Boys basketball
Gaels turn it on in 2nd half
MSJ erases 11-point halftime deficit to top McDonogh
The Mount Saint Joseph boys basketball team had some ground to cover and just one half left against red-hot McDonogh in Thursday night’s Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference semifinal.
The No. 3 Gaels watched the visiting Eagles hit seven 3-pointers in the first half, as the Gaels missed easy baskets inside and at the foul line. Mount Saint Joseph trailed by 11 points at halftime.
No problem.
The Gaels made the necessary defensive adjustments and stayed aggressive on offense, closing in on the No. 7 Eagles in the third quarter and then pulling away in the fourth to come away with a 54-46 win that sends them to the championship game.
Mount Saint Joseph (31-3) will meet No. 5 Mount Carmel — a 66-63 winner over Calvert Hall in Thursday’s other semifinal — at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Harford Community College. It’s the second straight MIAA A title game appearance for the Gaels, who fell to St. Frances, 76-67, in last year’s final.
Getting there didn’t come easy for the Gaels, who leaned on a strong second half from All-Metro senior Darryl Morsell and some timely baskets from Jalen Smith, James Bishop and Kendall McMillan.
For Morsell, who scored eight points of his 13 points in the third quarter, it was easy to find the necessary motivation.
“At halftime I thought back to last year when we lost the championship to St. Frances, and I don’t want to go out like that again. I want to get the championship,” Morsell said. “It’s my last ride, so we picked it up and we got it done.”
Trailing 34-23 at the half, the Gaels limited the Eagles to just four field goals the rest of the game with tighter defense and better defensive rebounding. It helped get their offensive game going, with points coming in transition, on put-backs and from long range.
After Smith (team-high 15 points) opened the third quarter with an inside basket off a pass from Bishop, Morsell scored the Gaels’ next eight points. A dunk from Smith and 3 pointer from Bishop had them trailing 40-36 after three quarters. The Eagles mustered only two 3-pointers from Damian Chong-Qui in the third.
Bishop opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to give the Gaels their first lead since early in the first quarter. McMillan (nine points) then helped the Gaels gradually pull away with two baskets and two free throws.
“That’s a gut check,” Mount Saint Joseph coach Pat Clatchey said. “They’re a good team — they got good perimeter guys, good athletes [T.J. Jordan] is a good coach. The coaches were [ticked off] at halftime. We’re better than we played in the first half, and fortunately in basketball you get an opportunity to play the second half. The defense was locked in, we got stops, got a chance to run and execute a little better.”
McDonogh got a game-high 18 points from Noah Locke — 16 coming in the first half behind four 3 pointers — and 15 from senior Chong-Qui.
“We knew they were going to come out swinging [in the second half] and we talked about matching their intensity, but we didn’t,” Jordan said. “That third quarter kind of opened it up and gave them a chance to get back in the game, and they ran away with it.”
Mount Saint Joseph won both meetings against Mount Carmel during the regular season – 62-51 on Jan. 8 and then 80-52 at home on Feb. 1.
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