Mike Toro had seen all this before.
The last time the Bishop Ford coach was at Christ the King a little more than a week ago his team was within striking distance of nationally ranked Nazareth, but couldn’t produce enough offense after stops to make a serious run at a win. This time, with Ford’s season on the line it ran into the same woes in a 59-46 loss to Mary Louis in the CHSAA girls basketball Class AA state play-in game Monday in Middle Village.
“It always hurts when you can’t score the basketball,” Toro said. “When things go wrong we can’t go to one-one-one basketball. … When we listen and play as a team we look great, but we only had little sparks of that.”
Shanice Vaughan scored 17 points, Diani Mason had 10 and Aaliyah Lewis chipped in nine for Ford (12-15). Karin Robinson paced Mary Louis with 22 points and Jasmine Nwajei scored 16. The Falcons played without starting forwards Brittany Lewis (broken nose) and 6-foot-3 Brittany (Pookie) Martin (neck), drastically limiting their ability to defend and rebound in the paint.
“A kid like Brittany Lewis she is a double-double machine for us,” Toro said. “It hurts us scoring wise and Pookie just changes shot and clogs up the middle.”
His team led Mary Louis 22-20 with 6:12 left in the second quarter, but then watched Robinson lead a 15-2 run to help put TMLA ahead 37-27 at the half. The Falcons never got closer than eight points in the fourth quarter thanks to missed layups and open jumpers.
Ford entered the year with high expectation fresh off Toro’s first season that included wins over Christ the King and St. Michael Academy and a trip to the CHSAA Class AA state semifinals. Injuries contributed to a slow start early and the Falcons began to find themselves in the late season with wins over Bishop Loughlin and Archbishop Molloy.
Failing to get back to a state tournament ends a season of more disappointments than success, but Toro, who vowed to improve himself as a coach, loses just Mason and guard Anjali Moncrieffe, who are regular contributors.
“I feel like everybody out there is happy that we didn’t even make it to the states,” Toro said. “The best part about it is we pretty much have everybody back. Everybody else is losing people so next year it really comes down to, can we play basketball and for the ones who don’t believe in us, can you beat us?”