Sarah Cunningham’s late free-throws propel Mercy basketball to 35-29 win over Marian
By Jared Purcell | japurcell@mlive.com
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -- Not much went well for the Farmington Hills Mercy girls basketball team on Friday night. In fact, the same could be said for its opponent and archrival Bloomfield Hills Marian. In a game where shots weren’t following, turnovers were numerous and fouls were piling up late, someone needed to come through when it mattered.
Late in the game, someone did step up, and it happened to be Mercy senior captain Sarah Cunningham.
With 13.7 seconds left, Cunningham went to the foul line for a chance to extend Mercy’s 31-29 lead. The only issue was, she was 3-for-6 in three previous trips to the line in the fourth quarter.
“I think the (Marian) student section and all the noise in that close of a game really affects us,” Cunningham said. “So when I’m at the line, I just tell myself that it’s just like practice. Then I take a deep breath because I know we focus on making them after sprints so that we’re tired. So at the line, I just tell myself it’s just like practice and I try and block out the noises behind me.”
All those sprints and free-throws at practice paid off when it mattered as Cunningham made the two free-throws to give Mercy a 33-29 lead. Despite Cunningham’s struggles at the line earlier in the quarter, Morris had complete faith she would come through.
“Stepping up and making free-throws,” Mercy coach Gary Morris said. “We’re a pretty good free-throw shooting team, so we feel pretty comfortable with whoever is there. So, we felt pretty good with a lead going to the free-throw line."
The four-point Mercy advantage forced Marian’s hand on the next trip down the court as the Mustangs put up a 3-pointer that missed. As Mercy collected the rebound, Marian was forced to foul to send Marlins junior Lauren Smiley to the line with 3.7 seconds left. She hit both to give Mercy the 35-29 win.
“Really, just a typical tough, competitive game,” Morris said. “Both teams really competed hard. Both teams probably missed more shots than they’d like, but the teams were really competing. I was really proud of our kids. We came out strong, which was key for us being a pretty inexperienced team.”
Opening the game with plenty of energy on the defensive end of the court, Mercy (6-1) took advantage of seven Marian turnovers in the first quarter in order to build a 15-6 lead heading into the second. After that, however, Mercy’s offense came to a grinding halt. The good thing for Mercy was, the grinding on the defensive end continued.
After Marian (5-2) outscored Mercy, 10-4, in the second quarter to cut the Marlins’ lead to 19-16 at halftime, Mercy was held to just four points again in the third quarter. However, Mercy held Marian to just three points in the third quarter as the Marlins led 23-19 heading into the final frame.
Despite shooting just 4-for-21 from the field in the middle two quarters while also committing 10 turnovers in the same stretch, Mercy never lost its lead in that span.
“I thought we executed, especially defensively what we wanted to do,” Morris said. “Try to keep them off balance as best we could. I thought we really battled against their bigs inside, which we thought was big. Just really proud of our kids. It’s a nice win for us.”
Marian’s 6-foot-3 senior Sarah Sylvester and 6-foot-2 sophomore Mckenzie Swanson are taller than anyone on Mercy’s roster, but they were held to a combined 12 points on the night.
“Going into it, we knew that their posts were going to be their best players,” Cunningham said. “Our biggest goal was just to front them the entire time. We knew we weren’t going to shut them out, because they are taller, but we were just going to front them the entire time and try our best for them not to get the ball and box them out every time a shot went up."
Marian did manage to tie the game at 24-24 with 5:05 to play on a bucket from senior Grace Rotter, but Mercy freshman Aizlyn Albanese sank two free-throws 37 seconds later. Marian then got within 30-29, after another Rotter bucket with 37 seconds left, but it missed its final three shot attempts the rest of the way.
Marian was playing without starting guard Isabella Prezzato because she tore an ACL just before the holiday break. Marian coach Mary Cicerone said her team is still trying to find its new identity without Prezzato.
“I just think we played soft,” Cicerone said. “I think Mercy came with all their gusto and they played well. I don’t think we shot the ball worth a darn, but I think we took some really bad shots, forced some bad shots too. The good news is, we didn’t give up. We scrapped and scraped our way back into it and we made a game of it. If we knocked down half of those free-throws, we could be celebrating.”
In total, Marian finished with 20 turnovers to Mercy’s 18. Marian shot just 8-for-40 (20 percent) from the field and was 12-for-20 (60 percent) from the free-throw line. Mercy shot 10-for-35 (28.5 percent) from the field and was 15-for-20 from the free-throw line.
Although no one on Mercy reached double figures in scoring, six players scored for the Marlins as Cunningham led with nine points, including finishing 7-for-10 from the free-throw line. Smiley had eight points, senior Sophie Dugas had seven and junior wing Maya White had five.
Senior guard Anna Herberholtz led Marian with 11 points while Swanson added eight and Sylvester had four. Potter finished with six points.
Mercy is now 2-0 in Catholic League Central Division play and it continues on in conference play next week when it visits visit unbeaten Dearborn Divine Child on Tuesday. Marian drops to 1-2 in league play and also plays next on Tuesday at home against Warren Regina.