Mary Louis rides Shevlin to title

The ending was straight out of one of those Hollywood sports movies - the senior point guard and her coach embracing at the final buzzer, clutching onto one another tightly, savoring every second of a memory four years in the making.
Only this was real life. Real drama, too.
Casey Shevlin stood near half court, dribbling the clock out in Mary Louis’s upset of St. Peter’s, 74-65, in the CHSAA Class A final Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx.
When the horn finally sounded and her teammates celebrated with one another, she just stood there in amazement before Joe Lewinger, the Hilltoppers’ coach, raced over, engulfing her in a hug.
“It’s just four years of going through the system,” Lewinger said, “waiting our chance and seizing the opportunity.”
“We’ve been waiting for this for so long,” Shevlin added. “I guess it’s a buildup of energy. This is the climax of everything I’ve worked for.”
Shevlin, however, isn’t done yet. Mary Louis will make the trip upstate to Glens Falls for the state Federation tournament for the first time since 2002 when they won the Class D title. They have a bye into the Class A final Saturday morning, where they will meet the PSAL-PHSAA winner.
Sophomore Amanda Burakoski led Mary Louis (23-7) with 29 points, Shevlin had 21 and Maral Javadifar scored 15. Candice Bellocchio finished with a team-high 19 points for St. Peter’s.
A week after blowing an eight-point fourth quarter lead at Christ the King in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan final, the Hilltoppers were not going to preside over another collapse. After a 21-point first-half lead was slowly vanquished by St. Peter’s, who got even with 1:23 remaining on a Bellocchio right wing 3-pointer, Mary Louis took over, outscoring the Eagles 11-2 down the stretch.
Burakoski picked off a St. Peter’s pass and went coast-to-coast for a hoop to extend a one-point lead to three; Javadifar netted a pair of free throws from the line, and Shevlin knocked down 7-of-8 at the charity stripe.
“She composes the entire team,” Lewinger said. “Casey just relaxes us. She’s just a person that controls everything.”
In much the same fashion as in Sunday’s loss to Christ the King, Shevlin demanded the ball from her teammates down the stretch. But on this occasion, she finished, navigating the St. Peter’s press, which caused havoc for the Hilltoppers earlier. “If anything, that motivated me and the other girls,” she said of the loss to CK. “I was just like, ‘we are not losing this game.’ ”
Lewinger had a feeling their role as the underdog to the defending state champs would help. He saw it in pre-game warm-ups and in the speeches before the opening tip. “I just felt like today was a little bit more relaxed,” Lewinger said.
The Hilltoppers came out firing on all cylinders, racing out to a 28-7 lead behind 12 quick points from Burakoski, and leading 42-27 at halftime. “We were just extremely excited,” she said. “Nobody focused too hard on the game or got nervous.”