Big first half leads Mount de Sales girls basketball to 44-19 victory over Catonsville in Catonsville Cup

After Mount de Sales girls basketball lost to Catonsville the past two seasons in the Catonsville Cup, the visiting Sailors got redemption in a big way Saturday afternoon.

In the 10th annual event, they held the Comets without a field goal in the first half and stormed to a 30-3 halftime lead on the way to a 44-19 triumph.

Despite early foul trouble, junior Shelby Lewis scored a game-high 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Sailors (5-1), who had 10 players score.

“This year I feel like our team chemistry is different and stuff and I think after losing these past two years we really wanted it,” said Lewis, who was playing in her second game after an ankle injury. “The fouls held me back, but my team really helped me get back out there the second half.”

In her previous game, a 64-55 win over Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference foe Severn, Lewis scored 25 points and had eight rebounds in only 16 minutes.

Against Catonsville, she scored nine points in the second half while her teammates picked up the scoring in the first.

Cameron Weeks and and Clara Gaigler hit 3-pointers as the Sailors scored 12 straight points to close the quarter. Catonsville’s only point came on a free throw by Gianna Barracato (team-high six points).

The Sailors’ scoring run stretched to 25 straight points in the second quarter when Katie Carroll scored eight.

“She contributed,” Mount de Sales coach Trish Armstrong said of Carroll. “She played 26-28 minutes when Shelby was out.”

The Sailors’ swarming defense prevented easy looks for the Comets and forced several turnovers.

“The turnovers, we’ve got to stop them,” Catonsville coach Mike Mohler said.

“Honestly, I think our defense is what holds us in the games,” Lewis said. “It definitely helped us get up.”

A free throw by Katie Dewitt with 2:11 left broke the scoring drought and Barracato added another free throw in the final minute.

Trailing by 27 at halftime, Mohler had a message for his team.

“What I said is, ‘I don’t care what the score says, I want 16 minutes of hard-tough-nosed basketball. I don’t care if that score gets to be 100 as long as we are playing hard.’”

The Comets kept up their intensity and outscored the Sailors 7-6 in the third quarter and 9-8 in the fourth.

Ellie Altmann, playing with two injured ankles, broke the field goal drought on a putback with 6:26 left in the third quarter and Barracato and Jaynie Simpkins each had four points in the fourth.

The Sailors got 3-pointers from Lewis and Sarah Litz in the third quarter and Lewis hit all four of her free throws in the fourth to help maintain the big advantage.

“We were just rotating people in and out and they did excellent,” said Armstrong, noting point guard Gaigler was playing with injured ribs and starting guard Mackenzie Conley was out with an illness.

Starting 0-3 is extremely rare for Mohler, who is in his 30th season as coach.

“We’ve got a ways to go, we are a work in progress,” he said. “We are just not as skilled as we need to be.”

But this loss was easier to take because the game was for a good cause.

All the money raised will go to the family of May Jozwick, who died at age 42 on Oct. 13 after a three-year battle with cancer.

Jozwick, who was an extremely popular and well-loved teacher at Catonsville Elementary and was named Baltimore County Teacher of the Year in 2012, leaves behind her husband, Stephen, son Jack and daughter Josephine.

“What I told them in the locker room prior to the game, I said, ‘Guys, I don’t know what the score is going to be, but there are no losers, not today,’” Mohler said. “It’s for a great cause and we should be proud we are hosting this and that is the way it goes. Do I wish we would have played better? Sure, but there are bigger things in life, which is what we learned today.”

“That’s a great cause, Mike and his wife [Bridget], they are wonderful here,” Armstrong said. “They welcome us every year.”

The girls varsity game was the fourth of the day following Catonsville boys varsity’s 54-34 victory over Western Tech.

In the girls JV game, Mount de Sales defeated the Comets, 42-22, and in boys JV action, Western Tech beat Catonsville, 80-44.

Scoring

MDS — Shelby Lewis 10, Katie Carroll 8, Clara Gaigler 5, Ella Powers 4, Ashley Hawkins 4, Cameron Weeks 3, Brooke Frederick 3, Sarah Litz 3, Cecelia Hannibal 2, Gianna Romano 2;

CAT — Gianna Barracato 6, Jaynie Simpkins 4, Aryanna Ewbanks 3, Kaia Gross 2 Ellie Altmann 2, Katie Dewitt 2.

Halftime: 30-3, MDS