The Middletown High School girls basketball team will head to UMBC at 3P.M. on Friday to take on the Randallstown High School Girls Basketball in the 2A State Semifinal at the RAC Arena.
The Knights come into the game after completing a magical run through the 2A West Region Tournament that saw them have to go on the road to win three out of the four playoff games and have to beat three of the four top ranked teams in their region.
The #8 seed Knights started off their magical playoff run, with a 54-47 win over the #9 seed Williamsport High School Girls basketball team, in the Knights only home game of the playoffs. The Knights started off the game against the Wildcats slow, with the score tied at 28 but came out with guns blazing in the second half and wore down Williamsport in the end to win 54-47. The Knights were led by the play of senior Caitlin McLister and sophomore Carly Tolino who had 20 and 10 points respectively.
The Knights struggled offensively in the game and seemed out of sync for most of the game. Defensively the Knights also struggled letting Victoria Key of Williamsport get a large amount of open three point shots which she made. If not for the play of McLister the Knights could have lost this game. Even though the Knights won they knew that they would need better if they wanted to make it to UMBC.
The Knights next game would be up against the #1 seed and hated rival Walkersville High School Girls Basketball team in the 2A West Quarterfinal. Knowing they needed a better performance than the last game the Knights did just that and went out and played what had been there best 32 minutes of basketball all year. The Knights played the game with a high level of intensity and hustle which showed in the number of blocks and steals they had. For the second straight game in a row McLister was the leading scorer for the Knights with 25 points while she also set the tone with three blocks and a couple of steals. It wasn’t just McLister doing the dirty work though with junior Jess Racz making some crucial three pointers for the Knights.
At halftime the Knights were tied with the Lions at 19 but took a small lead in the third quarter by 3 points. The Knights would blow it open in the fourth quarter though converting the foul shots after Walkersville had to start fouling to stop the clock. The difference in free throw shooting in the fourth quarter proved to be the deciding factor as the Knights were 10/16 from the line while the Lions were 3/9.
The 2A West Semifinal was next for the Knights and they would take on the other Knights, the #4 seed Century High School Girls Basketball team. This was the classic trap game for the Knights as even though Century was the four seed they were regarded as not worthy of the four seed because the teams they played were easy and therefore boosted their record to the point where they got a bye. Middletown started the game off slow, playing like they did in the Williamsport game. In the first quarter, Middletown started off hot outscoring Century 13-4 in the first quarter but slowed down form there and couldn’t produce the offense they needed.
Missed shots and turnovers were frequent for the Knights in this game and even though they escaped with a 50-40 win, it was becoming apparent that eventually this cat would run out of lives.
Next up for the Knights was the 2A West final against the #2 seed Poolesville High School Girls basketball team in the friendly confines of The Falcons Gymnasium. Both teams came out of the gate well with Racz knocking down shots for the Knights and Rosie Barry hitting shots for the Falcons. The Knights opened up the game in the second quarter after being down by one after the first quarter, outscoring the Falcons 15-5.
The Knights continued to play until the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter the Knights had trouble knocking down their shots and started to try and force the ball offensively leading to turnovers and dropped passes. The Falcons took full advantage of this and started reading Middletown passes, intercepting them, and taking them down the court for easy buckets. The Knights would fight back though even when it seemed they had been struck a mortal blow. The Knights were down by two with 6 seconds left when Middletown senior Connar Kelly took it down the court and was fouled taking a shot. Kelly calmly sank both shots and sent the game to overtime.
In overtime the Knights were down to start but with a huge three point play by Tolino put the Knights up by one point and they never looked back from there. The Knights have put together a pretty impressive run through the regional playoffs and it is not surprising that people have pegged the Knights as a “Cinderella story” as a run of this magnitude might need a little Disney magic.
Senior Tisa Mullins disagrees with that statement though saying, “We knew all along that we could do this, we just needed to make ourselves believe it.”
The Knights will take on a Randallstown team that had a 13-4 record in the regular season and was the #1 seed in the 2A North Region. Not much is known about this team as online stats and records are difficult to find but the Knights did get a chance to look at the Knights before this game at the Christmas Tournament that both the Knights and the Rams were scheduled to play in New Town.
The Knights and Rams were scheduled to play each other but inclement weather on the 23rd canceled the game. The Rams rolled through their region without any trouble, receiving a bye in the first and then going on to beat Carver Vocational and Technical high School 60-46.
They then racked up a big win in the 2A North Semifinal by a score of 42-19 and then had the toughest game they had played this season in the 2A North Final over Chesapeake by a score of 60-50. During the regular season the Rams went 12-4 but struggled to score averaging only 45 points per game.
