Seton rolls to CAAC crown

When the outcome of the Capital Area Athletic Conference girls basketball championship game was on the line Saturday, experience proved to be much stronger than young talent.
The five senior starters for Seton School made sure of that. The Lady Conquistadors scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to blow the game open and cruise to a 68-41 victory over Christ Chapel Academy at Manassas Park High School.
The victory gave Seton (17-6) its fourth consecutive CAAC title. Christ Chapel (21-3), with just two juniors as the oldest on its 11-player roster, showed it will be a force to be reckoned with in the future as it reached the championship game in its first season as a member of the conference.
Eighth-grader Hannah Hayes scored a game-high 26 points and added 10 rebounds to lead Christ Chapel. Classmate and CAAC regular season Most Valuable Player Breyana Mason had nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds, while junior Danielle Lobo scored the Lions’ other six points.
Senior Mimi Myers led Seton with 22 points, while classmates Sarah Sewell and Danielle deLatour added 15 and 14 points, respectively. Add the nine points scored by Theresa McCullough (seven) and Marion Lazano, and the starters contributed 60 of Seton’s points.
“Seton has a real tradition of winning at the conference level,” Lady Conquistadors head coach Dick Pennefather said. “These seniors wanted this championship and weren’t going to be denied.”
The beginning of each of the second, third and fourth quarters were keys to the Lady Conquistadors’ success. Seton broke a 14-14 tie with a 9-0 run to open the second quarter, then held off a Hayes rally (she scored all eight of Christ Chapel’s points in the period) to hold a 28-22 advantage at intermission.
Myers, deLatour and Sewell each scored in a 6-0 Lady Conquistadors’ run midway through the third quarter to expand Seton’s lead to 37-26 with 3 minutes 32 seconds left in the period. But again, the Lions rallied to cut the lead to 42-34 at the end of three.
That’s when Seton put the game away. Sewell and deLatour each hit three-pointers (the Lady Conquistadors made 11 in the game) and McCullough had two baskets in the 10-0 spurt to open the fourth quarter.
After Mason hit a short jumper to stop the streak, Seton went on another 10-0 run to take a 62-36 lead with 3:34 remaining.
“Coach told us [at halftime] our play in the third quarter would determine the game,” Myers said. “We held off their run, and in the fourth quarter, we had confidence we would keep the lead.”
“We’re a very young team, but you have to give Seton all the credit,”
Christ Chapel assistant coach Quinton Mason said. “They’ve been playing together a long time, and in a championship game, they knew what it would take to win. They took Breyana out of the game and Hannah stepped up, but she didn’t have any help.”
Seton’s season is far from over. The Lady Conquistadors, ranked seventh in the state independent school rankings, begins play in a week in the Delaney Athletic Conference tournament, where it will likely meet Highland (ranked fourth) for the title. Then, if Seton finishes in the top 10 in the state rankings, it will be invited to the Virginia Independent Schools tournament.
“The DAC tournament is going to be a tough one, particularly with Highland there,” Pennefather said. “But these seniors have another championship in their sights, so I won’t count them out.”
NOTES: Christ Chapel also has more basketball ahead. The Lions will compete in the Hoops Magic tournament next week, which features a number of independent schools not eligible for the state tournament … Hayes, Myers and Sewell joined Mason on the CAAC all-conference team announced during the awards ceremony … Jasmine Millender (Word of Life) and Kelsey Lucas (Fredericksburg Christian) also were named to the first team.