Fontbonne JV’s late run falls short to McClancy

January 15, 2016 Jim Dolan

Photo courtesy of Jim Dolan

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McClancy 56 Fontbonne 53

For both teams, this early season meeting of undefeated junior varsities would be a fight for first place as 4-0 Fontbonne hosted 3-0 McClancy for the league’s top spot.

With the second quarter coming to a close and Fontbonne down by eight, the Bonnies took a blow to the team when Allison Bartholomeo left the court after taking an elbow to the nose. Later, Bartholomeo would recover and make her return late in the game to turn the game around for Fontbonne for a near win.

Matching up against their Queens counterparts, the Bonnies couldn’t stop the game’s high scorer, Leeandra Ortiz (20 points), as she led the Crusaders to a 30-20 advantage at the half. McClancy also dominated the second half as the Crusaders led 50-36 to start the fourth quarter as Jill Howard (18 points) and Winter Charles (15 points) kept the offense alive for the Bonnies.

With the return of Bartholomeo to the floor in the fourth quarter, the Bonnies regained their composure and went on a lightning quick 17-6 run to come just two points away (55-53) from McClancy with 10 seconds left. Having burned all of his time-outs, JV Coach Anthony Bartholomeo couldn’t set up a play from the half court sideline and had to “go long,” in-bounding the ball from under the basket.

As she had routinely done in practice, Ryan Carlton took the final three-point game-winning attempt from half court that landed just to the left of the rim. “In practice, she makes that shot fifty percent of the time,” said Coach Bartholomeo. “This was simply not one of those times.”
After the game, Coach Bartholomeo congratulated his team on its comeback but also told players that they have to hustle all game like they did in the fourth quarter. “We gave them a scare tonight,” said the 4-1 JV Coach. “Let’s see what we can do when we meet them [4-0 McClancy] on their home court.”

In the following game, the 2-2 Fontbonne Varsity fell to first place 4-0 McClancy, 48-34.