St. Anne’s-Belfield’s girls basketball team knew just how big its clash with St. Catherine’s Friday afternoon was. The two teams are in the top of LIS standings and STAB wanted to stay unbeaten in the league.
“That’s a very good team, well-coached and has some very good players,” said STAB coach Phil Stinnie. “But we made some mental mistakes because of the status of the game, we were so tight and wound-up about ‘we’ve got to win this game’ it made us make some boneheaded mistakes that we don’t usually make.”
It showed a little as the turnovers piled up, but not enough to slow down STAB on the scoreboard as it managed to hold off St. Catherine’s 65-39 and stay unbeaten in the LIS.
“That’s a really big win for us, we really wanted it really bad,” said STAB’s Sierra Smith, who yanked down 14 rebounds. “We’ve been working really hard all week, there’s so much hard work that has been put into this game.”
Offensive balance put St. Anne’s over the top, with four players in double figures. Jayla Davis continued a recent hot streak with 19 points after scoring 28 against Covenant earlier this week. Bri Tinsley, Jovia Winkey and Vanessa Woodfolk then scored 13 points each. Woodfolk was particularly effective going 6-for-10 from the field while also pulling down seven rebounds.
STAB jumped out 10-6 in the first quarter on St. Cat’s and then expanded that lead to 27-17 at the half. During that stretch St. Anne’s got some solid contributions off the bench from Jada Bennett and Alex Greer.
“Bennett gave gave us good minutes and Alex gave us good minutes because we got in foul trouble,” Stinnie said. “That’s what those kids do, they come in there, they play that role and they help support our starters.”
The Saints slowly kept pulling away in the second half, leading 46-28 at the end of the third quarter. Tinsley finished with six rebounds, five assists and three steals to go with the 13 points. Davis added five rebounds and nabbed four steals. Winkey nabbed a team-high five steals.
St. Catherine’s meanwhile struggled against the Saints’ pressure despite a 15-point effort from Sydnei Archie.
“They put a little pressure on us, bump us a little bit and we get out of character and start doing anything instead of just meeting the challenge,” said St. Catherine’s coach Ed Sherod.
STAB faces a quick turnaround with a clash with Episcopal Saturday and will continue this tough stretch of opponents with a battle with Trinity Episcopal Tuesday.
“It never stops,” Stinnie said.
St. Catherine’s also faces a tough slate next week with a trip to Miller.
