Democracy Dies in Darkness

Top-ranked St. John’s caps dominant season by defending DCSAA title

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Malu Tshitenge-Mutombo finished with 17 points and nine rebounds as St. John’s beat Maeve Carroll and Georgetown Visitation to win the DCSAA girls’ basketball title Sunday. (Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post)

Carly Rivera and her teammates laughed about the shot when the game was over and St. John's had secured its second consecutive D.C. State Athletic Association title, but there wasn't much smiling before it happened.

At that point, the Cadets were clinging to a one-point lead and in need of a bucket late in the fourth quarter of Sunday afternoon's final against Georgetown Visitation. Rivera, a sophomore guard, saw the defense playing back and drove into the paint, sending an awkward, off-balance runner off the glass and into the cylinder for the and-one. The unintended bank shot was part of a game-ending 15-1 run as St. John's pulled away for a 63-51 victory at George Washington's Smith Center.

“I feel like I had to play a bigger role, but at the end of the day it wasn’t just me,” Rivera said. “Everybody stepped up. Everybody did their part.”

In a rematch of the previous two DCSAA finals, No. 1 St. John's (31-2) captured the rubber match in a game that went back and forth until the final minute.

The No. 5 Cubs (27-4) trailed for most of the second half but took a 50-48 lead before the Cadets' fourth-quarter surge. Maeve Carroll scored 20 points and Ellie Mitchell added 12 while battling with sophomore Malu Tshitenge-Mutombo  in the paint.

Senior Aisha Sheppard  finished with 13 points, snapping out of her shooting slump and converting her first three-pointer to give the Cadets a 51-50 lead.

Rivera missed the free throw after her bank shot, but Tshitenge-Mutombo, the DCSAA championship MVP, converted a putback and completed the and-one to extend the lead to 58-51. The 6-foot-3 forward recorded 17 points and nine rebounds.

“There’s always someone there trying to push you around, but at the end of the day, just play your game and it’ll all be good,” Tshitenge-Mutombo said.

Playing most of the game without senior Niya Beverley (ankle), the Cadets leaned on their youth. Rivera finished with nine points, junior Jaylin Carodine scored 12 points and junior Sydney Wood added 10, contributing to a defense that locked down late in the fourth quarter.

“We just buckled down,” Carodine said. “We really wanted it, so we had to play defense. it starts on defense for us. That motivates our offense.”

Six days after toppling No. 2 Paul VI in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference final , St. John's survived another close game and celebrated another championship.

“This game was nerve-wrecking, but the same thing happened to us in the WCAC championship game,” Rivera said. “With a few minutes left when it was tied, we knew we could do it because we’d already done it.”