A tight game between the undefeated Archbishop Mitty Monarchs and Bellarmine Bells continued deep into Thursday night, ending in a double-overtime 73-67 Mitty victory.
Within seconds of the opening tip, the Monarchs were already up 2-0 as Monarch's senior Aaron Gordon drove the ball down the court for a basket to give the Monarchs a quick lead. Gordon's drive, however, was almost immediately equaled by Bells' junior center Nathan Thomas with a field goal of his own. It was close throughout after that.
The Monarchs led 19-12 after one quarter, but the Bells cut in to the Mitty lead in the second quarter. The Bells took advantage of the Monarch's careless ball-handling during the second quarter and capitalized with great shooting by seniors Blair Mendy and Jackson Gion who combined for 13 of the 20 points made by the Bells during that quarter.
Bellarmine's hot shooting during the second quarter allowed them to take the lead 28-26 after a three-pointer by Grant Vermeer with 2:55 left in the first half. Mitty led at the half, though, 33-32.
Mitty took a four-point lead in the third quarter, but Vermeer's half-court shot at the buzzer trimmed the Monarchs' advantage to 41-40.
The Bells led early in the fourth quarter, 45-41, following two Isaac Gayles' field goals. The Bells still led by two with the final seconds ticking down in the fourth quarter when Gordon's lay-in tied the game 54-54, forcing overtime.
Bellarmine led by as many as three points in the first overtime, but again Mitty battled back, ultimately tying the game 61-61 on a Gordon tip-in.
Gordon, who finished with 33 points, had a chance to put Mitty ahead with seven seconds left with two free throws, but missed. Vermeer then tried an outside shot for the Bells, but also missed, forcing another OT.
Mitty eventually prevailed thanks to accurate free throw shooting by junior guards Matt McAndrews and Connor Peterson and lay-ups by Gordon.
Bellarmine coach Patrick Schneider saw room for improvement.
“Well, we didn’t get rebounds at the end of the fourth and make free throws at the end of the fourth or overtime to extend leads that we needed to extend," said Schneider. "There’s a great line about Butler University which goes like, ‘You can’t beat them, you gotta kill them,’ and we didn’t kill them when we had a chance; we didn’t put them out. So we missed some free throws when we needed [them] and we didn’t get rebounds when we needed to and when you keep [Mitty] alive, then Gordon’s going to find a way to be a difference-maker.”
For Mitty coach, Tim Kennedy confidence had much to do with the team's hard-fought win.
“The main thing was that we have been in this situation before and I don’t think we ever doubted that we were going to win the game," he said. "Half the battle is just having that confidence; even when you’re down, you can still find a way to win. It wasn’t pretty, on either end of the floor, but at the end of the day, you find a way. In the WCAL, night in night out it’s going to be a tough game so it wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done.”
Mitty (14-4, 8-0), who remains undefeated in the WCAL will play St. Francis next Wednesday at home, while Bellarmine (13-4, 3-4) will host Sacred Heart Cathedral on Saturday evening.
