The Aquinas High School girls basketball team faced a real possibility of walking out of the Bangor gymnasium Saturday night having to figure how to handle a four-game losing streak.
The Blugolds had lost three straight games to opponents with a combined 13-2 record and were playing the back half of a boys and girls doubleheader against the Cardinals.
It was loud, it was competitive (as expected), and it was tense. It represented potential disaster.
So the fact that junior Sammy Davis scored 26 points and sophomore Ava Fernholz made five free throws in the last 42.3 seconds for a 65-58 win over a Bangor team that won four of its first five games and has a chance to win the rest of its regular-season games was significant.
A 2-3 record, which the Blugolds have as they prepare to open the MVC season at Logan (1-3) on Thursday, is much different than 1-4.
“Oh, my gosh, this is a season-changer,” Aquinas coach Dave Donarski said. “It isn’t like we are all panicking, but our kids need to start believing they can get this done and win close games.”
Sticking with tradition, Donarski is challenging his team. Bangor, which is 115-21 since the start of the 2019-20 season and was 21-5 last year with most of that roster returning, qualifies as one of just a few local tests he can find. Bangor gave Aquinas all it could handle on Saturday.
The Blugolds led by as many as 15 points in the second half, but the Cardinals were twice within one possession before missing some late shots and putting Fernholz on the foul line.
Aquinas certainly wasn’t happy that Bangor played its way back into the game, but the manner in which it held on was important.
Davis had the huge game — she also had 10 rebounds — but foul trouble hampered her in the second half. She picked up her fifth foul with the Blugolds leading 57-52 with 2:35 to go, and they still found a way to finish off the victory.
“That’s a big step forward from where we were in the first four games,” Donarski said. “We were deferring to her, and she knows these kids around her can play. That’s starting to show up.”
Aquinas is the clear favorite this season in the MVC, where it will try and extend a 102-game winning streak when it plays the Rangers at the Steve Hole Field House. It is also looked at as a team that can make some noise in the regional and sectional tournament, which it has consistently for several years.
But even with Davis, who has a couple of Division I scholarship offers, Donarski’s team needs to develop some consistent weapons around her.
Those appeared against Bangor with Fernholz’s free throws, a key putback by Emma Dobbins on a missed free throw and three more 3-pointers by sophomore Olivia Passehl.
“That was great because I know a lot of teams think they just want to take away Samantha, but that’s not true,” Davis said. “Over the past five games we’ve had, I feel like this is the one where everyone contributed a lot, and everyone had confidence in themselves.
“It shows the growth in our team, and it only goes up from here.”
Passehl has made 11 of 39 attempts from the 3-point line and is a player the Blugolds will rely on heavily to help fill the void created by the graduation loss of Maddie Murphy after making 199 career 3-pointers — 88 of them last season. Passehl is averaging 10.2 points, which is second to the 14.2 ppg averaged by Davis.
Passehl made two of those 3s to push the Blugolds’ lead to eight points in the first half and had a steal and layup that gave Aquinas a 42-32 lead in the second. Her final 3 pushed the lead to 45-32 with 12:27 left.
Passehl’s shooting and continued improvement from Fernholz in her second season as a starting point guard will go a long way in easing the pressure on Davis as the season progresses.
Donarski also has depth on the perimeter with sophomore Eva Willenbring, the athleticism of junior Alaina Elias, the rebounding and perimeter shooting of Dobbins and senior Kathryn Savoldelli’s knack to do anything the team needs when it needs it at his disposal.
“We’re still somewhat young and learning,” Donarski said. “But to get a win over a team like (Bangor) is great for us.”
