The legendary “zone” athletes are said to enter amid a special performance is difficult to describe, but when one sees it happen, they know. Friday night in its National Division finale against Mayfair, Archbiship Mitty forward Aaron Gordon entered that zone.
The 6-foot-8 junior scored 14 of his 35 points in a fourth quarter in which the Monarchs overcame a 14-point deficit. He took the game over, setting up his Monarch teammates for scores on those rare occasions he wasn’t lighting up the scoreboard himself.
“Coming back doesn’t all come in one possesion,” Gordon said of the Monarchs’ rally approach. “We had to only worry about one possession at a time.”
Each possession in the decisive final quarter was unique, yet oddly similar, as a determined Gordon went to work.
The Monarch stonecutter’s approach of chip, chip, chipping away at Mayfair’s advantage fueled Archbishop Mitty’s comeback. It didn’t hurt that the Monarchs had two jackhammers in Gordon and Thomas Peters.
Peters buried two 3-pointers in the final stanza and notched 12 of his 20 points in that eight-minute span.
The Monarchs finally took the lead with under two minutes remaining, when Gordon followed three straight scores with an assist to Peters.
It was the culmination of an arduous process to overcome what was a very strong showing from Mayfair.
Mayfair jumped on Archbishop Mitty early. Monsoon forward Dion Wright was aggressive in his attack of the rim. He also unloaded from behind the 3-point arc, sinking a pair of triples in a big first half for the Monsoons.
Wright scored 23 points to lead Mayfair. He garnered All-Tournament honors. Brian Wright and Myles Smith both tagged on 12 points apiece for the Monsoons. All 12 of Smith’s came on four successful 3-point attempts.
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