Agnew shephards St. Mary's to CHSAA title

With his team trailing for the first time in two months, St. Mary's Dante Agnew looked upward.

He wasn't sending up a prayer. Though, in Fordham University's cathedral-like gym, it would have been apropos. He was eyeing the clock high above. There was 6:50 left in regulation and the Gaels were down by nine points against Mount St. Michael in the CHSAA Class A final Saturday.

No miracles were needed here. Just vision.

St. Mary's managed to send it to overtime and eventually win a berth in the state Federation championship with a 78-70 win over Mount St. Michael, after outscoring the Mountaineers 20-12 in the fourth quarter. All the while, Agnew, Chavaughn Lewis and Charles McCann helped the undefeated Gaels (28-0) see their way through their first single-digit victory since their one-point win over New Rochelle on Jan. 15.

The Gaels travel to Albany later this month, where they take on the PSAL champion for a shot at the Federation title.

With 2:39 left in regulation, Agnew trained his eyes straight ahead -- sinking two free throws to give the Gaels a 63-61 lead. Peter Aguilar's putback with 2:21 left tied the score at 63 to send it to OT.

In the overtime, the St. Mary's point guard looked down low and found McCann with a pass. McCann converted the layup with 3:35 remaining, dropped a free throw 20 seconds later as St. Mary's took control.

SEE PHOTOSSt. Mary's 78, Mt. St. Michael 70

"It was a good pass," said McCann who had 16 points and 14 rebounds. "It feels great, it's great to have this."

Overtime was a drastically different story for both Mount St. Michael and Aguilar. The clearly rattled Mountaineers (26-2) shot 2-for-13 from the field and played the last 3:35 without Aguilar, who joined point guard Malik Gill and center Omari Manhertz -- both of whom had fouled out earlier -- on the bench.

Lewis had a team-high 30 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter and the Gaels went 8-for-12 from the line in the overtime.

"Chavaughn has been great," coach Bill Harkins said. "If he's not one of the top players in New York State, I don't know who is . . . and he's doing it against Mount St. Michael."

For a while, it was Aguilar who was doing it against St. Mary's. Aguilar, similar to Lewis in court presence and scoring, had 29 points, including a putback with 4:56 left in the third to give the Mountaineers a 40-39 lead. Mount St. Michael led 53-43 on Anthony Maestre's layup with 7:40 left in regulation.

"It could have been anyone's game," Harkins said, both lauding Mount St. Michael's and his team's own resolve. "We could have went away."

It would have been easy enough to be shell-shocked. St. Mary's has won its last two postseason games by margins of 13 and 22. Saturday's game seemed destined for the same, as the Gaels opened the scoring on a 8-0 run before a swift reversal in the third, where they were outscored 21-12.

"Coach told us to keep our composure," Lewis said. "We had our heads down."

Until, that is, they looked up.