It was far from pretty, but it was still a win.
Molly Meegan had 14 points as Mt.St.Mary posted a 45-35 win over Nichols School in Monsignor Martin Athletic Association girls basketball action Monday night.
The Thunder (10-6) was looking to get back in the win column after falling to Cardinal O’Hara last Friday and Bishop Kearney on Saturday.
Knowing full well that state powers O’Hara and Kearney would represent their toughest challenges of the year Mount went into both games with the mindset of work hard, learn and hopefully emerge a better team going forward.
Thunder head coach Mike McCarthy said that his team brought a quality effort against a very good O’Hara team. Unfortunately, the payoff of coming away a better team was not readily apparent.
“I actually think it hurt them. You come off a game like O’Hara you expect everything to be easier and it gets worse because you let your guard down,” McCarthy candidly said.
“This is a game, I think, we really struggled in. You have the biggest player on the floor in (Nichols 6-foot tall) Imani Dockery who’s twice the size of all of our girls. This game worried me from the beginning, but the girls pulled it together and fixed it in the third quarter and played a whole lot better.”
The Lady Vikings, meanwhile, were trying to build off the momentum they created after posting back-to-back wins over Nardin and Niagara Catholic last week.
Led by Dockery’s 18 points it looked as if the Vikings might snatch another unexpected win. Down 10-5 at the end of the first the Vikings were able to pull within four at the half, 24-20.
Nichols even managed take the lead for a while midway through the third. Ultimately, according to a very disgruntled Nichols head coach Bob Torgalski, their team-wide lack of basketball ability was their undoing.
“It all goes back to we have no basketball players. They turned the ball over 30 times,” Torgalski said.
“They panicked out there. They have no basketball sense. Good athletes, but lousy basketball players.”
Thunder guard Jillian Fittry hit a huge 3-pointer two minutes into the fourth quarter that put Mount up 41-31 and for all intents and purposes took the wind out of the Vikings.
“I think we really beat them out in speed,” said Fittry.
“They had more height, but we had more speed and talent. And better coaching, I think.”
Grace O’Brien had eight points for Mount.