The Dynamic Duo of Mary Meng and Olivia DiFranco scored all but three of Midview’s points Dec. 17, and the Middies needed every one of them.
After being outworked in the first half by a game outfit from Avon Lake and coach Paul Appel, Midview turned things up in the second half and pulled out a 36-32 victory that was every bit as close as the score would indicate. The Middies are 7-1 overall and 4-1 in Southwestern Conference play, while the Shoremen fall to 4-4 and 2-3.
Holding Midview to one point in the final 5 minutes, 27 seconds of the second period, Avon Lake took a 17-13 lead into the halftime locker room. After playing what coach Brittney McNamara-Cole said was their worst half of the season, being behind was just what the Middies needed.
“Definitely being at a deficit at halftime was a wakeup call,” Meng said. “We knew we needed to find a way to win. They’re a good team, and if we didn’t wake up, this was a very losable game, and nobody wants that.”
After getting a stern talking to from McNamara-Cole, Midview came out in the third quarter with renewed vigor and effort. Avon Lake turned the ball over on its first four possessions of the quarter, eventually allowing the Middies to take a 25-22 lead into the fourth period.
“Good teams have bad days, and this was one of our bad days,” McNamara-Cole said. “Avon Lake is a great team. What Paul’s doing over there is really awesome. Those girls really work and grind it out and make you do things you’re not used to. But I told the girls, you can’t not have the heart and effort and just think you’re going to win the game. You have to get loose balls, you have to get rebounds, you can’t let those things just slip away.”
DiFranco opened the final quarter by hitting a scoop layup to make it 27-22, but Avon Lake’s Courtney Borland answered with a 3-pointer. Meng then missed two free throws — the Middies made just 6 of 15 for the game — but DiFranco grabbed the offensive rebound and put it back in for a 29-25 lead with 6:52 to play.
Borland, who led the Shoremen with 10 points, swished two free throws, and when teammate Claire Springer hit a 3-pointer after point guard Izzie Polinko drove into the paint and kicked the ball outside, Avon Lake was back on top, 40-29, with 4:54 remaining.
“They’re a really good basketball team,” Appel said. “They turned it up and they pressured the ball a little bit more, but we still have to be able to do our thing offensively. I thought we gave in a little bit to that. But they turned it up and we kind of turned it back a few times, even taking the lead midway through the last quarter.”
With 3:44 to go, Meng hit the second of two free throws, and then twice within the next 56 seconds she scored on offensive rebounds, giving the Middies a 34-30 lead with 2:48 to go. The 6-foot-5 Meng, who will play at Bowling Green next year, finished with 17 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks.
Avon Lake’s Brynn Bondar made a left-handed layup at the 2:00 mark to cut the margin to 34-32, and then the teams traded empty possessions until less than a minute remained. Then, DiFranco made the game-winning play, coming up with an offensive rebound and scoring from six feet out to reach the final score with 40 seconds left. The junior finished the game with 16 points.
“I told myself that it comes down to effort,” she said. “Getting offensive rebounds helps us so much and getting that putback helped us win the game.”
Appel, in his first year at Avon Lake, was both frustrated and proud after the game. His young team pushed Midview to its limits, but in the end the Shoremen weren’t able to finish it off.
“We’re building some things, but there are no moral victories,” he said. “We came here to win. We had opportunities late in the game. One rebound, one loose ball, one more shot goes in, and it’s maybe a different outcome. It’s detail things. It’s things I have to be better at. It’s things everybody has to be better at. But I’m really proud of our effort. I thought they competed really hard.”
The bottom line is that the pair of Meng and DiFranco was just too much for Avon Lake to overcome.
“They’re a special twosome,” said McNamara-Cole. “I’ve said from day one that they were going to change things here for us and they have. They’re going to continue to do what they do best.”
