Bishop McNamara girls close season as Md. Private School champions

The Bishop McNamara Mustangs trailed for less than a minute in Friday night’s Maryland Private School State Basketball Tournament championship game in Greenbelt. That brief nadir came with four minutes remaining in the second quarter as a hot-shooting Bullis team seized momentum and a one-point lead.

McNamara, playing its second championship game of this postseason, responded with fury. Nearly two weeks after they finished as the runners-up in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference, the No. 3 Mustangs were not about to let another title slip from their grasp. They pieced together a 21-2 run to end the half, setting themselves up for a 70-65 victory over the No. 8 Bulldogs.

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“After losing a championship game, we wanted a chance to end our season with a win,” junior guard Vanessa Harris said. “Now we’ve got some good energy to bring into next season.”

The Mustangs are the first program in recent years to earn the title of Maryland girls’ basketball private school champion. This was the debut of the eight-team tournament, an offshoot of a boys’ event that was founded by a group of local media members last winter.

Both the Mustangs and Bulldogs entered the tournament fresh off second-place finishes in their respective conference tournaments. In most years, that would represent the disappointing end of a long season. This new venture gave them something else to play for.

“I’m not going to lie, it was hard to reset after the WCAC tournament,” junior forward Zhen Craft said. “But being the first McNamara team to do this kind of tournament meant we really wanted to win it and finish this year on the right note.”

On Friday night at Eleanor Roosevelt High, the teams looked like an even match for the first quarter and a half as McNamara attacked the rim with aggression and Bullis fired away from three. The Mustangs held a slim lead until the second quarter, when Bullis (24-8) made its move and McNamara (27-5) responded with the game-changing run. It began with an and-one from Harris and continued thanks to a frenzied full-court press and some quick transition baskets.

“Both teams were pretty tired at that point, so we knew if we just found some more focus, we could take advantage,” Craft said. “I don’t always love pressing for an entire game, but being able to get those fast-break points is so much easier than working the shot clock. When we play fast, we’re an exciting team.”

Craft earned game MVP honors with 19 points, and Harris added 18. The Bulldogs mounted a late comeback in the fourth, cutting McNamara’s lead to just four points with under a minute left. This time, the Mustangs didn’t have to stem the Bulldogs’ surge. The clock took care of that. At the final buzzer, McNamara players and coaches crowded around a big, silver trophy — champions at last.