Until halftime, baskets were at a premium in tonight’s Southold/Greenport vs. McGann-Mercy league VIII matchup.
Then came the fouls.
In what seemed to become a free-throw competition, the McGann-Mercy Monarchs emerged victorious in the final seconds at Southold High School, coming from behind to win 49-48 and improve their record to 3-3 on the season.
Southold/Greenport (3-2) had only one starter left on the court in the last crucial minute of the game — everyone else had fouled out.
“There must’ve been over 50 fouls,” Clippers head coach Howie Geismar said. “That’s the most fouls I’ve ever seen in a game and I’ve been coaching for 25 years.”
Luckily both teams had point guards that had no problem hitting free throws. And both coincidentally wear the jersey No. 4.
The Clippers “energizer bunny” as Geismar calls her, Madison Tabor, was among those to foul out. The sophomore, who averages over 16 points-per-game, had dominated the game until she was called for her fifth foul. With her ability to force steals and get out in transition with hopes of an uncontested layup at the other end, she finished with a game-high 23 points.
“She can shoot, she can drive, she can play defense and she’s a tough, tough kid,” Geismar said.
“She has no stop,” McGann-Mercy head coach Matt Brisson said of Tabor. “We tried to just keep her in front of us and that was a task in itself.”
But Mercy had a sophomore point guard of their own who was huge coming down the stretch: Mia Behrens. Coming up with timely steals, she had her fingerprints all over the fourth quarter as she scored eight of her team-high 16 to lead the Monarchs to victory.
“Early in the game she had a little problem with turnovers,” Brisson said. “But to recognize when to push and when to hold back and where to enter, point guard is a complicated position and really she’s getting better everyday. We ask her to do a lot.”
Mercy’s Mary Reiter was the only other player in double figures with 13.
Both teams are still in the playoff hunt, just needing five wins out of 10 league games to qualify.
“This was definitely the highlight of our season thus far,” Brisson said. “All year long we were trying to validate all the effort and this game does it. It puts us in a position to possibly make the playoffs,”
Though the game was all Clippers until the fourth quarter when Mercy took its first lead, Geismer had nothing but positive thoughts about going forward.
“We’re 3-2 now and only need two more wins for the playoffs,” Geismer said. “So we got to fight but we can’t be complacent. We can only think of next game and that’s tomorrow.”
Southold/Greenport plays Shelter Island tomorrow and McGann-Mercy plays Comsewogue on Saturday.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
