By ASHTON TOWNSEND
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y.— Tournament MVP Emerson Wandtke netted 16 of her team-high 20 points in the second half as fourth-seeded Our Lady of Mercy used a 32-26 advantage to seal the Section V Class A title with a 54-35 win over No. 3 seed Honeoye Falls-Lima, Saturday at Finger Lakes Community College.
It’s the Monarchs’ first title since 2017 and 11th in program history.
The Monarchs entered the game with a 13-9 record. It may not have looked as pretty as the other records in Class A, but they were battle-tested.
“If you look at the 20 games we played (regular season, I think 10 of the teams that we played were either in the sectional finals, won it, or were in the semifinals,” Mercy head coach Tom McDonough said. “So we made sure we had played a hard schedule, and then when we came ranked, we were ranked fourth, and we liked our ranking.”
In the first quarter, senior Robin Jones netted the first four points of the game for Mercy and the Monarchs earned a lead they would never relinquish. Wandtke scored four points in the first quarter and Mercy had a 13-5 lead at the end of the first frame.
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In the second quarter, it was more of the balanced scoring for the Monarchs, Bridget Wise, Jones, Laura Kosten and Allison Barone all scored in the quarter to snag a 22-9 lead entering halftime.
Shaye Angelo led HF-L at halftime with five points; coming into the game, she was averaging nearly 25.
“We just had our best defender on her (Angelina Borrelli), she kind of three-quarter court face guarded her,” Jones said. “We all had to help and just kind of make them use their other players throughout the offense.”
Coming out of the half, Mercy outscored the Cougars 15-6. Wandtke scored six in the quarter and the Monarchs found their stride.
“We just thought that I had to get open because our shooters were shooting well, and I didn’t deliver the best in the first half,” Wandtke said. “They stepped off me in the second half, and we knew we had to take advantage of it. They found me down low, and then it opened up other shots for other people.”
In the final frame, Wandtke netted 10 points to seal it for the Monarchs.
“I actually brought her (Wandtke) up as a seventh grader out of the blue and said, ‘let’s have her play against Kearney tonight,’” McDonough said. “She came up and had 10 rebounds. Didn’t even know what she was getting herself into. She’s phenomenal. She works hard.”
Angelo poured in 18 points in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 27 points. Sarah Smith had five points and Alysa Richards ended with three points for the Cougars.
With the win, Mercy moves to 14-9 and moves on to the Class A Far West Regional.
“We said today we accomplished our number one goal,” McDonough said. “So we’re going to take tomorrow off, and then I’ll do some film.”
“We’re going to enjoy this for right now, but then we got to play in regionals and we will take it one game at a time,” Jones said.
Our Lady of Mercy will play the Section VI champion, either Lake Shore or Depew, in the NYS Class A Far West Regional scheduled for Saturday, March 14.
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