The odds were slim, but they weren’t none. With St. Anne’s-Belfield trailing by four with just a minute to go the script probably should have been St. Catherine’s putting the game away at the free throw line. But Joviah Winkey had a different plan as she forced a pair of turnovers, converted underneath and sent the game into overtime.
“I’ve had some players but I don’t think I’ve had anyone with a heart as big as hers,” said STAB coach Phil Stinnie of Winkey. “A freshman to want this spotlight on her at this point in the game? Oh, she said she was going to make those plays. She yelled it on the court, ‘I got this.’ For a freshman to do that and then produce? That’s huge.”
With Winkey hitting the first field goal in overtime and Ashley Taylor knocking down her sixth 3-pointer of the night, the Saints got off a good start in the extra frame and then did what St. Catherine’s couldn’t just before — put the game away for a hard fought 62-59 win.
‘When you play against a smart team like St. Catherine’s the game is never over,” Stinnie said. “So the challenges that (St. Catherine’s coach Edmund Sherod) put in front of us is only going to help us down the line.”
STAB looked to be in control in the first half with seniors Brianna Tinsley and Taylor leading the way. St. Anne’s had six different players with at least four points heading into the break, and as such held a 28-18 lead.
The momentum swung the other direction in the third though. Behind VCU-bound Sydnei Archie, St. Catherine’s got rolling inside with nine of Archer’s 28 points coming in the third quarter and then a healthy 12 coming in the frame to follow to push her team out in front. St. Catherine’s trimmed the deficit to five points going into the fourth and behind a 9-for-11 fourth quarter free throw shooting effort, soon found a four point lead with a minute to play.
While Taylor’s trio of fourth quarter 3-pointers kept her afloat in the fourth, it wasn’t until the STAB defense came to play at the end of the fourth that the hosts, winners of 11 straight coming into the contest, were able to turn things around. And in the last minute, Winkey went off. After a steal, she found who Taylor hit a three to make it a one point game. Then with her team trailing by two, Winkey converted on a layup to send the game into OT.
“It was a really intense game and I knew as a freshman that it’s my responsibility to step up,” Winkey said. “Coach Stinnie puts a lot pressure on me and tells me all the time that I’m not a freshman anymore. He treats me like any senior, junior, sophomore and so I have to play that role when I’m on the court.”
In overtime, Winkey and Taylor’s back-to-back plays gave St. Anne’s a 5-point lead but St. Catherine’s answered and after Cara Menges hit a shot from outside, the lead was down to one with just a minute to go. STAB took a 2-point lead at the free throw with 33.4 seconds to go thanks to Tinsley. However, the next three attempts at the foul line came up short and STAB’s defense led by Mailynn Steppe and Seirra Smith had to come up with three stops, which the front court duo did to run out the clock and preserve the win.
“I’m just glad we pulled out the win, no matter how ugly it might have been,” Taylor said. “We’ve played them before and they are definitely physical. We knew we had to box out. I thought we played better defense in the first half and just let them knock down too many shots in the second because we weren’t boxing out. At the end and in overtime we started playing defense better. Our press gave them trouble. We stepped up and got what we needed to get done.”
For St. Anne’s, Taylor led with 20 points, was 6-for-12 from beyond the arc and had five rebounds. Tinsley finished with 15 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists. Winkey scored 11 points and had five steals, four rebounds and three assists. Smith had team best 13 rebounds.
STAB (17-3) travels to Trinity Episcopal on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
