordon 0 1-4 1. Totals 6 2-7 17.
GMA: Kaylie Griffin 4 0-0 9, Hannah Griffin 5 2-3 12, Sofia Coleman 6 0-0 14, Maddie Newell 1 0-0 2, Jenna Mangan 1 1-2 3, Julia Masterson 1 0-1 3, Dylan Burke 0 1-2 1, Bianca Coleman 1 1-2 3. Totals 19 5-10 47.
3-pointers: VJM-Hensel, Solov, Linden; GMA-K. Griffin, Coleman 2, Masterson.
