For a first-year A Conference program, St. Vincent Pallotti certainly had the game Thursday to contend with No. 1 Archbishop Spalding in an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland semifinal — for a half.
In a game that was tied at halftime, the No. 13 Panthers lost their composure midway through the third quarter and the host Cavaliers took advantage at the free-throw line, as Brya Freeland went 9-for-9 to fuel a 73-46 victory that sends Spalding to its second straight title game.
The Cavaliers (26-2) will meet No. 5 Seton Keough, a 54-33 winner over No. 4 McDonogh in Thursday's other semifinal, for the crown Sunday at 5 p.m. at Goucher College. Runners-up last year to St. Frances, which has won seven of the past eight titles, the Cavaliers are looking for their first championship since 2002. Seton Keough won in 2009.
Thursday, Pallotti started out hot offensively, especially from the perimeter, where the Panthers (14-11) hit seven 3-pointers in the first half, including three from Tiffany Padgett. That helped the visitors go into the second half even at 33.
When the fouls started piling up in the second half, Panthers coach Josh Pratt was a little too vocal and drew a technical foul. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the players followed suit, with two more technical fouls, the second one, point guard Mariah Hankton's fifth.
The first player technical came after Freeland nailed a 3-pointer and was fouled. By the time she hit all three free throws, the Cavaliers lead jumped to 48-38.
Freeland hit four more free throws, the last two on Hankton's technical, and those two points set off a nine-point run capped by two more Freeland free throws. Freeland scored 12 of her 14 points in the final four minutes of the third quarter, as the Cavaliers ran their lead to 59-40 en route to their 18th straight victory.
"I think [the free throws] definitely brought our team up a little bit," Freeland said, "because in the back of our minds we were kind of worried that we were about to lose, but we kept our heads up. I hoped the free throws would pick us up a little bit."
Pratt, whose team knocked off St. Frances in the quarterfinals, took the responsibility for the third-quarter turnaround. When he was called for the technical foul, he was frustrated that his team had gotten the first three fouls of the second half and, as the technicals mounted, it was 7-1 Pallotti in fouls.
"They kept their composure more than we did," Pratt said. "We lost our composure in the third quarter and that starts with me. We just can't do that in a semifinal game, but we'll learn from it. I'll learn from it."
McDonogh hosted the other semifinal thanks to a coin flip, because the two teams had the same conference record and split their regular-season contests.
Seton Keough (19-7) used exceptional defense to hold the Eagles (20-7) to 10 points in the first half.
Gators coach Jackie Boswell said the Gators wanted to apply a lot of pressure and not give up as many second-chance points as they did a week ago in their 54-50 loss to the Eagles.
Forward Achiri Ade (12 points, 13 rebounds) and center Liz Brown (11 points) did the job inside on both ends of the court, and Amber Singletary scored a game-high 17 points for the Gators.
P—Padgett 15, Ekedigwe 9, Davis 7, Hankton 8, Conway 5, Harrison 2. Totals 16 6-11 46.
S—Freeland 14, Makins 15, Swinson 11, Curtis 9, Morrison 19, Calhoun 5. Totals 25 18-29 73. Half: 33-33.
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SK—Frazier 8, Singletary 17, Ade 12, Brown 11, Hines 4, Wilson 2. Totals 22 9-12 54.
M—Durant 4, Cummings 9, Winder 10, Hendricks 10. Totals 12 6-11 33. Half: SK 27-10.