Poly slips past Pallotti in a Top 5 girls basketball showdown

In a fourth quarter with five lead changes, three Poly role players stepped into the spotlight to make sure the Engineers slipped past St. Vincent Pallotti in Saturday afternoon’s showdown of Top 5 girls basketball teams.

Senior 6-foot center Riley Holliday made some key defensive plays inside, freshman guard Chloe Mills dished out a couple of assists and won a key rebound and junior guard Mickelle Lowry hit the game-winning 3-point shot with 43 seconds left as the visiting No. 2 Engineers went on to win 54-50.

“They embody what we talk about all the time,” Poly coach Kendall Peace-Able said. “We talk about defensively stops being what wins the game, being ready when your name is called and how everything comes down to a possession game. Every possession counts.”

For the defending Class 3A state champion Engineers (11-1), this was the second close win over the No. 4 Panthers (12-5). Three years ago, Poly edged Pallotti, 48-47, at the Public vs. Private Challenge in their first-ever meeting.

Saturday, the two were fairly evenly matched with both playing aggressive defense and looking to run the floor.

The Engineers led early and were up by 10 midway through the second quarter before the Panthers rebounded to take their biggest lead, 42-35, late in the third.

Poly senior guard Da’Brya Clark, who scored a game-high 19 points, ended the third quarter with a 3-pointer. Mills, a 5-foot dynamo, opened the fourth with a steal and fed Clark to pull within 42-40.

After Pallotti junior guard Sydney Anthony hit a free throw, the Engineers forced a couple of turnovers. Holiday proved almost immovable inside in the first four minutes of the quarter, grabbing three rebounds and altering shots. She also had a steal and hit two free throws as Poly cut the lead to 43-42.

Clark added two more free throws to give the Engineers their first lead since early in the third quarter.

Poly then threw the ball away and senior guard Autumn Edison answered with a 3-pointer for Pallotti. Gabrielle Clary, who led the Panthers with 15 points, added a short jumper to boost Pallotti’s lead to 48-44 with 1:41 left.

Holliday, continuing to battle inside, then hit both ends of a double bonus, to spark a 10-1 finishing run for the Engineers.

Mills shot a 20-footer that rimmed out with about 70 seconds left, but she dove into a battle for the rebound and won the ball on the tie up. Poly senior guard Taylor Addison finished the possession with an 18-footer to knot the game at 48.

Anthony then converted two free throws to give the Panthers a 50-48 edge with a minute left.

That lead 17 seconds until Mills found Lowry for the game-winning 3-pointer that put Poly ahead, 51-50.

Lowry had just come off the bench and had not hit a shot since the first three minutes of the game.

“My coach was telling me that I needed to get ready to go back in the game,” Lowry said, “and since we were down, they wanted a shot, so I was thinking to get open and shoot. During the game I was missing a lot of shots, so I was thinking I had to make this shot. I took my time, I took the shot and I made it. It felt really good.”

While Poly bolstered its defense, Panthers coach Rashida Joiner said her team made a few critical mistakes down the stretch.

“We just had two costly defensive mental lapses at the end of the game where we didn’t stick to what the plan was and that gave them two opportunities to score … and prevented us from winning,” said Pallotti’s first-year coach.

In the waning seconds, the Panthers missed two shots while Clark added two free throws to finish out Poly’s scoring.

Clark and senior forward Trinity Massenburg, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, praised their Poly teammates for coming through with the game on the line, something that did not surprise them.

“It’s a good win because of the fact that we stayed in it the whole time,” Massenburg said. “Of course, we had our moments when we would doubt a little bit, so just sticking together and performing together helped us a lot. If one person falls, we all fall. If we just stick together, we’re going to win every time.”

For the Panthers, whose only other local loss was to No. 1 McDonogh, the setback stung, but Joiner said her young team is progressing. Last week, they beat No. 13 Mount Carmel and Wednesday, they came from behind to top No. 8 Mercy.

“Kendall does a great job with Poly,” Joiner said. “She does a good job preparing them. They’re disciplined, they’re quick and they’re athletic. We are just as quick and just as athletic and we’ve had some success over the past few games as well, so it was a battle and just one of those games that was going to come down to one or two plays and that’s what it came down to.”

NO. 2 POLY 54, NO. 4 ST. VINCENT PALLOTTI 50

Poly 15 10 13 16 — 54

Pallotti 8 14 20 8 — 50

Poly — Chloe Mills 3, Taylor Addison 2, Da’Brya Clark 19, Brianna Johnson 3, Trinity Massenburg 14, Mickelle Lowry 5, Riley Holliday 6, Ariana Makumi 2. Totals: 15 18-21 54.

Pallotti — Sydney Anthony 8, Nia Grymes 3, Gabrielle Clary 15, Mary Amoateng 4, Savannah Whitley 4, Camryn Jones-Howard 2, Arianna Harris-Mott 9, Autumn Edison 5. Totals: 17 11-17 50.