On a team where defense has been dominant throughout a 22-4 season, No. 4 St. Frances put its defensive skill on display once again and added the 24th annual Catholic League Tournament championship to its regular-season Catholic League title -- the first time the Panthers have won both in the same season.
The Panthers held No. 5 Calvert Hall (26-9) to two field goals in the first half and then staved off a third-quarter Cardinals rally with some more defensive heroics on the way to a 45-34 win at UMBC yesterday.
"Today we came to play on defense and we did a heck of a job," said St. Frances coach William Wells.
Things couldn't have started much worse for the Cardinals, who went 0-for-9 from the field in the first quarter and fell behind 13-2 as Alphonso Jones scored eight of the Panthers' first-quarter points.
Calvert Hall finally got its first field goal early in the second quarter as John McKay got away from the tough defensive pressure of Keon Chavez and put through a three-pointer (his only basket of the game) to close the deficit to 15-5 with 7:07 left in the first half.
When Calvert Hall opened the third quarter with a pair of inside baskets by Gary Williams, the Cardinals had closed to within six points at 26-20.
It was tournament MVP Mark Karcher who put down the Cardinals' rally, picking off three crosscourt passes in a three-minute span and feeding Jones, who led all scorers with 18 points, with three fast-break assists as the Panthers re-asserted themselves.
Chavez, who didn't score a point, earned All-Tournament honors, by shutting down McKay with only that one three-pointer on five shots from the field.
"St. Frances did a terrific job defensively," said Cardinals coach Mark Amatucci. "The last few games everybody has played a box or triangle against us and we have played some of our best ball. Today we didn't play our best, but St. Frances took control of the game and we never recovered from it."
Witherspoon, who led the Cardinals with 13 points, joined Karcher, Chavez, Jones, McKay and Dan Whye of Mount St. Joe on the All-Tournament team. Phil Lane of St. Maria Goretti earned the Sportsmanship Award.