By Laura Amato
Jenna Mastellone wasn’t nervous. If anything, she was happy to step up to the free throw line. She likes taking free throws.
The Archbishop Molloy senior missed her first shot. She made sure she didn’t miss the second.
Mastellone drained the shot, lifting the Stanners to a 51-50 overtime victory over Monsignor Scanlan on Thursday.
“After I missed the first one, I was just, ‘Oh my gosh.’ So I just knew I had to make it,” she said. “This is amazing. I just ran into the locker room screaming.”
The Stanners struggled to find consistency in the early minutes of the non-league matchup, sparked only by Mastellone. She scored all 11 of her squad’s first quarter points and, going into the break down 25-16, Molloy coach Scott Lagas knew something had to change.
“In the beginning of the game we talked about how if you work hard, you can make mistakes and they wont’ be as magnified,” Lagas said. “I think that in the first half we weren’t there yet, but in the second half we worked so hard – energy from everyone.”
The Stanners got a jolt of offense from Gabby Devito who drained a pair of three-pointers midway through the quarter to give Molloy its first lead since the opening basket of the night. The squads went into the fourth quarter knotted at 36-36 and Molloy didn’t take its foot off the metaphorical gas in the final eight minutes of play.
Scanlan couldn’t connect on its first field goal until the final minute of the fourth quarter, slowed down by Molloy’s 2-3 zone defense.
“We actually played matchup zone the entire game, we just played it better in the second half,” Lagas said. “They got it done a little bit more in that second half.”
The Stanners forced overtime with just 30 seconds on the clock as Taylor Kurs connected on her second free throw attempt to knot the game at 44-44.
Scanlan did its best to rally in extra time, but the Crusaders continued to struggle against Molloy’s zone and while Mastellone’s free throw proved to be the game-winner with 35.9 seconds left, it was the Stanners’ defense that was the difference-maker.
The Crusaders missed their final two shots of the night.
“In the last quarter we were getting up in their faces and they couldn’t take a good shot,” Mastellone said. “That last possession she had to shoot it because there wasn’t anything else she could have done.”
It wasn’t always perfect and it took a little while for Molloy to hit its stride, but the Stanners were pleased with the effort down the stretch and the ability to hold on when things got tight.
It’s a confidence boost for Molloy and most importantly, a lesson: free throws are important and so is energy.
“I know that we can be good if we work hard,” Lagas said. “If we don’t come out with the same intensity and the same enthusiasm every single quarter, every single game, that’s when we’re in trouble.”
