Regardless of how it gets there, crunch time has brought out the best in Bishop Ford. The Falcons came up with all the big plays late in a win over St. Michael Academy on Monday and did so again in both the fourth quarter and overtime against Mary Louis.
Diani Mason scored 23 of her 34 points in the second half and added six assists, four steals and made big defensive plays at key moments for Bishop Ford in an 83-80 overtime win over visiting Mary Louis in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Division I girls basketball Wednesday night. The victory gives the Falcons the early advantage in the race for second place in the league.
“They wanted the game,” Ford coach Mike Toro said. “They feel after the big win on Monday that they are definitely one of the top teams in the city and they want to prove it on defense. They feel like at any point in the game they can get that big stop.”
Mason, a junior, turned a steal into a 3-point play that tied the score at 71 with 1:02 left in regulation and had a steal and helped force a backcourt violation on TMLA’s next possessions. She had a hand in Bishop Ford’s first eight points of the fourth quarter, including a jumper and two free throws to give them leads of 79-74 and 81-78, respectively.
Camille Romero fell, backing away from a wall of Ford defenders, on Mary Louis’ final possession as Ford clung to a one-point lead with 3.5 seconds left. It was Mason’s best game in a Ford uniform.
“Even though it is about the seniors this year, next year we are basically putting this team on [Diani’s] back,” Toro said. “She stepped up a year early.”
She helped the Falcons (15-2, 6-2 B/Q) overcome an 11-point, third-quarter deficit after they led, 38-28, at the half thanks to the play of Mason and sophomore Shanice Vaughan in transition. Star guard Shayra Brown missed most of the first half with foul trouble. The Hilltoppers (9-4, 5-2), though, took advantage of the Falcons’ poor shooting against their packed-in zone defense for a 30-11 third quarter.
Ford came back in the fourth behind Mason, who connected on two 3-pointers in a string of three possessions and hit Brown for a layup to make it 65-54 for the Falcons with 3:58 left in the game.
“We were up and it got to our heads and they just kept banging them and banging them – they scored like 30 in one quarter,” Mason said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Vaughan scored 15 points, grabbed nine rebounds and collected five steals. Vanessa D’Ambrosi had 12 points, including three 3-poiners, and Brown scored eight. Romero led Mary Louis with 24 points and Avis Benjamin had 22. Reana Mohamed scored 14 points.
Hilltoppers star point guard Karin Robinson added just five as she was benched the majority of the game by TMLA coach Joe Lewinger for refusing to take a charge and then talking back to him as she returned to the bench in the first quarter.
The win is Bishop Ford’s third straight during arguably it toughest stretch of the season. Its only loss was last Friday on the road at Christ the King and it has a matchup left with H.D. Woodson (D.C.) at the John F. Kennedy Challenge Saturday.
“We are overlooked by a lot of people,” Mason said. “Every time we beat a big time team they say it’s a fluke. We are trying to show them that we are one of the top two teams in the city. We are trying to prove it, even though people don’t believe it.”