No. 6 Mercy ends North Farmington’s unbeaten season, claiming fifth straight district title
The much anticipated game between the No. 6-ranked Marlins and the unbeaten North Farmington Raiders got pushed back from Friday and the venue changed to Farmington High by the snowstorm and the ensuing power outages, but the tight game everyone expected never materialized.
The Marlins beat the Raiders at their own game on Saturday, zipping up and down the court, and holding the Raiders without a field goal for the better part of the middle two quarters, rolling to a 59-23 win that brought Mercy its fifth straight district trophy.
“They talked about that when they walked into locker room before I came in. They said, ‘You know what? We did something that’s never been done. It is what it is, and to lose to a team that’s been in the top five all year. It is what it is. I mean, they’ve been up there. We fought our way up there from the beginning,” North Farmington coach Jeff Simpson said of the team’s reaction to its first loss of the season, after starting 23-0. “But we kept climbing, we kept climbing in AP (rankings) and everything. And we earned the respect of people and unfortunately, tonight, it just didn’t go our way.”
The Marlins (21-3) certainly weren’t underdogs, having taken their own unbeaten start 13 games into the season, earning a share of the Catholic League Central title, and falling in the CHSL Bishop Division title game, spending the entire season ranked in the top five or six in the state.
Nor will they be underdogs when they move on to the next round, taking on MAC White champion Utica Ford (20-2) in the regional semifinals on Tuesday.
“It feels great. I think as captains and as leaders, you know, veteran players who really looked at the team and we were like, everybody’s 0-0 going into playoffs. It doesn’t matter what kind of season you had — we had a pretty good season just didn’t finish the way we wanted to in Central Division,” senior Lauren Smiley said. “But at the end of the day, you know, you got to move forward. If we’re 0-0, and from here on out, you know, we’re 2-0 (in the postseason), and we want to keep going.”
Aizlyn Albanese hit a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in the first to tie the game at 9-9, but a 7-0 run to start the second for the Marlins got them some separation, and they continued to pile it on, outscoring the Raiders 18-3 in the second quarter to lead 27-12 at the half. North Farmington wouldn’t hit another field goal until Sela Lefler’s layup with 1:28 left in the third — giving the Raiders another three-point quarter — and Mercy used an 8-0 run to push the lead s high as 35-12.
Part of the advantage for the Marlins was their ability to beat the Raiders’ pressure defense up and down the floor, getting themselves either layups or free throws in transition, but also keep North Farmington from being able to do the same on the other end.
“We knew what they were gonna do. We watch their film, and we stayed after our game on Wednesday night and watched them play. And I think we knew what to expect, you know, a lot of film a lot of scouting, working as a team,” Smiley said. “Coaches give players input players give coaches input, what they think will work, personnel wise, you know, who’s on the floor, and I think that impacted the way we attacked them as a team.”
Mercy has been a pressure team itself over the years under Gary Morris, so the understanding of what needs to be done was baked in to the Marlins.
“We spent a lot of time because we know that’s kind of their bread and butter, that 2-2-1, three-quarter (press). And they’re really good at getting in it, make or miss. We spent the last two days, a lot of practice time on it. And we felt like, yeah, we want to attack it. And then make good decisions. Let’s say if we have the numbers, let’s go ahead and attack if not, let’s set up. And I think I thought for the most part, our guards did a really good job of making those good decisions on when to attack and when to set up,” Morris said. “We like to press we’d like to play fast. I thought that was part of our plan was we wanted to speed them up. Especially speed them up on offense. And we thought we could maybe score on them a little bit in transition.”
The Raiders talked about not going after the Marlins as much for that reason, primarily so they could keep track of Mercy’s sophomore scorer, Albanese.
“I mean, she can kill you on her own. We know that. So we kind of adjusted some things, but they’ve made good reads and, and they hurt us and they made shots and and that’s credit to them,” Simpson said.
Albanese finished with 10 points, as did Maya White and sophomore Emily Walker off the bench. Nine different Marlins scored on Saturday, with six of them posting six or more points. Lefler led the Raiders with seven points, while Halle Rogers had five and Penelope Creary four.
The Raiders will graduate six seniors — including four fifths of the normal starting lineup — from this year’s magical run.
“Everybody asked me during the year, you know, ‘Have you ever had a season like this?’ I go, ‘No, not record-wise.’ But I wouldn’t say they had, you know, oodles of talent, more than other teams I've had. It just worked out this year that they fought and clawed every game, and until tonight, they came out on the right end of things and today, we didn’t. Give credit to Mercy. You know, they had a good game plan,” Simpson said. “Good luck to them in the regionals. And you know, but I'm really proud of my team. I mean, doing something that's never been done in school history before, by boys or girls, just really proud of the effort they showed all year.”