WILMINGTON – St. Elizabeth’s girls basketball team welcomed back a key piece of their puzzle on Jan. 3, and Ber’Nyah Mayo didn’t take long to inject herself into the Vikings’ offense. Mayo took a pass off the opening tip and laid in a bucket just three seconds into the contest, one St. Elizabeth would go on to win, 73-38.
Mayo had missed the team’s first seven games with a knee injury, and the Vikings went 3-4 in those games. But with her and forward Ashley Campbell back in the rotation, combined with the wealth of talent otherwise on the roster, St. Elizabeth figures to be a big factor in Delaware girls basketball over the next two months.
But for 16 minutes of the matchup with the Auks, the game was a back-and-forth affair. Archmere did much of its scoring from the free throw line, taking 24 attempts in the first half. Keeley Ciszkowski came off the bench to provide scoring punch for the Vikings, hitting a pair of three-pointers in the second quarter. The Auks took a 25-24 lead with 35.5 seconds remaining in the half on a pair of Fiona Teaney free throws.
Julie McCarron tied the game with a free throw, but the Auks regained the one-point advantage when Izzy Gioffre went one-for-two from the line. Mayo gave the crowd a taste of what it had missed during the first month of the season, hitting a 15-foot spinning jumper with a second left to put St. Elizabeth in the lead at the break.
That seemed to spark the Vikings, and they would not lose the momentum the rest of the night. St. Elizabeth came out of the locker room with a purpose, and by the middle of the third quarter, the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt.
The scoring started with two free throws from Campbell. Lauren Kim answered for the Auks, but that would be their lone field goal of the quarter. The Vikings then went on a 12-0 run that included three-pointers from Olivia Lynch and Campbell, a Mayo steal and layup, and a Naia Pulliam coast-to-coast layup following another steal.
After two Auks free throws, St. Elizabeth erased all doubt with a 13-0 stretch. Campbell and Ciszkowski each had old-fashioned three-point plays. Campbell finished a fine third quarter with another triple, this with six seconds left on the clock.
The Auks got 13 points from Teaney, with 11 of those coming in the first half. Gioffre scored eight of her 10 in the first half. Both players made several trips to the free-throw line as the Auks pounded the ball inside time after time. As they fell behind in the second half, they shifted their shooting to the outside, but those were not falling.
With the loss, Archmere fell to 4-4. The Auks return to the court on Thursday when they host Newark Charter at 6:15 p.m.
For St. Elizabeth, Ciszkowski led the way with 17 points. McCarron had 12, while Campbell added 11. Mayo finished with nine in her season debut while playing limited minutes. The Vikings (4-4) are off until next Thursday as well. They will host Ursuline for a 7:15 p.m. start.
