Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland clamped down on defense and claimed their first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference girls basketball title since the 2019-2020 season with a rather dominant 61-41 victory versus upstart Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia, which was making its first ever championship game appearance.
The Feb. 24 title clash featuring the top-seeded Mustangs and the third-seeded Cardinals was played at American University before a large crowd.
McNamara improved to 26-1 overall and undefeated in league play; Ireton dropped to 23-6.
“Our defense really kicked in tonight and we were able to force a number of Ireton turnovers” said Zhen Craft.
Second-year Mustang head coach Ron James said, “We were very locked in with our defense tonight.”
Ireton took their lone lead of the 32-minute contest at 6-5 (4:18 remaining in the first) after WCAC Player of the Year Nyla Brooks converted a free throw.
The Ireton lead was quite brief. McNamara closed out the opening period with an 8-0 “run” to lead 13-6 after the first eight minutes were in the books. Nevaeh Roberson chipped in with four of the eight points.
Ireton, coached by veteran Kesha Walton, outscored McNamara in the second quarter 11-9 to trim their deficit to 22-17 at intermission, with Brooks and Geomae Davis each accounting for four points.
The Mustangs put the offensive pedal to the metal in the third quarter with an impressive 23 points (nearly three points per minute) to take a 45-34 advantage into the fourth quarter. Qandace Samuels netted 10; Craft and Vanessa Harris each netted four.
McNamara scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter, to take a commanding 53-34 lead. Harris tallied five of the eight.
It was the third time that McNamara had defeated the Cardinals this season. The 20-point differential on Feb. 24 was the largest margin of any of the games.
“We wanted this game so bad. We trusted one another tonight. We have really put in a lot of work this season” stated Harris afterwards.
“Our only loss this season was to Mater Dei (on a trip to the West Coast) a number of weeks ago. Tonight, we played under control. We’ve got some very dynamic players on this team” stated coach James afterwards.
Zhen Craft said “Coach James is a great coach - he really prepares us very well.”
Last year, as a junior, Nyla Brooks led the Cardinals to the WCAC semi-finals, in which they lost to eventual champion St. John. This season, the Cardinals defeated second-seeded St. John in the semi-finals to punch their ticket to their first ever title game appearance.
Brooks said after the game that the Mustangs “ played their game and got the win tonight. Tonight, we needed to have been more disciplined - but we are very proud that we got this far.”
The Mustangs were paced by: Samuels (15 points, six rebounds, two assists), Craft (10, seven rebounds, two blocks), Harris (nine, three assists, two steals), NyAir McCoy (eight, nine assists, five rebounds), Princess Moody (seven), Mary Amoateng (a George Mason commit) (six, nine rebounds, five assists), Roberson (four, three rebounds) and Cai Roberson (two, two rebounds).
The Cardinals were paced by: Brooks (16, eight rebounds), Davis (13, five rebounds), Amirah Anderson (six, four rebounds), Kayla Washington (four, three rebounds) and Theresa Hagans (two, six rebounds).
McNamara forced 11 Ireton turnovers; the Cardinals forced five Mustang turnovers. McNamara out rebounded Ireton 40-29. The Mustangs tallied 19 assists vis a vie the Cardinals mere five.
