Source: MI Prep Zone

Author: Matthew B. Mowery

One coach gambled, and it resulted in a league title. One coach gambled, and it backfired.

Placed on the inbounder by her coach because of her long arms, Taylor Jones stole the ball with 4.2 seconds left in Sunday’s Catholic League A-B championship game, and swiped a CHSL title for the Farmington Hills Mercy Marlins.

The ball landed in her bread basket, right underneath the hoop, and her layup beat the buzzer, sending the No. 4-ranked Marlins to a 55-54 win over No. 3 Birmingham Marian.

“Ohhh, it was great. I was so happy. My happiest moment,” said Jones, who’d been on the roster for the title game two seasons ago, but did not play in the game at the University of Detroit’s Calihan Hall.

She didn’t expect the ball to land right in her lap, when it bounced off her hands.

“Yeah, I didn’t know it was going be that easy,” said Jones, who admitted it took a second to register where she was, and where the ball ended up, before she grabbed it. “It did, because I was so into the moment.”

Most of the Marlins were facing away from the ball, when the play happened. It took a second for them to register it, as well. After they did, it was a delirious dogpile of bodies, celebrating the improbable comeback.

“I was facing that way, but when I turned around, she had the ball. When it went in, I just gave her a hug, and the next thing you know, everybody’s tackling us. I’m speechless. I’m just happy we pulled out the win,” said senior Candice Leatherwood, who started on the Marlins’ last CHSL championship team as a freshman.

“It’s great. I came in, with us winning, and now I’m leaving out with us winning. Couldn’t ask for it to be any better.”

It’s the second title in four years for the Marlins (18-1), and was the rubber match between the two divisional rivals. The Mustangs (17-2) won the first contest in overtime, but Mercy won the last two on buzzer-beaters, first to split the divisional crown, then to win the most important meeting on Sunday. If the two rivals meet again, it would not be until the semifinal round of the MHSAA postseason.

Marian coach Mary Cicerone took the blame for the loss, for having her team foul too quickly on the other end, sending Leatherwood to the line with 4.2 seconds left, then having freshman Sydney Jascoe inbound the ball after Leatherwood made both free throws to cut the deficit to one.

“I’m not going to sleep for many nights after this one. I blew it. Thirty years in coaching and I blew it. Not good for my girls,” Cicerone said. “I did some things at the end that — I should have stuck with my gut feeling. And I didn’t. I didn’t want to foul. I watch too much dang basketball. ... We fouled too early, if we should’ve fouled at all.

“Then I switched my inbounder to my (softball) player, because I wanted to go long, get a touch. If they get it, they get it here. They got four seconds.

“She didn’t give her a fake, and the girl timed it perfectly.

“That’s all she wrote. So I’ll be going ifs and buts all night.”

Mercy coach Gary Morris’ decision played out better at the end, but only because Jones made the play to make him look like a genius.

“We typically play her on the front of the press like that, because of her length,” Morris said. “With Taylor up there, she’s a kid, that if you look at her, size-wise, she’s not a 6-footer, but she’s very, very long. She gets a lot of deflections, and the strategy was really, if she could steal it, we’d take it, but if they get it inbounds, we gotta foul. We’re going to try real hard to steal it.

“She got it about as clean as you could get. Just catch and shoot. Perfect look at the basket.”

Unlike the first two meetings between the two programs, it had seemed like the Mustangs were in control for much of Sunday’s game, until the very end.

After going nearly five minutes without scoring in the third quarter, allowing Marian to push its halftime lead into double digits, the Marlins stormed right back and cut it to a single possession. It would remain that way for the entire fourth, but the Marlins wouldn’t lead until Jones’ layup.

“I think what helped us stay in the game was that we still defended. We were still playing hard defensively,” Morris said. “It was funny. We’ve had three great games with them. Ebb and flow. Ups and downs. Just keep playing, keep playing, see what happens. I turned to the bench with a minute to go, we were down a few points, and said ‘This has been a great game. A great game.’ It would be no different. Had we fallen short, I’d be telling my kids how proud I was of them for playing so hard, playing such a great game. But obviously we feel better with a win.”

While the Mustangs led for the entirety of the second and third quarters, and much of the fourth, it was a tenuous lead, considering how much foul trouble they were in. Four Marian starters ended up with four or more fouls, with two key players fouling out before the finish.

“We couldn’t extend or keep our lead, because my kids were all on the bench. We were rotating and struggling. I mean, I had post people rotating out on Candice. It’s just unfortunate,” Cicerone said. “I thought we controlled the game. We rotated some people in, out of position, because we were in such bad foul trouble. I thought we played well enough to win the game.”

After Mercy’s surge to end the third quarter, Kara Holinski hit a bit 3-pointer three minutes into the fourth to extend Marian’s lead back to eight points. After another surge, ending with Sam Bauer’s layup to cut it to two, Marian’s Bailey Thomas hit a layup with two minutes left to keep it a four-point game, 49-45.

But the Marlins just kept coming.

While Marian went 4-for-6 from the line the rest of the way, the Marlins hit 5 of 7 free throws in the final 68 seconds to keep them right in it, capped by Leatherwood’s two makes with 4.2 left.

That set up the inbounds play underneath the Marian basket — and set up Jones’ heroics.

“I never thought we’d win it in that fashion, but we wanted to get back here, and pull out the win. We have a senior-heavy team, a veteran team, and we knew what it would take to get here, and we did it,” Leatherwood. “Taylor was unbelievable on that steal.”