Gates Mills, OH- Tuesday night, the Gilmour Lancers (6-0) hosted the St. Vincent-St. Mary Irish (7-1) in a division-II showdown between two top-25 programs according to maxpreps.com. Both teams entered the contest fairly equal averaging around 60 points and per game and allowing opposing teams to around 40 points per game.
The Fighting Irish started the game off dominate knocking down three three-pointers behind senior guards Jazmine Torres and Dyllan Metcalf as well as junior guard Erica King. Sophomore guard Kendal Batchik inserted herself into the game early making two easy layups to give SVSM the early 15-10 lead.
The second half the Lancers started to find some pace. Junior guard Nicci Finazzo scored her first four points of the game and junior wing Helen Holley added to her five first half points with a 6-1 lead to breathe life into Gilmour. King of the Irish would go ahead to make a wide open three-pointer with 1:45 in the second quarter to help keep the lead for SVSM. The Irish would go into half with a 24-17 lead.
Gilmour came out of the halftime break with a different energy and different urgency. Starting with Coach Ty Hammond, one could see just no sign of quit out of the Lancer team despite being down seven and struggling mightily in the first half. Sophomore guard Elaina Kiline-Ruminski scored 90% of the Lancers 10 total points with seven of her own. The Irish made two total third quarter buckets despite six free throw shots.
The fourth quarter was similar with SVSM again only making two total buckets to Gilmour's four. Down four with 1:27 left in the game, Holley made a layup to bring the lead that grew as large as 10 down to two. King of the Irish would then knock down a left elbow jump-shot with 50.1 on the clock to take it back up to four. Finzzao would go on to knock down a three to bring the Lancers within one making things interesting. Both teams would go on to exchange baskets before Finazzo drove the lane with two seconds on the clock to draw a foul making one free throw to send it to overtime tied at 42.
In overtime, Holley opened the extended period with a layup. King would give the Irish the lead next with a deep contested three. Holley would go on next to gather an offensive rebound off a Finazzo miss to give the Lancers the late lead. The game would turn a shift in favor of SVSM after Kline-Ruminski missed three consecutive late free throws allowing the Irish to stay alive. King would knock down a step back two with 2.5 seconds left to give the Irish a 51-49 victory. King led all scorers with 19 points. The Lancers dropped to 6-1 suffering their first lost of the season. The Fighting Irish moved to 8-1.
I talked with Fighting Irish coach Carley Whitney after the game.
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