New York City

With a berth in the CHSAA Class AA Archdiocesan final Saturday, Mount St. Michael has validated what the Mountaineers have known all along.

“A lot of people said we wouldn’t be able to contend in the ‘AA’ coming up from the ‘A’ but we just worked hard and proved a lot of people wrong,” Mount point guard Malik Gill said. “We’re not done yet. We’re just getting started.”

The Mount booked its ticket with a 66-47 win against St. Peter’s Tuesday night at St. Raymond. And by doing so, the Mountaineers avenged a stunning 51-50 regular-season loss at St. Peter’s in a game that Eagles star guard Andrew Cannon hit a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired.

“We were thinking a lot about them because it’s tough to lose on a buzzer beater,” Mount forward Omari Manhertz said. “We just wanted to come out today and get this win.”

Manhertz made sure of it. The 6-foot-4 forward had 11 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals. But his biggest contribution came with three rim-rocking dunks.

“Omari is so beastly, he’s like a monster,” Gill said. “Once he does one of his ferocious dunks, the crowd goes crazy and the energy of the team just picks up.”

The biggest dunk closed the third quarter off a nice feed from Gill, one of his six assists, as Mount (20-6), which effectively pushed the ball inside in the second half, took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter.

“It gives us juice,” Mount coach Tom Fraher said. “When Omari catches it down low, he’s so strong that he overpowers people and he’s athletic enough to get over people.”

Gill had a game-high 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. Anthony Maestre, who beat the halftime buzzer with a big 3-pointer, had 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field to go along with four rebounds and four assists and Andrew Utate had 10 points and two steals for Mount, ranked No. 11 in New York City by MSG Varsity.

The Mountaineers went on a 13-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“The balance on this team is key,” Fraher said.

Cannon had 16 points, going 4-of-6 from 3-point range, to pace St. Peter’s (18-8), which will be the No. 4 seed from the Archdiocesan in the CHSAA Class AA intersectional playoffs.

Meanwhile, Mount will take on St. Raymond for the Archdiocesan title Saturday in its first season in the ‘AA,’ after winning the Class A intersectional championship a year ago. The teams split a pair of memorable regular-season contests that were both decided in the waning seconds.

“That’s a [testament] to these guys,” Fraher said. “We make shots, we defend, we get after people and we keep coming…When you have good players, you have a chance to win. We’ve had a heck of a year and we want to keep going.”

Contact Dylan Butler at dbutler3@cablevision.com

Follow him on Twitter: @Dylan_Butler