BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Catholic League tournament championship game is set after a pair of thrilling semifinal matchups Monday night.
Saint Frances 61, Archbishop Spalding 58 (OT)
BCL regular season champion Saint Frances faced 5th seed Archbishop Spalding in the first semifinal, and the Cavaliers came out firing.
Spalding shot 50% from the field in the first quarter and led for all but 30 seconds of the first two quarters, taking a 27-21 lead into halftime.
The Cavaliers came out swinging in the second half and built a lead as large as 9, but Saint Frances did not panic.
The Panthers chipped away and entered the fourth quarter tied at 38. After a back-and-forth fourth quarter, the two teams needed overtime to settle the score.
In the extra period, Saint Frances forced 18 Cavaliers turnovers, kept their poise, and advanced to the championship game with a 61-58 win.
Terrence Jones III led the Panthers with a game-high 15 points.
"We know it's gonna be a hard time beating them 3 times, but we got it done. They came out strong. We knew they was gonna do that. We knew we had to fight back, so halftime all we talked about was be stronger, and we got one more than them, and that's what we did second half. Hopefully we get to play Mount Carmel again, get our get back on them," a Saint Frances player said.
Mount Carmel 59, Mount Saint Joseph's 40
The second semifinal was a rematch of last year's title game, featuring 2nd seed Mount Carmel Cougars and 3rd seed Mount Saint Joseph's Gaels. The defending BCL champions came out on a mission, opening the game on a 10-0 run and going 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the opening quarter. Mount Saint Joseph's fought back with some tough buckets, but the Cougars were dominant from wire to wire, winning 59-40.
Mount Carmel head coach Tony Martin spoke about his team's performance and the championship matchup ahead.
"We talked about opening this game with electric energy and we paced ourselves yesterday, played a lot of bodies, weren't really worried about the score so much. That's the benefit of being one of the higher seeds. It's really tough playing somebody a 3rd time, let alone a 4th time. Nick has done a phenomenal job. It's going to be a battle. It'll be a great game for everybody to come out and see," Martin said.
The BCL championship game is set. Saint Francis and Mount Carmel -- the top 2 teams in the Baltimore Catholic League -- will battle it out Wednesday at 8 p.m. for the title.
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