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Mary Washington's Josh Wilson has his shot slapped away by Catholic's Matt Spierenburg
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Which is more preferable: a slow demise or a quick one?
The Mary Washington College men's basketball team suffered through both types in yesterday's 81-72 loss to Catholic University in the championship game of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament.
The Cardinals converted two-thirds of their field goal attempts in the first half (18-of-27) to forge a 43-36 lead, then iced the game with an agonizingly effective 27-of-32 effort from the free throw line in the second half.
In capturing the CAC tournament crown, the Cardinals avenged last year's 70-68 finals loss to MWC and, more importantly, assured themselves a berth in the NCAA Division III berth.
MWC (20-8), meanwhile, appears to have only an outside chance of receiving one of seven at-large bids.
"It was a tough game and I knew it would go down to the wire. I thought it would get closer at the end," Catholic coach Mike Lonergan said. "Year-in, year-out, we outscore our opponents from the foul line. We try to make their big guys shoot over us and not foul them."
MWC had little success working the ball inside against Catholic's towering front line. Six-foot-nine center Matt Spierenburg had three of the Cardinals' six blocks in the first half.
"We were trying to get points in the post, and it seemed like we weren't getting any breaks," said veteran Eagles guard Evan Fowler, who finished with 20 points and 11 assists. "And unfortunately, we made some bad defensive moves and fouled them on threes.
"We expected a hard-fought game," Fowler added. "We were always clawing back. We were always playing behind. I didn't think we would be down by eight with 1 minutes to go. I thought it would be closer game coming to the last shot."
Besides going against heavy traffic, MWC forward Ian Sumers was twice called for charging fouls in the first half. He then picked up a third charging call with 5:59 remaining that nullified the sophomore's layup, which would have cut the deficit to five.
"They get out on the shooters pretty well," Fowler said of Catholic's perimeter defense. "Usually we have a lot of penetration and that will get us some open shots. We made some but not enough. Partly we were relying on the threes too much because we weren't scoring or looking enough inside.
"When you're down 7-8 points the whole game, every shot seems like a big shot."
Added Eagles coach Rod Wood: "It's difficult playing behind because you expend a lot more energy catching up than you do extending or being in the lead. Any time you play a very good team, once you get caught up or you get close, a couple of things can happen and boom, all of a sudden the score is back to where it was before.
"And as the team that is trailing, you say, 'Jeez, we did all this and we're back to where we started from.' That's difficult."
Blair Mills led Catholic's balanced attack with 17 points. Sophomore Patrick Satalin turned in a stellar effort with 15 points and six assists.
The victory marked Catholic's first-ever road victory in CAC tournament play. Catholic's previous road games had resulted in a pair of losses to MWC and another to Goucher.
"This is the first time in three or four years that I knew we had to win it to make the tournament. That's a lot of pressure," Longergan said. "There's no doubt in my mind that they are one of the better teams and we are one of the better teams, but the way the system is, we probably both had too many losses coming in."
With or without an NCAA invitation, Wood said he feels the Mary Washington program is headed in the right direction.
"The more times that you knock on that door, the more veteran you get and the better prepared you are," he said. "We're still new at this and Mary Washington College is not accustomed to what is going on. Where we have come from is remarkable.
"As I told the guys, 'We put ourselves on the map. Now we have to keep knocking on the door.'"
Scoring
Catholic (23-5): William Morley 14, Patrick Dwyer 7, Blair Mills 17, Adam Dickman 10, Patrick Satalin 15, Mike Wasilenko 0, Aaron Kelly 4, Tim Burke 4, Steve Papageorge 0, Shane Sowden 6, Matt Tanner 2, Jeff Baccash 0, Matt Spierenburg 2. Totals: 23 30-37 81.
Mary Washington (20-8): Jon Hurd 5, Ian Sumers 6, Kevin Moore 2, Evan Fowler 20, Erik Rodriguez 11, Mike Lee 9, A.J. Fitzgerald 8, Josh Wilson 0, Paul Monica 0, Mike Moore 11. Totals: 29 4-11 72.
Halftime score: Catholic, 43-36.
Three-point goals: Catholic 5 (Morley 2, Satalin 2, Dickman); MWC 10 (Rodriguez 3, Lee 3, Fitzgerald 2, Hurd, Fowler).
Rebounds: Catholic 37 (Morley 7); MWC 26 (Hurd 4, Sumers 4, Fowler 4).
Assists: Catholic 11 (Satalin 6); MWC 18 (Fowler 11, Hurd 4).
To reach KURT NICOLL: 540/374-5441 knicoll@freelancestar.com
