For the St. Frances boys basketball team, Sunday can’t get here soon enough.
The No. 2 Panthers have felt that way since last Sunday, but knew there was work still left to reach the Baltimore Catholic League championship game.
Their final order of business came in Friday’s semifinal game against No. 11 Loyola Blakefield, when they shrugged off a slow start and rolled to an 82-58 win at Loyola Maryland’s Reitz Arena.
After falling to No. 1 Mount Saint Joseph in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship game last Sunday, St. Frances (37-4), the defending BCL champion and top seed with a 37-4 mark, has earned a second chance at the second-seeded Gaels, who claimed a 73-60 win over Mount Carmel in Friday’s other semifinal.
The championship game is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Reitz.
“We have unfinished business from last week, we’re not going to be shy about it,” said St. Frances coach Nick Myles, who Panthers fell, 76-63, to the Gaels in the MIAA A final . “Since the buzzer went off last week, I’ve been dreaming about Sunday. I can’t wait for Sunday at 1 p.m.”
On Friday, the Panthers got off to a slow start, trailing 8-2 with just under three minutes gone, but a timeout from Myles with instructions to pick up the energy proved a quick remedy.
They proceeded to dominate with Jamal West (16 points, eight rebounds), Byron Ireland (16 points) and Adrian Ace Baldwin (seven points, 16 assists) taking the lead roles.
When West scored an inside basket off a Baldwin feed with 2:45 to play in the first quarter, the Panthers had the lead for good at 13-12. Their fist double-digit advantage came with 6:17 left in the second quarter — 24-13 — on Ireland’s baseline jumper and it was stretched to 45-20 by intermission.
In the first half, Ireland had 15, West made all seven shots from the field for 14 and Baldwin had 11 assists.
“Our warmup wasn’t as good as we needed it to be and when [Myles] called time out, he just told us that we needed to get ourselves together,” West said.
With the Mount Saint Joe-Mount Carmel semifinal not even started on Friday, the Panthers already made it clear they wanted to play the Gaels on Sunday.
Of their four losses this season, two were against nationally ranked out-of-state opponents with the other two to Mount Saint Joe.
What was the difference in the Gaels winning last Sunday?
“Energy and effort — we lacked a lot of that. We didn’t have our normal energy we usually bring,” West said.
What will it take to win this Sunday?
“Energy and effort and be more disciplined,” he said.
Added Myles: “Tell the whole city to get here and get here early. It’s going to be a show here on Sunday at 1 o’clock.”
For the fifth-seeded Dons, who closed the season with a 19-11 mark, senior forward Mitch Fischer closed a fine four-year career with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
“I thought we had a great year,” Loyola Blakefield coach Josh Davalli said. “We had our ups and downs ― we had a seven-game winning streak in there, we had some adversity to deal with – but I’m happy overall how the season went. To win 19 games in our league is pretty special.”
LB – M. Fischer 22, Smith 4, Gardner 2, Moore 8, Walsh 6, Dixon 6, Johnson 3. Rice 3, Gioioso 2, O. Fischer 2. Totals: 19 22-30 58
SF – Baldwin 7, West 16, Ireland 16, Staten 5, Reese 12, Curtis 3, Lamothe 8, Roye 6, Robinson 2, Jones 1, Butler 4. Totals: 41 7-12 82
Half: SF, 45-20