St. Frances knocks off No. 1 McDonogh

St. Frances senior point guard Kameryn Dorsey knew just how big a shot teammate Sydney Sutton hit Friday night when the sophomore’s 3-pointer gave the No. 3 Panthers a seven-point lead over top-ranked McDonogh with 94 seconds left.

“Sydney’s been hitting big shots for us all year,” Dorsey said, “so I broke down the defense and I saw they left her and I trusted her with the shot.”

Sutton’s basket, coming on the heels of a 16-footer from Kimmya Hicks gave the Panthers all they would need to seal a 56-49 victory in the rematch of last year’s Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship.

“It’s definitely big, coming off three losses [to McDonogh] last year,” Dorsey said of the win, “and definitely a big confidence booster going into the rest of the conference games.”

Sutton, a shooting guard, finished with a game-high 16 points while 6-foot-1 senior forward Ande’a Cherisier added 15 points and nine rebounds. Dorsey finished with six points and seven assists.

The defending champion Eagles appeared ready to run away with the game early, pushing their lead to nine at 22-13, but the Panthers used their aggressive up-tempo game to rally for a 26-25 edge at the half. They would hold the lead for all but a few seconds the rest of the way.

“We told them, ‘Just weather storms here,’” St. Frances coach Jerome Shelton said. “‘Stay together — which is always a good philosophy to have when you’re on the road — defend and rebound. Our team stayed together, they found one another and I think in the late third and fourth quarter, our rebounding really got much better. We got out in the open court and got some easy baskets and we hit open shots.”

The Panthers (11-2 overall, 4-0 IAAM A) fought off McDonogh’s final rally after freshman guard Autumn Fleary hit a layup to pull within 46-44 with 3:20 left.

McDonogh then turned the ball over on a traveling call and Hicks nailed her 16-footer with 2:10 left. The Eagles, who missed quite a few easy shots throughout the game, missed their next one and the Panthers pushed the rebound out to Dorsey, who spotted Sutton open on the right wing.

Sutton was confident the shot would fall.

“At first my shots weren’t falling, but I just said, ‘Keep shooting. Keep shooting,’” she said. “This is our first time having a big game with McDonogh [this season], so we just kept our head in it and we was doing great. We just had to keep shooting and that’s what we did.”

The Eagles (11-2, 4-1 IAAM A) pulled within 53-49 on Fleary’s 3-pointer from the top with 1:10 left, but when long-range ace Mikaela Quimby’s next 3-point shot didn’t fall, they were forced to foul. The Panthers hit three of six free throws in the final 61 seconds to maintain at least a two-possession lead.

The ability to run the floor so well started with the Panthers’ inside players, especially Cherisier and Dahni Suggs, who dominated the defensive boards in the second half, sparking a lot of easy chances at the other end. Suggs, a 6-2 freshman forward, finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.

“It was one of those kinds of games where we needed contributions from everyone,” said Shelton, who also noted freshman guard Mone’t Edwards’ defense.

The Eagles, whose streak of wins over A Conference opponents ended at 18, got 14 points from 6-4 junior post Kennedy Umeh, 11 points from Fleary and 10 each from senior guards Quimby and Paris Locke.

However, when the Panthers surged, the Eagles too often went away from their game plan.

“Most importantly, I just felt like they kind of outworked us,” McDonogh coach Brad Rees said, “and we got knocked back on our heels and just never really recovered and we have a tendency to try to do things individually instead of as a team. We resorted to that and just never recovered.”

Rees said the good news for the Eagles is that their mistakes can be fixed. They’ll find out how well they can adjust when they meet the Panthers again on Jan. 30 at St. Frances.

Although the Eagles swept the Panthers last season and topped them, 77-65, in the title game, the Panthers have a 15-11 edge in the series dating back ten years. St. Frances had won five straight championships before McDonogh took the crown last season. (There was no 2021 tournament because of COVID-19.)

The Panthers have won 13 A Conference titles since the IAAM debuted in the 1999-2000 season. McDonogh has won four.

NO. 3 ST. FRANCES 56, NO. 1 MCDONOGH 49

St. Frances 12 14 14 16 — 56

McDonogh 18 7 10 14 — 49

St. Frances —. Totals: Zoe Osby 7, Sydney Sutton 16, Kameryn Dorsey 6, Kimmya Hicks 2, Dahni Suggs 8, Ande’a Cherisier 15, Mone’t Edwards 2. Totals: 18 17-30 56.

McDonogh — Autumn Fleary 11, Ava McKennie 2, Paris Locke 10, Anaiah Jenkins 2, Mikaela Quimby 10, Kennedy Umeh 14. Totals: 19 7-14 49.