Girls: TMLA Toys With Nazareth
FLUSHING, NY- While the goal every season for The Mary Louis Academy head coach JoAnn Arbitello-Pinnock is to win a CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Championship, she understands that this year presents a greater opportunity to make that happen, and for the first time this season on Friday her Hilltoppers took the court, looking to show that they truly are among the elite teams in New York when they squared off against Nazareth.
It wasn't always pretty at times but a Danielle Patterson '17 putback at the halftime buzzer put TMLA up by double digits for the first time and that seemed to give them the momentum that they needed as led by Patterson and Jordan Nixon '18, the Hilltoppers were able to take control and coast down the stretch for a 66-53 victory.
Coming into this season with Patterson back and the incoming transfers of Nixon and Kania Pollock '18, expectations are sky high for Mary Louis as they are considered to be the favorites in the CHSAA this season, and while Patterson says that the team understands the hype coming into the season, they still feel they need to prove themselves as a unit.
"We came out today wanting to make a statement for the whole division," Patterson said. We feel it, we feel the expectations but we don't let it overtake us. It's a day by day and step by step process."
Step one in the process was Nazareth, a tough team with a good amount of talent, especially in the backcourt, and TMLA knew that coming out with anything but their best could present issues for them.
It was a huge crowd at Holy Cross H.S. where TMLA plays their home games, and from the start the Hilltoppers made sure to deny the perimeter, while also feeding Patterson the ball in the paint where she did a good amount of damage early on.
Patterson may have been thriving offensively, but the rest of the team seemed to be struggling as in Arbitello-Pinnock eyes they were too focused on what they were trying to run offensively, and not focused enough on just playing basketball. She wanted them to get back to just playing basketball and late in the first half they finally opened the game up a bit more and began to take control.
It was a long opening half with a lot of whistles and fouls being called, but Pollock did a good job attacking in transition late in the half, and then when Taylor Holmes '18 missed a short jumper in the closing seconds, Patterson was there to put it back at the buzzer to put TMLA up 34-24 at the break, and up double digits for the first time as well.
For many reasons, it was a big basket there just before the half as it not only put them up by 10, but for Patterson it was a momentum shift as she stressed to her teammates at the half to keep things going and to stay confident in themselves.
"It was really big because it gave us a lot of momentum and at the half I just kept motivating my teammates to keep putting the ball up because I believed the shots were going to fall in the 2nd half," Patterson said.
Her intuition was right as Vanerlie Valcourt '17 connected on the first shot she took in the 3rd quarter, and Nixon, who struggled to get going in the opening half, came alive to the tune of 10 3rd quarter points.
Shonnyvelle Regalado '18 was a bright spot for Nazareth as her ability to drive into the lanes and finish against contact was solid, while Alexis Sykes '17 showed great range by knocking down a pair of 3rd quarter threes for the Lady Kingsmen, but the Hilltoppers had built up an 18-point lead heading into the 4th and nothing looked as if it could stop them at that point.
The duo of Patterson and Nixon proved that as a 1-2 punch there may not no better in New York this season they fed off each other well throughout the game with Nixon stepping up her offensive game late with a couple of beautiful drives through the Nazareth defense, while from the elbows Patterson was almost unstoppable offensively.
It was sloppy in the early going but at the end of the day The Mary Louis Academy did what they came to do, make a statement and put the CHSAA on notice as they took down Nazareth in convincing fashion 66-53 in their season opener.
Patterson had a game high 29 points for Mary Louis while Nixon added 20 in what proved to be a great first game for this group of Hilltoppers set on taking home hardware at the end of the season.
For Nazareth, it was Regalado who was the lone Lady Kingsmen player in double figures as she had 20 point to lead the way, while Sykes added 9 points as well in the loss.
Everything went about as well as TMLA could've hoped in this one as they came out and took it to Nazareth from the start to show that they are more than just hype, they are the real deal. Patterson though is keeping everything in perspective now as she knows it was a good performance, but she believes they can be better, believing that they will come together and be at their very best right when they need to be.
"We know who we are and we know what we have to do and I think if we just keep working hard that we will get there. We don't want to peak right now, we want to peak come the end of the season in February and in March, and that is what we are working toward."
