High school girls basketball: No. 12 Bishop McNamara beats Long Island Lutheran 61-58 for Nike Tournament of Champions title

MESA, Ariz. — No. 12 Bishop McNamara (Forestville, Md.) took down Long Island Lutheran (Brookville, N.Y.) 61-58 on Monday to win the Vincent Cannizzaro Division at the Nike Tournament of Champions. It's the first title in the highest classification at the event since 2003.

Bishop McNamara took down two top-ranked teams over the course of three days after beating No. 1 Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.) 53-50 in the semifinals. Long Island Lutheran is No. 1 in the National Top 10 rankings. 

The Mustangs got a measure of payback for a 63-56 loss to Long Island Lutheran earlier this month at the Capital Invitational. Junior Dottie Eatmon scored a game-high 19 points for the champions while Qandace Samuels added 14, Jaylah King scored 14 and Nyair McCoy chipped in nine.

Bishop McNamara took an early lead before Long Island Lutheran flipped the score and raced to leads of 20-12 after one period and 34-27 at half. 

But McNamara chipped into the deficit in the third period as Kasey Robinson, Samuels and King scored eight unanswered to end the third as the Mustangs trailed 43-42 after three.

A Eurostep layup from McCoy early in the fourth gave the Mustangs their first lead since early in the game. Savannah Swords would answer back the next time down the court for a 47-46 Long Island Lutheran edge. Eatmon answered with a 3-pointer a minute later for a lead BIshop McNamara would not relinquish.

Swords led Long Island Lutheran with 14 while Emily McDonald had 13 and Olivia Jones and Sanai Green each added 10.

In the third-place game, Maliya Hunter scored 29 points as Archbishop Mitty bounced back from a rough free throw-shooting night Saturday to beat No. 3 Bullis (Potomac, Md.) 58-46.

Mitty led 25-20 at the half as Hunter led the way with nine points, all in the first period. The Monarchs jumped out to a 17-6 lead after the first eight minutes before Bullis roared back in the second behind six points from Adina Asuelimen to cut the edge to 25-20.

The Monarchs took a 46-31 lead into the fourth as Hunter hit a 3-pointer right before the third-quarter horn. But Bullis defense held Mitty scoreless for the first four minutes of the final stanza, trimming the lead to 48-39.

A pair of technicals whistled against Bullis put Mitty at the line for four free throws, which Hunter converted to give the Monarchs a 52-39 lead and extinguish hope for the Bulldogs.

In addition to Hunter's 29, Tee McCarthy added 12. Nwude paced Bullis with 11 points.