High School

Mitty stuns No. 1 Long Island Lutheran in Nike TOC girls basketball title game

Fourth-ranked Monarchs win Titanic of championship game of the nation's top girls basketball tournament

Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports

Returning a who's who of top girls basketball prospects, including five-star seniors Kate Koval (Notre Dame signee), Syla Swords (Michigan) and Kayleigh Heckel (USC), the top-ranked Long Island Lutheran Crusaders have carried an aura of invincibility in the early going of the 2023-24 season. 

It's translated on the scoreboard as well with nine straight to open the season by an average margin of 30.6 points per game. 

But the road-weary Crusaders met their match Thursday night in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU, losing a wildly entertaining 73-72 game to No. 4 Archbishop Mitty of San Jose (Calif.) in the championship game of the premier division of the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix. 

Mitty celebrates Thursday's 73-72 win over Long Island Lutheran at Nike TOC in Phoenix.
Mitty celebrates Thursday's 73-72 win over Long Island Lutheran at Nike TOC in Phoenix / Courtesy photo by Mitty athletic department

Led by coach Sue Phillips, who is approaching 800 career wins over a brilliant 31-year career, the Monarchs gave their coach perhaps her biggest in the regular season, thanks to 19 points from SBLive Sports 2022-23 Freshman of the Year and tournament MVP McKenna Woliczko, 17 by UConn-signee Morgan Cheli and 11 from Elana Weisman. 

The victory was no fluke for the 7-0 Monarchs, who breezed to three earlier wins in what is considered the nation's top girls basketball tournament over Miami Country Day (62-35), Xavier College Prep &2-42) and Crestwood Prep (69-55).

Long Island Lutheran dropped to 9-1 despite 18 points from Lauryn Swann, 15 from Heckel, 14 by Swoards and 12 by her sister Savannah Swords. 

"I thought we did a good job continuing to respond offensively," Phillips told Aaron Williams of MaxPreps. "Then we had two great defensive stops at the end." 

A 3-point play by Weisman gave Mitty a 71-70 lead with 50 seconds left, but Syla Swords answered with a bucket before Cheli made two free throws with 16.4 seconds left. 

McKenna Woliczko
McKenna Woliczko was the tournament MVP / File photo by Darren Yamashita

Long Island Lutheran had three shots down the stretch that failed and Mitty prevailed, giving Phillips, who will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in the spring, her 797th career win against 138 defeats.

Mirry figures to jump to the top of the national rankings after Thursday's win. The Monarchs will be tested greatly at the Holiday Classic in Portland (Ore.) Dec. 28-30, opening with Texas power Desoto. 

Long Island Lutheran, playing its sixth game in less than a week after a tournament in the Bahamas, likely will just drop one spot. The Crusaders aren't scheduled to play next until Jan. 7. They have an upcoming big showdown with another California power Etiwanda on Jan. 15 at the Hoophall Classic in Boston. 

Etiwanda, which lost 55-52 to DeSota on Dec. 16, edged Mitty 69-67 in last season's CIF State Open Division title game.  

Published
Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports
MITCH STEPHENS, SBLIVE SPORTS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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