No. 6 Mercy stops Mount Carmel

In order to honor her team’s five seniors on Senior Night, Mercy High sophomore point guard Milan Brown relinquished her starting position to open Monday night’s IAAM A Conference home contest with Mount Carmel.

Brown did not surrender her impact on the game, however, as the multi-talented backcourt performer came off the bench to score a game-high 18 points, including 12 in the pivotal second half, to move the sixth-ranked Magic closer to securing the fourth seed and a quarterfinal home contest in the upcoming conference tournament through a 50-34 victory against the 14th-ranked Cougars in Northeast Baltimore.

“It’s a little different coming off the bench when you’re used to starting,” said Brown, whose squad improved to 14-8 overall, and 5-5 in the IAAM A Conference, two games above Mount Carmel (8-13, 3-7) for fourth. “It was the Senior game, so I came off the bench. It was a little different getting into the flow. It’s not something I’m use to.

“So, this is an amazing win. We have to win today, Wednesday against Pallotti, and Friday again against Mount Carmel to get the best seed possible and that’s our goal moving into the championships of the conference.”

Brown did her part Monday evening, scoring in a variety of ways, including on dribble drives, running jump shots, and fadeaway jumpers on postups on the block, to help turn a 26-20 halftime lead into a 39-27 advantage after three quarters to play before finishing with the commanding 16-point victory.

“When I play a smaller guard, like No. 5 (Anylah Davis) on their team, I’m posting her up because I”m bigger than her and I’m stronger than her,” Brown said. “That’s just something different.”

The Magic held such a height advantage over many of their counterparts, save for Cougars center Hawa Doubouya, who checks in at 6-feet, 5-inches tall, leading to a 26-17 disparity in the rebounding department and the hoisting of numerous errant 3-point attempts by Mount Carmel, which was held below double figures offensively in three of four quarters of play against Mercy’s lengthy 2-3 zone.

Mercy frontcourt performers McKenna Carroll (15 points) and Myah Hazelton (nine points) combined for 24 points and 10 rebounds.

“We zoned it up on them, and it slowed them down for sure,” Magic coach George Panageotou said. You could see them struggling. When you play zone, you’re going to give up 3-pointers and they didn’t make that many of them (one for the game). I thought we played well. We have five seniors, and it was a special night for them. It’s another good A Conference win.”

It was a fitting for Magic seniors Sami Betley, Carroll, Anabelle Hafner Olivia Lizst and Lauren Panateogou, playing their final home game.

In the first of potentially three meetings in the span of a week and half as the two square off Friday in Essex and, most likely, in next Tuesday’s IAAM A quarterfinals, Cougars coach Rob Long felt it was desire and not size that doomed his squad, which was led once again by do-everything point guard Davis, who produced a team-high 14 points to go along with a handful of nifty assists.

“Their effort hurt us,” Long said. “We’ve faced bigger teams. They outefforted us tonight. They outplayed us. Bottom line. Name a phase of the game, they did it better. There’s no excuses about size or speed or anything like that. Tonight, they put more into it than we did, and they got more out of it. It’s that simple.”

The Cougars, currently fifth, hosts Archbishop Spalding (won 70-49 earlier in regular season) Wednesday and Mercy Friday. In order for Mount Carmel to overtake Mercy for fourth, it would have to win both games with the Mercy decision point differential at least 17 points, based on the league’s tiebreaking rules.

Mercy plays at fourth-ranked St. Vincent Pallotti Wednesday. The Magic can clinch fourth with a win over Pallotti (lost 60-52 earlier in regular season) or Mount Carmel. Mercy can still gain fourth with two losses with the Mount Carmel decision being less than 15 points.

NO. 6 MERCY 50, NO. 14 MOUNT CARMEL 34

Mount Carmel 6 14 7 7 - 34

Mercy 14 12 13 11 - 50

Mount Carmel - Dania Madden 6, Anylah Davis 14, Victori Nkongolo 2, Shayla Garnett 6, Mya Blackshear 2, Hawa Doumbouya 4. Totals 15 3-7 34.

Mercy - McKenna Carroll 15, Myah Hazelton 9, Milan Brown 18, Olivia Liszt 5, Lauren Panageotou 3. Totals 20 8-10 50.