The Mount St. Joseph Magic remembered the sting of losing in the District 1-AAA championship game 3 weeks ago, and didn’t want to feel the pain of another championship loss.  Thanks to a great, energetic pace led by senior guard Laura Johnson (16 points), the Magic made sure that didn’t happen, as they captured the AAA state title.

The Mount used a balanced offensive effort in the first half, aided by great shooting (11-22), to get out to a 27-21 halftime lead.  Their defensive effort was sufficient, holding Mercyhurst to 37% shooting in the half (10-27).  Mercyhurst Prep stayed in the ballgame mainly due to 6’ forward Kirsten Olowinski, who had 10 first half points (and finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds).

The Mount extended their lead to 9 at 32-23 with 4:50 to go in the third quarter, and looked poised to run away with the game.  Mercyhurst Prep came raging back, thanks to 5 straight points by Olowinski.  However, the Magic pulled out to a 38-31 lead by the end of the quarter.

The fourth quarter became quite the physical affair, and the Magic were able to withstand the pressure to hold on for the victory.  Key to the Magic’s success was not only Johnson (who hit multiple free throws in the fourth quarter to ice the game), but also senior forward Sarah McGorry (12 points, 10 rebounds) and junior forward Elle Hagedorn (12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals).

The Magic celebrated with their mounds of fans in attendance after the game, most of whom saw their team lose that district championship weeks ago.  And that may have made this victory even sweeter, as the Magic may have been down, but as they showed in Saturday’s game, they were not out.

(33-1) Chester 81 (32-2) Norristown 77

Before the game, everyone said it was supposed to be a great, close contest.  During the game, those in attendance may have thought that it was going to finish as a blowout.  After the game, everyone who saw it agreed that it was a spectacular way to end the state championship weekend.  Despite an incredible comeback effort by the Norristown Eagles, the Chester Clippers hung on and reigned supreme in the AAAA state final.

Chester looked like a much sharper team in the first three quarters than they had in their recent postseason games.  They implemented a full court press early, and this worked in rattling Norristown, especially in regards to their field goal shooting (6-33 in the first half).  The defense led to great offense for the Clippers, who moved as fast as they’ve looked all postseason with the ball.  Senior guard Karon Burton led the charge with 12 points in the half (24 total along with 7 assists), and Nasir Robinson added 8 points and 7 rebounds (14 points total and 15 rebounds).  After opening up the game with a 17-2 lead, Chester went into halftime up 35-20.

The Clippers expanded their lead to 53-33 with 3:11 left in the third.  This is where Norristown began to make their push.  The charge was led by junior guard Khalif Wyatt,  who scored 21 points in the second half (28 total), and senior center Maurice Briggs, who scored 12 in the half (and finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds).  Norristown continued to creep back into the game, getting it to 71-64 with 3 minutes left in the fourth.  The Norristown fans got wilder as the comeback continued, and Chester fans could feel the air being let out of their balloon.  This may have been especially true when Wyatt made a three off the backboard to cut Chester’s lead to 75-73 with 1:15 left.  Norristown junior forward James Ramsey (10 points) connected on a three point play to trim Chester's lead to 77-76 with 27.5 seconds to go.  Burton was able to right the ship back to Chester’s favor by making two free throws to make it 79-76.  Norristown senior forward Vonte Shippen then got fouled and connected with 1 of 2 free throws for the Eagles, but this was followed Chester senior guard Kevin Green-Germany hitting two free throws for the Clippers on the other end.  This made it 81-77, and time ran out on Norristown’s comeback hopes.

Chester rebounds from last year’s championship loss to Schenley and continue their historic varsity basketball run.  All throughout the postseason, the Clippers maintained the notion that anything less than a state championship would be a disappointment.  Although Norristown put up a big obstacle to that goal, the Clippers survived and were able to hoist the trophy that marked that accomplishment.

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