St. Maria Goretti and Good Counsel played for the championship in the 1998 Mid-Atlantic Invitational Tournament.

The two schools will pair up again, but this time the stakes won’t be as high.

In Friday’s opening-round games of the 27th annual MAIT, Good Counsel dropped a 74-67 decision to Benedictine (Va.) and Goretti then followed with a 53-45 loss to John Carroll.

Tonight, Goretti and Good Counsel will tip off at 6:30 with Benedictine to meet John Carroll immediately thereafter.

The Gaels (2-1) shot a paltry 38 percent, which included misses on an array of open jumpers and many layups.

“I thought we let one get away,” said Goretti coach Chad Brashears. “You’ve got juniors and seniors out there that have to knock down jump shots and we didn’t.”

The Gaels used a 15-0 run in the first quarter to turn a 9-2 deficit into a 17-9 margin as Nic Martin hit for five points and provided a pair of assists on two buckets by Jay Donoghue.

But John Carroll hung tough and by half forged a 28-28 tie.

Ronald Scott, a 5-foot-11 junior, then became a thorn in the side for the Gaels.

In the Patriots’ 5-guard flex offense, Scott found himself open on three straight occasions for 3-pointers to push the Patriots out to a 41-34 lead late in the third quarter.

“We came out at the half with the intention of running specific sets for Scott,” said Carroll coach Tony Martin. “We got him some separation and made the shots.”

Down 43-36 entering the fourth, Goretti opened the final quarter on a jumper by Martin and conventional three-point play by Aaron Wilkinson, but Malcolm McMillan answered with a pair of jumpers as part of an 8-2 run that pushed the lead back to 51-43 with 1:06 remaining.

“We had a poor second half and even when we got it back to two in the fourth we couldn’t hit a key shot,” said Brashears.

McMillan led John Carroll with 16 points while Scott and Lionel Greene each added 13 points.

Martin led Goretti with 12 points, but hit only 5 of 16 from the floor and was frustrated by John Carroll’s quick-hands, quick-feet defense.

“I thought they slowed Nic down and took the ball out of his hands,” said Brashears.

“We knew Martin was an impressive player from our scouting reports and we were fortunate enough to contain him as a team,” said Tony Martin.

Wilkinson and Donoghue scored 10 points each for Goretti. Martin had seven assists and six rebounds, and Wilkinson added six rebounds.

n In an entertaining — as expected — MAIT and season opener, 6-7 junior Mike Gbinije, a potential Division I talent, led the Cadets with 23 points, displaying his versatility by sinking outside jumpers and driving the lane for a pair of dunks.

Gbinije received support from Kevin Gill and Trey Davis with 14 points apiece and Erik Moody with 13 in a comeback victory.

Good Counsel led 48-39 with 3:03 left in the third period before Benedictine went on a 26-5 run bridging the fourth quarter. Gbinije ignited the run with four straight baskets.

The guard tandem of Ben Hazel and Rodney Glasgow led the Falcons. Hazel had 22 points while Glasgow, at 5-10, pulled down six rebounds to go with seven assists.

John Carroll 53, St. Maria Goretti 45
JOHN CARROLL (1-2)
Akinyulere 4 0-0 9, McMillan 8 0-3 16, Scott 5 0-2 13, Greene 5 3-4 13, Johnson 0 2-3 2, Frink 0 0-2 0. Totals 22 5-14 53.
GORETTI (2-1)
Wilkinson 4 1-1 10, Martin 5 0-0 12, Donoghue 5 0-0 10, Shaper 0 0-0 0, Leazier 3 0-0 7, Bolinger 1 0-0 3, Heizer 1 1-2 3. Totals 19 2-3 45.

Benedictine 74, Good Counsel 67
BENEDICTINE (1-0)
Moody 4 5-6 13, Davis 6 1-3 14, K. Gill 3 6-8 14, D. Gill 1 3-5 5, Thurston 1 0-0 2, Gbinile 11 0-0 23, Tiller 0 1-3 1, Pilot 1 0-0 2. Totals 27 16-25 74.
GOOD COUNSEL (0-1)
Glasgow 8 4-6 20, Echols 2 0-0 4, Hazel 8 4-5 22, Sessoms 3 2-2 11, Wright-Nelson 3 1-3 7, Wright 1 0-0 3. Totals 25 12-16 67.