Source: MI Prep Zone

Author: Matthew Mowery

NOVI >> Both teams planned on blitzing the other, right out of the gate.

Farmington Hills Mercy’s pregame planning just worked a little better than Macomb Lutheran North’s did, as the Marlins got out to an early double-digit lead, and rolled on to a 54-28 win in Wednesday’s Catholic League A-B semifinal.

“The last time we played them, we were 16 down halfway through the third quarter, and came back to win by eight, so ideally you always like to get off to a good start, but I thought if we could get off to a good start, that would help, confidence-wise. And it did,” Mercy coach Gary Morris said.

“Really, I thought we put together four solid quarters, both ends of the floor. A lot of contributions from a lot of players. We’ve been playing, really, pretty well, and hopefully we can continue that.”

The win was a 12th straight for the Marlins (16-2), who advance to the Catholic League finals at Wayne State on Sunday, facing Birmingham Marian (14-4) at 3 p.m.

[CHSL TOURNAMENT BRACKET, SCORES]

It’ll be the last chance for the Mercy seniors to get a Catholic League title: None of them were up on varsity when the Marlins won it three seasons ago, and Mercy missed the finals two seasons ago, before losing in the title game last year.

The only oddity is that it won’t be at its usual site of Calihan Hall on the campus of University of Detroit Mercy.

“I think that’s actually a good thing. We haven’t had the best luck there the last couple years. It’ll be good to shake it up. I think we have a good team,” said senior Jackie Bauer, who had 13, who was a freshman on junior varsity when the Marlins won in 2013-14. “My sister (Sam) was a senior that year, and it was so exciting. It’d be great to relive that, because those are the moments, the games you always remember.”

Lutheran North coach Greg Mangold was hoping his team could fight its way through to get a chance at one of those memorable games, and had his Mustangs (11-7) set up to give it their best shot early.

Literally.

“Well, we came into this with the idea that we had to be able to hit a bunch of 3s to have a chance. They didn’t come real early, which was disappointing, because we had set it up for a run at the beginning of the game, and it didn’t happen. We were down double-digits when we started hitting shots,” said Mangold, whose team cut that double-digit lead down to just four, 20-16, late in the second quarter.

“That was our discussion point in the room afterward: The ball wasn’t dropping for us tonight. But it wasn’t all us. That team out there is an outstanding team, very well coached. They’ve got a great roster of players, and the personnel is the best we’ve seen this season. I expect them to go a long ways.

“So it wasn’t so much what we didn’t do, as what they did.”

Mercy answered that spurt with a 9-0 run that spanned halftime, then kept increasing the lead, outscoring the Mustangs 28-12 in the second half.

As she had in the first quarter, with a pair of 3-pointers, Bauer’s outside shooting got the Marlins going, offensively.

“Yeah, it feels nice. You get a little bit of confidence, momentum,” she said of hitting early shots. “You just gotta keep shooting, whether they’re going in or not. You just gotta play hard. If they’re not going, you gotta drive, or do something to help the team.”

Chloe Godbold led the Marlins with 14 points, while Katie Coe added 12. Ashleigh Thomas had nine to lead Lutheran North.