By late in the third quarter yesterday at No. 1 Towson Catholic, the Seton Keough girls could feel the upset coming on.
With just about every basket, the Gators celebrated with high-fives, leaps into each others arms or excited yells.
The No. 4 Gators got more and more excited as they built a 10-point lead into a 72-48 victory in an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference semifinal.
Seton Keough (23-4) will meet No. 2 and three-time defending champion St. Frances in the A Conference championship tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Villa Julie College. The Gators last appeared in the title game in 2002.
Sparked by tough man-to-man defense and a well-oiled inside-outside game, the Gators beat the Owls for the second time in three meetings this season.
Forward Haliena Snowden scored 20 points and 6-foot-3 center Aysa Bussie 17, while guards B.J. Williams added 18 and Aricka Ullman 13.
"Wow," said Williams, whose defense held Owls guard Marah Strickland to 12 points - well short of her 23.5 average. "We just kept our composure through everything. We had fans yelling at us and lots of fouls going on, but we just stuck together."
After a 25-25 halftime tie, the Gators began edging ahead in a frantic third quarter in which the two teams combined to hit 16 of 23 shots in the first 5 1/2 minutes.
The Gators built a six-point lead that grew to 53-41 by the time Ullman fed Williams for a three-pointer in the final seconds of the third quarter.
The Owls (22-5) cut the lead to nine on a Brianna Wise jumper to open the fourth quarter, but they couldn't get closer.
"We did a great job in the fourth quarter," Gators coach Jackie Boswell said. "The momentum got in our direction, our enthusiasm took over and it became easy for us."
The Owls seemed rattled by some of the referees' calls that went against them early on and they never fully recovered.
"It was the mental aspect of the game," Owls first-year coach Matt Fisher said. "They were frustrated and I tried to get them to calm down and relax and play through it. This is the first time they had faced adversity that was extended throughout the game ... and they couldn't get over it. It's still a young team."
In the other semifinal, St. Frances took over a close game late in the third quarter to get past visiting and No. 5 McDonogh, 60-50.
Kandice Green (team-high 17 points) and Mi-Khida Hankins (14 points) dominated inside as the Panthers had 19 points off offensive rebounds.
With the game tied at 36, host St. Frances (23-3) went on an 11-0 run to take a 47-36 lead one minute into the fourth quarter. Green and Hankins accounted for eight points in the run.
"Kandice and Mi-Khida are special players around the basket," St. Frances coach Jerome Shelton said. "Overall, I thought our execution got better as the game went on against their zone. [The championship] should be a great game and I expect both teams to come out and play well."
McDonogh guard Brittany Mallory, playing on a sore ankle, led the Eagles (20-8) with a game-high 19 points.
"I'm very proud of the McDonogh girls basketball team tonight," McDonogh coach Tom Gizzi said. "St. Frances is a very talented team and the margin of error is always very minimal for us. We did all we could, but they're so athletic and quick to the basketball you have to hope they miss some jumpers and you get body on body."
katherine.dunn@baltsun.com
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