MALITO KEEPS GIRARD’S HOPES ALIVE
By Matt Maher
GIRARD, OH – The final conference game of the regular season for these two squads came on Senior Night for Girard where the teams sole member of the class of 2024, Mia Malito, led her team to an impressive 69-44 victory of the Red Dragons.
The first quarter showed to be very close with Girard putting up 14 to Niles 16. Mia Malito got the game started with a pair of made free throws but Niles responded quickly and often. Malito found herself with 9 points with three 2’s and 3-of-4 made free throws; this would be her most dominant frame of the night. Ally Gassman found 3 points while Mackenzie White found the remaining 2. Emily Macik had the midas touch this quarter with two made 3’s both seeming automatic with no doubt of where they were going to land and a nice mid-range jumper she couldn’t be stopped. Hannah Grimm was also impressive with 4-of-4 made free throws.
Girard kept the pace in the 2nd while Niles had their struggles and a 15-7 quarter solidified that. Niles had trouble from the free throw line where, as a team, they went 1-for-6. Grimm found her first 4 points from the field while Caroline Cornell found her first points with a nice put back jumper. Carley Wilkes come on down! Wilkes rose to superstar quality in the 2nd with 7 points all through traffic that would clog most other players up. Whistle and Gassman both scored 2 points while Malito found 1-of-2 free throws.
The Indians kept the ball rolling after halftime with another 15 point frame while Niles found a mere 2 points. Emily Macik would find the only bucket of the frame for Niles while Mackenzie White took the lead on the other side with 5 points (two 2’s and 1-for-2). Malito, Wilkes and Gassman all found 2 while Ivory Hewitt went 2-for-2 from the stripe.
if you love high scoring by both teams then the 25-19 4th quarter was the quarter for you! Niles found the 19 points with Kherington Stanford and Grimm both finding 6 points with Stanford finding two 3’s while Grimm had two 2’s and went 2-for-3 from the stripe. The remaining points came from the free throw line. Girard found the majority of their points from the field with White scoring 7 points while Malito and Wilkes both scored 5. While those three showed up, so did Ally Gassman, who found two very unexpected 3’s late in the quarter that showed us a glimpse of what we could see as her career continues.
Girard played very well with Mia Malito leading all scorers with 17 points which was only fitting on her night of recognition! Hannah Grimm led the Red Dragons with 13 points with Emily Macik trailing her by only 3. Girard will finish in 2nd place in the NE8 1 game behind Poland but after the rocky start they had and the fantastic ending they found this team is going to be fun to watch come playoffs. Niles (7-14, 3-9) will finish off their season on February 8th when they travel to Badger for a 7:00PM tilt. Girard (12-8, 10-2) will play their last home game on February 10th when they host Ursuline at 2:30PM.
