Second-half surge sends Waterloo basketball to third straight Class B1 title
It got to the point where enough was enough.
After a 3-pointer early in the third quarter gave the Palmyra-Macedon girls a five-point lead, Waterloo responded with a passion and a fury that left Pal-Mac in the dust. And when the final horn sounded, the Waterloo girls were Section V Class B1 champs again with a decisive 65-47 win Saturday at Rush-Henrietta High.
“Energy,” said Waterloo senior Morgan Caraballo, the Class B1 MVP who scored 22 points. “Energy is everything for us.”
It was a 3-pointer from Georgia Wirth that put No. 2 Pal-Mac (19-4) in front, 32-28 early in the third. But Natalie DiSanto answered with her own 3, then another for top-seeded Waterloo (22-1) and from there it was a 25-2 run to close the third quarter.
“They do a good job of hanging with us and that frustrates us,” Waterloo coach Mike Bree said. “We get uncomfortable when we don’t get that big run.”
Key play: The Waterloo run
Erika Mitchell hit a 3-pointer for Pal-Mac at the first-half buzzer for a 26-25 lead. It’s not often that Waterloo is trailing at the half and Bree said he was tempted to light a halftime fire.
But he kept it calm, discussed the need for more energy and had a few minutes to spare before the third quarter started. And when the Waterloo players decided to talk amongst themselves, he walked away with a good feeling.
“They wouldn’t have done that a couple of years ago,” he said.
More:Section V girls basketball scores for the 2022-23 season
Caraballo said the discussion was simple.
“We just got ourselves hyped up,” she said. “We were down a little bit.”
The result was the 25-2 run, sparked in large part by a defense that forced turnovers and open looks for the shooters. DiSanto, Caraballo and Maci Mueller all hit 3-pointers for the Tigers and Jazzmyn Lewis scored six points.
Pal-Mac, meanwhile, went nearly a full quarter without a field goal.
“They shot lights out in the second half,” Pal-Mac coach Dan Harris said. “Our youth showed, and their experience showed.”
By the numbers
Caraballo led all scorers with 22 points and Lewis scored 17 for Waterloo. For Pal-Mac, Taryn Goodness and Wirth each scored 10 and Marianna Hodgins and Molly Seither each scored 10.
They said it
Pal-Mac coach Dan Harris: “I’m incredibly proud of the way my girls played. We did things no one else thought we would.”
Waterloo coach Mike Bree: “Morgan (Caraballo) was the most frustrated but it’s just a matter of time. She’s going to find her groove.”
Section V Class B1 All-Tournament team
Kylie Buckley (Livonia), Grace Murphy (Midlakes), Natalie DiSanto (Waterloo), Taryn Goodnes (Pal-Mac), Jazzmyn Lewis (Waterloo), Marianna Hodgins (Pal-Mac). MVP: Morgan Caraballo (Waterloo).
This article originally appeared on MPNnow: Second-half surge sends Waterloo to third straight Class B1 title
