City of Basketball Love

Christy Selagy (@ChristySelagy)
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NEWTOWN — It was a tale of two halves for the Villa Maria Academy hoops team on Tuesday night in their District 1 5A quarterfinal matchup against the Marple Newtown Tigers. Maybe not to the Charles Dickens degree of “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” but there was a stark contrast in the way the Hurricanes played in the first half versus the second, differences that were key to leading the No. 7 seed to an upset victory, 35-33.

“At halftime, I impressed upon them the fact that I thought we were [...] definitely better than we were playing,” VMA head coach Kathy McCartney said, “and we’re not leaving here until we play at least a little bit more up to our capabilities, so I kinda hammered them a bit at halftime.”

It worked—the defense pushed, shots started falling and the Hurricanes more than tripled their score in the final 16 minutes after scoring only 11 points in the first half.

Nothing was more crucial than the final 23 seconds, though, after MN’s Nikki Mostardi pumped up the home crowd by tying the game at 33. But the Hurricanes weren’t finished. Junior Marah McHugh hadn’t had the strongest night, but came up big for VMA in the final few seconds. After Carly Catania’s missed the mark, McHugh got the rebound and rattled in the game-winning basket as time expired.

The Hurricanes celebrate after beating the Tigers at the buzzer. (Photo: Christy Selagy/CoBL)

“I thought (Catania’s 3) was going in,” McHugh said. “Thank god I recovered and made the layup, but I also didn’t think that we got it in on time, but we did.”

Based on the looks on some of the Tigers’ faces, they also thought the shot hadn’t beaten the buzzer. Any protests were minor and short-lived, though, maybe a few words exchanged with the refs as VMA, spurred on by a deafening roar from their fans, stormed the court.

The Hurricanes trailed for most of the game. They scored the opening two points, but the first quarter was a slog for both teams: just made one field goal and one made free throw for each. The pace picked up a bit in the second quarter, with MN entering halftime with a five-point lead.

And after that, McCartney’s halftime speech seemed to resonate with the Hurricanes as they eventually closed the gap to one point early in the fourth and traded the lead a few times in the final four minutes.

“It’s better to be lucky than good sometimes,” McCartney said. “But, you know what, credit to my kids because we did not, especially in the first half, play as well as we’re capable of playing, but they didn’t quit. There’s no quit in this team at all and that’s why I love coaching them.”

That was the message all game: Don’t quit. It’s something McCartney has had to build up this season after a down year in 2021. The COVID-shortened season was strange for pretty much every team, of course, but it was just the second time in McCartney’s 30-plus years her team didn’t make the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies (AACC) playoffs.

With 11 District 1 titles, 18 district title game appearances and one state title appearance, winning and strong hoops seasons are the norm at the private Malvern school. At the start of this season, senior captain Mary Gary Murphy, who scored four points in Tuesday’s game, told McCartney she wanted to “undo last year.”

Make it back to the AACA playoffs? Check. Make it to districts? Check again. Make it to the PIAA state tournament? Check, thanks to Tuesday’s victory.

At the beginning of the season, McCartney would’ve described the team as “competitively immature,” she said. The team struggled initially, bumps in the road often getting them down.

“We struggled a bit for a while, but I think we’ve learned,” McCartney said. “I saw them tonight where we would collapse a bit earlier in the season, (but) tonight they didn't. Like, things weren’t working for them and they showed a little moxie, which, to me, is one of the greatest things as a coach because we’re learning beyond the ‘X’s and ‘O’s that we’re trying to teach.”

That’s not to say the team’s perfect—McCartney knows there’s still work to be done. But the turnaround from last year’s down season is undeniable. McCartney noted Elaina Guerzon, McHugh and Catania as the players who have shown the most growth throughout the season, though she feels it’s often a different player who shines every game.

On Tuesday, Ava Irvine led the Hurricanes with 11 points, while Guerzon chipped in seven.

Mostardi led the way for MN with 12 points, while Mary O'Brien scored nine. With the loss the No. 2-seeded Tigers will take on No. 3 Upper Moreland—who also suffered an upset loss— on Friday at 7 PM as they vie for a spot in the state tournament.

The Hurricanes will face No. 6 Radnor on the same day as the underdogs again, albeit with less of a seeding discrepancy. That’s fine with them, though. They’ll savor it just like they savored it coming into Tuesday’s game.

“We were like, ‘We’re the underdogs. We’re going to play our game and beat (Marple Newtown) and we did,” McHugh said. “We’re happy we made it to states and we think we’re going to win this championship.”

By Quarter

VMA: 3 | 8  | 13 | 11 || 35
MN:   3 | 13 | 12 | 5  || 33

Scoring

VMA: Irvine 11, Guerzon 7, McHugh 4, Cronley 4, Murphy 4, Catania 2, Iacone 2, Broadhurst 1

MN: Mostardi 12, O’Brien 9, Levy 6, Impiana 4, DiBona 2