Mount St. Dominic Hoops Loses A Heartbreaker In ECT Hoops

The Mount St. Dominic girls basketball team has shown great improvement in the last month.

This was the case on Saturday when they traveled to Arts in the Essex County Tournament quarterfinals.

Unfortunately for the Lions, the advancement since January just fell a little short for the sixth-seeded Mount St. Dominic in pulling off the upset of the third-seeded Jaguars.

The Lions held a 37-36 lead with 1:15 remaining, but Arts Nilah Rivera completed a controversial three-point play with seven seconds left to make the difference. Rivera appeared to commit an offensive foul but the refs called Mount St. Dominic freshman Sofia Gonzalez with her fifth foul of the game. Rivera completed a three-point play that was the difference.

The Lions saw their county tournament run come to an end with a 40-37 defeat.

Despite the defeat, Mount St. Dominic acting head coach Kyla Ramseur was upbeat about the future this season. She pointed to how well the team has played since the first game against Arts where 71-55 on Jan. 3. The Lions were 16-8 as of Feb. 8.

"The outcome was the outcome, but I'm proud of them," said Ramseur about the controversial call at the end of the game. "Look at the first game and this game. We are playing as a better team."

Ramseur took over the coaching reins on Jan. 21 when now former Lions head coach Brian Dorflaufer delivered a letter of resignation to the school.

Despite the abrupt change, Ramseur and Mount St. Dominic players have righted the ship in winning six of the first eight games after the coaching change.

Against Arts, Mount St. Dominic did not give up earlier in the game when they faced a 11-point deficit (25-14) with two minutes left in the first half.
And the Lions came all the back against the Jaguars to finally grab a lead with 75 seconds remaining in the game.

"We harp on discipline," said Ramseur who also pointed to her team's hard work and energy for the reasons that the Lions came back against Arts. "There were a couple possessions where we weren't disciplined, but overall we were pretty disciplined."

Lions sophomore Gia McArdle stole the ball just beyond half court and laid up a basket to give Mount St. Dominic a 37-36 lead.

But Rivera took over with 26 seconds remaining. First she hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 37. Following that Mount St. Dominic's trip down the floor came up empty.

Rivera then came down the floor, charged toward the basket, hit the shot and at the same time collided with Gonzalez with the refs calling Gonzalez with the foul that could have been called on Rivera. Rivera hit the free throw for a three-point lead, 40-37, with 4 seconds remaining in the contest.

Mount St. Dominic could only get to half court and threw up a last ditch shot that fell short. McArdle dropped a dozen of her 17 points in the second half as the Lions came back from a 25-17 deficit at halftime against Arts. The sophomore also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double. "Gia can get buckets when she wants to get buckets," said Ramseur.

Freshman Hailey Root and junior Bella Iannitelli added eight and six points respectively.
Ramseur believes that this can only assist her team going into the state playoffs that start at the end of February.

"I think it will help us tremendously and we competed with one of the best teams in the state," said Ramseur about taking on Arts.

Despite the loss to Arts, Mount St. Dominic rebounded nicely with a convincing 74-52 win over West Morris in the Coaches versus Cancer on Feb. 8 at Morris Hills High School in Rockaway. McArdle continued her dominance in shooting with a game-high 28 points to lead the Lions.
Iannitelli and Root registered 20 and 13 points respectively in the victory.

For the rest of the regular season, Mount St. Dominic will be looking to improve in several areas including rebounding. The Lions will start their drive for a state championship when the Non-Public A North begins its playoffs on Feb. 26.

Swimming

Mount St. Dominic's superiority was there but the depth hurt them in the first round of the Non-Public North state tournament on Feb. 3 at Mount St. Mary.

The seventh-seeded Lions dropped a 98-72 decision at sixth-seeded Mount St. Mary in the state sectional battle.

Mount St. Dominic won seven of the 11 events, but Mount St. Mary just picked up too many points in the other placings.

Despite the ouster in the first round, the future is bright for the Lions led by a pair of freshmen in Ashlyn Reeber, who is from DePaul and swims with the Lions as part of a co-op, and Noelle Rivera-Castro. The two frosh grabbed top spot in a pair each of the individual events.

Rivera-Castro finished first in the 100 butterfly (1:01.54) and 100 breaststroke (1:14.11) while Reeber grabbed top spot in the 500 freestyle (5:27.10) and the 200 freestyle (2:04.81).

In addition to the two freshmen, junior Sonia Jagen was the swiftest in the 50 freestyle (25.93).
The foursome of Jagen, Rivera-Castro, Reeber and junior Alexa Whitworth collected first place finishes in both the 200 freestyle relay (1:49.01) and the 200 medley relay (1:56.56).