Catonsville girls basketball gets career-high from Emily Bartlett in 55-29 senior night victory over Dundalk (2024)

Senior Emily Bartlett scored 17 of her career-high 24 points in the first half to propel host Catonsville to a 55-29 victory over Dundalk on senior night.

Bartlett and seniors Ellie Altmann, Katie DeWitt and Jaynie Simpkins were recognized before the game and all four scored in the first quarter when the Comets built a 20-9 lead. Bartlett had eight points, three offensive rebounds, two steals and an assist in the opening quarter.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Bartlett said. “I’m just there and my team was able to get it to me and I was just able to go in. We’re all in the right positions. We’ve been working on positioning a lot, making sure we have spacing and all that.”

“The beauty of streaming is I don’t have to watch teams play and you could see that the middle would be wide open, take advantage of it and [Bartlett] took advantage of it and a lot of it was off of rebounds,” Catonsville coach Mike Mohler said.

Altmann had six points and four rebounds and freshman Kaitlyn Welsh had four steals, two assists and two points in the opening stanza. Pressure man-to-man defense forced 11 Dundalk turnovers and Welsh had four steals and DeWitt had three in the first quarter.

“Early mistakes kind of hurt us today, turnovers. Especially with the day off yesterday we didn’t quite get enough time to kind of prepare,” Dundalk coach Seth Brinegar said.

Defense has been a strength all season for the Comets (13-7) who have won 10 of their last 11.

“I feel like the turnovers helped us, but I think just our overall defense is more aggressive,” Bartlett said. “We are more there help side and we are boxing out like coaches want us to. And I think it’s that more than the forced turnovers because the good teams, it’s hard to get those on, but we are still going to stick with it.”

Dundalk (4-14) got a 3-pointer from Maya Medina and four points from Lanaya Valentine in the first quarter, but it committed eight more turnovers in the second and were held to one field goal and three free throws as Catonsville took a 33-14 lead into halftime.

DeWitt scored six of her 10 points in the third quarter and the lead expanded to 49-21.

With only six players dressed, the Owls played hard, but never threatened the rest of the way.

“It’s been a lot of injuries recently and outside of basketball stuff, but we are just taking it one game at a time and doing our best,” Brinegar said. “They are fighters. That’s one thing we pride ourselves on: never giving up no matter the deficit or the obstacles. They keep pushing and pushing.”

In the fourth quarter, Mohler removed each senior to ovations and praised their efforts.

“Emily and Ellie are Swiss army knives, they can play all five positions on the court if we need to,” Mohler said. “I was glad for all the seniors and they are all great kids.”

While DeWitt’s 10 points were a bonus, her six steals is something Mohler expects.

“The beauty of Katie is she relishes being a defensive stopper,” Mohler said. “She takes that to heart which is so awesome.”

Simpkins, who will play softball at Alleghany College of Maryland next year, has been a valuable asset down low all season.

“Jaynie is just wiry with great hands and she’s got those long arms and she takes up a lot of space on the court,” Mohler said.

While the seniors got encased basketballs and flowers before the game, Mohler and the rest of the team was surprised by a gift from the senior girls, orchestrated by Bartlett. It was shooting shirts with a photo of Mohler during his coaching days in 1972 and the words “Happy 30th Coach Mike.” Mohler, now in his 30th season, has amassed 583 career wins.

“When they came out of the locker room with that, I’m looking and I’m like, ‘We didn’t buy shooting shirts,'” he said. “This is a special group and it’s special when you can do stuff like that and it was totally unexpected for me.”

Bartlett was asked to compare the team now from early in the season when they started 2-6, she responded, “We are like 200% better. “It’s crazy how much we’ve grown.”

Improvement aside, chemistry has been one of the reasons Mohler said, “This has been one of my most pleasurable years. They have played to or above their ability and there is not one ego on the team, they all get along and these kids make it fun all the time.”

Catonsville ends the regular season Friday at Woodlawn.

Dundalk — 9 5 7 8 — 55

Catonsville — 20 13 16 6 — 29

C: Emily Bartlett 24, Katie DeWitt 10, Jaynie Simpkins 8, Ayanna Ewbanks 5, Emily Altmann 4, Kaitlyn Welsh 2, Kaia Gross 2.

D: Maya Medina 9, Lanaya Valentine 9, Keiara Barnes 7, Alessa Sergi 3, Abigail Adeoti 1.