By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — AJ Orr and Molly O’Toole combined for all the offense in an 18-5 third-quarter while Loren Green finished with a game-high 21 as No. 6 Aquinas defeated No. 14 Our Lady of Mercy, 64-42 in Section V Class A Girls’ quarterfinal action, Saturday afternoon.
Leading 27-23 early in the third quarter, O’Toole, who was held to one field goal over the first 16 minutes of play, scored seven straight points for a double-digit lead at 34-23.
AJ Orr, steal and layup, Aquinas has scored 9 straight, leads 36-23. pic.twitter.com/58DvF9n5MR
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 24, 2024
Molly O’Toole buries a 3. Aquinas 41-25. 1:56 to go in the third. @SecVGBasketball pic.twitter.com/7Vi1CKLYin
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 24, 2024
Loren Green buries a 3. Aquinas 52-46. pic.twitter.com/nfBTbzj6fS
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 24, 2024
“We challenged her to put the ball on the floor,” said Aquinas head coach Mark Loria. “They were taking away the three. We recognized that. We were going to create gap space.”
O’Toole started with a triple before getting ahead of the defense for a pair of buckets.
Orr converted steals into layups twice. O’Toole followed with another triple before Orr sliced through Mercy defense for a bucket and a 43-26 lead.
“AJ really took advantage of that space especially when Molly or Loren were being closely guarded,” Loria said. “When we’re attacking the hoop, and we’re creating that space to drive and finish, we’re tough.”
Aquinas opened the contest on a 7-0 run but could not add to the lead and found itself in a four-point battle when Mercy’s Brooke Wormley nailed a three to make it a 24-20 game in favor of AQ.
“We knew they were going to come in here and they were going to give us their best shot,” Loria said. “We expected that. We just needed to settle down, relax, get composure and run our offense.
“Once we got to halftime, there was no pressure. We wanted to have fun with this and go out and do what we needed to do in the third quarter.”
Green hit five 3-pointers to pace an overall Aquinas team effort of 10 shots from distance.
Aquinas took a 66-41 decision when the two teams met during the regular season.
Aquinas reached the semis for the first time since 2021 when the Li’l Irish lost to eventual champion Pittsford Mendon, 59-49.
AQ (17-5) will face No. 2 Palmyra-Macedon in the next round.
Wormley led Mercy (8-14) with 13 points. The Monarchs erased an 11-point deficit to beat No. 3 East in the first round.
Ball movement finds Brooke Wormley for a corner 3. pic.twitter.com/SCaxqksixI
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 24, 2024
OUR LADY OF MERCY
Krista Harnischfeger 2 0-0 4, Mia Lusardi 1 2-4 4, Ella Sciortino 1 0-0 2, Brooke Wormley 5 1-3 13, Elizabeth Holdsworth 3 0-0 7, Natalie Casale 1 0-0 3, Bridget Wise 0 1-2 1, Emerson Wandtke 2 0-2 4, Bella Mitrano 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 16 4-13 — 42
AQUINAS
Carlé Thomas 0 0-0 0, Julionna Nkugwa 3 0-0 8, Loren Green 8 0-0 21, AJ Orr 10 0-2 20, Jade Harvey 0 0-0 0, Samiyah Wright 0 2-4 2, Molly O’Toole 5 0-2 13 TOTALS 26 2-10 — 64
OUR LADY OF MERCY 10 11 5 14 — 42
AQUINAS 19 8 18 19 — 64
3-point goals OUR LADY OF MERCY 3 (Wormley 2, Casale 1); AQUINAS 10 (Green 5, Nkugwa 2, O’Toole 3).
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