Mount St. Joe defeats Spalding for MIAA A boys basketball championship

Gaels pick up their 35th win with a 57-52 victory over Archbishop Spalding in the league title game

BALTIMORE - After a home overtime victory over Mount Carmel in December, Mount St. Joseph basketball coach Pat Clatchey walked back inside the Smith Center gym to retrieve his board off the bench. Several spectators congratulated him on the win.

“We’re not that good,” Clatchey said as he headed back out.

The Gaels were a work in progress in December through the first month of the new year. Now, in the “money-time” of the postseason, Mount St. Joseph is Mount St. Joseph.

The Gaels outlasted Archbishop Spalding, 57-52, in the MIAA A Conference championship game Saturday at UMBC’s Chesapeake Employees Insurance Arena. Senior guard Jordan Brathwaite had 19 points and five assists and Ryan Truitt added 14 for Mount St. Joseph (35-4 overall).

In another memorable title game crescendo in the area’s toughest league, the Gaels were again poised in the heart-pounding final stages to win their third MIAA A crown over the last four full seasons. There was no MIAA season in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mount St. Joseph, with a 57-52 championship game victory over Archbishop Spalding, won its third MIAA A Conference basketball title in the last four full seasons, Saturday at UMBC. (Photo by Derek Toney)

A year after losing in overtime to St. Frances, costing them the first 3-peat in MIAA A basketball history, Mount St. Joseph basked in a shower of confetti in the bowels of CEI Arena Saturday evening.

Clatchey was reminded of the comment he made back in December.

“It’s a process, you have to coach your guys everyday, prepare them,” said Clatchey, who added an eighth MIAA A title to his iconic resume at his alma-mater. “Guys have to buy in and accept their roles.”

Joe Green was a reserve last season on a team that featured Division I recruits Amani Hansberry (Illinois), Ace Valentine (UMBC) and Austin Abrams (Stonehill). Saturday, the junior forward showed why he’s arguably the Gaels’ most indispensable performer this season.

Tied at 49, Green swiped away Spalding’s RJ Newton’s layup attempt with 2 minutes, 39 minutes remaining in regulation, leading to a Pruitt floater, giving Mount St. Joseph the lead for good. On the ensuing Cavalier possession, Green grabbed a loose ball and the Gaels called a timeout.

Tyonne Farrell got a tough jumper to fall in the lane, extending Mount St. Joseph’s lead to 53-49 with 1:50 to play.

Green had two rebounds, an assist, a steal and the block in the critical final eight minutes Saturday, finishing overall with seven points, five rebounds and two assists.

“We just can’t rely on two guys making plays, everybody has to step up and fill a role,” said Green, 6-foot-3.

Spalding (20-8) pulled to 53-51 on a basket from Malik Washington off a Kam Carter steal. The Cavaliers got the ball back after a Gael miss, but missed on a jumper with 37 seconds remaining.

Pruitt, who scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, converted two free throws with 11.8 seconds left, putting Mount St. Joseph up, 55-51. Spalding made it a one possession game, 55-52, after a Moe Longeran free throw with five seconds remaining before Brathwaite sealed the title with 4.2 seconds.

Brathwaite, a transfer from Good Counsel, said the Gaels relish late game situations.

“We’ve seen these types of situations…’hey guys, we’ve been here, let’s execute, let’s defend, let’s get stops and we’ll come out with the win,” said Brathwaite, who’s committed to Yale University. “We practiced this constantly and you see the outcome.”

The Gaels led 31-22 early in the second half, but Spalding, led by Washington, stormed back. The 6-foot-4 forward who’s one of the nation’s top football quarterback prospects in the Class of 2025, capped a 14-4 run with a basket giving Spalding its first lead with 2:35 left in the third.

The Cavaliers, playing in their first MIAA A final since Rudy Gay guided the Anne Arundel County school to the 2004 crown, led five more times Saturday, the last at 49-47 on Jaylin Sykes’ 3-pointer with 4:09 left in regulation.

With Gay, who played 17 seasons in the NBA, in attendance Saturday, Spalding was unable to convert on three game-tying opportunities in the final three minutes. Washington finished with a game-high 20 points and 14 rebounds and sophomore Elijah Barrett added 11 and four rebounds.

“We have a lot of resilience on this team." We were down nine, called timeout and came right back into the game,” said Cavaliers coach Josh Pratt, whose team lost for the third time this season to Mount St. Joseph (total of 15 points). “They (Mount St. Joseph) made a couple of more plays…the best thing about our league is we have another tournament. We have to get ourselves back together and keep working.”

Next up is the 53rd Baltimore Catholic League Tournament, starting Friday at Goucher College, where Spalding and Mount St. Joseph could meet for a fourth time in the semifinals Saturday.

The Cavaliers, the No. 4 seed, will take on fifth-seed St. Maria Goretti, playing in its final BCL tourney (school closing at end of current school year). Mount St. Joseph, the regular season champ and top seed, plays eight-seed Calvert Hall.

“If somebody told me we’d be 35-4, I wouldn’t believe them with what we lost, and the inexperience we had coming back,” said Clatchey. “I’m very proud…Unexpected.”