Source: Hometown Life

Author: Marty Budner

Marlins register third straight win over rival Mustangs

Mercy reigns again.

For the third time since 2011, the Catholic League girls basketball tournament championship trophy will reside at Farmington Hills Our Lady of Mercy High School. The Marlins regained the title after defeating arch rival Bloomfield Hills Marian, 45-36, in the competitive title game played Sunday at Wayne State University.

It is Mercy's sixth Catholic League championship overall — three each for current head coach Gary Morris and former head coach Larry Baker.

"It's nice to win another Catholic League championship for Mercy," said Morris, in his 13th season as head coach. "I'm extremely proud of our kids.

"It is a team that works real hard in practice. Players, whether they get a lot of minutes in a game, very few minutes or don't get any at all, still come to work every day and compete," he added. "That's why we've had the success we've had up to this point in the season."

Marlins sweep Mustangs

It was the third meeting of the season between the Catholic League combatants, with Mercy sweeping the series by just a combined 13 points. The nine-point title-game triumph was Mercy's largest margin of victory.

Marian was denied its 16th — and third straight — Catholic League crown.

"We played well defensively. We forced a lot of turnovers, but never capitalized on them because we would turn the ball back over," Marian head coach Mary Cicerone said. "We had some good looks in the fourth quarter, but didn't finish.

"We also had a breakdown on our half-court press and gave up a few easy baskets before we adjusted," she added. "When we adjusted, we got a few buckets back and they had to come out of their press. Basically, Mercy hit the big shots and we did not."

The teams played to a 9-9 tie after the opening quarter and Mercy took a slim 18-17 halftime lead thanks to a last-second 3-point basket. Mercy secured the triumph by winning the last two quarters by an overall 27-19 margin.

"It was just another hard-fought game against them," Morris said. "It was one of those games where all the points were important to the win.

"We hit some big shots in the second half. Chloe Godbold hit two threes in the second half, as did Jess Mruzik. We had some big two-point buckets from Katie Coe and Jenna Schluter. Each of them made two twos, which was really big for us.

"I thought both teams played good defense," he added. "But I thought we did a better job of handling their press than we did in the previous two games against them."

Godbold leads offense

Mercy was 9-of-16 from the foul line, while Marian was 6-of-8.

Godbold, a senior guard, led all scorers with 19 points. Mruzik, a freshman forward, finished with 10. Coe (five), Schluter (four), Bella Dugas (four) and Jackie Bauer (three) accounted for the other points. Dugas, a junior forward, also had a strong game rebounding off the bench.

Marian's high scorers were senior guard Lauren Montalbano (12) and sophomore guard Olivia Moore (10).

Unranked Mercy (17-2) will host Detroit Martin Luther King, the Detroit Public Schools champion and the state's No. 1-ranked (Class A) team, in the Operation Friendship game at 7 p.m. Thursday. Marian (14-5) plays PSL runner-up Mumford in Thursday's first game at Mercy at 5 p.m.

Gary Morris led Mercy to the girls basketball program's sixth Catholic League tournament championship Sunday at Wayne State University.