St. Anne’s-Belfield girls basketball has been taking care of business as the state’s No. 2-ranked squad in VISAA’s Division I lately, but Friday night the Saints didn’t get off to the kind of start they were hoping for on senior night.
“We were really slow getting off, we called a quick timeout, got ourselves together and regrouped as a team,” said STAB senior Olivia Wagner. “We hit the people on the pockets, then we did our drive and catch. We weren’t really grooving at the beginning but we’re teammates…we knew what each other needed.”
The Saints found what they needed, shook off the early struggles and Wagner and Kymora Johnson got the offense going in a big way. In turn, STAB wrapped up an unbeaten run through the League of Independent Schools Friday night with a 68-39 win over St. Catherine’s.
Wagner finished with 14 points including a trio of 3-pointers while Johnson poured in 24 points, knocking down four second half 3-pointers. Wagner also had six steals and five assists while Johnson dished out six assists of her own.
The Saints (16-1, 8-0 in the LIS) lit it up from beyond the arc with 11 3-pointers as a team, with six different players connecting from beyond the arc. In addition to Wagner and Johnson, McKinley Fitzgerald, Aryanna Branch, Rugby Adkins and Sophie Gangemi all hit at least one 3-pointer.
Considering what Wagner and Johnson are capable of off the dribble, if the Saints are knocking down that many threes, they become extremely tough to guard. The Saints also clearly have a bond that allows them to work through even challenging starts.
“I love this team with everything, we’re not just friends on the court, you can see us dancing at halftime, you can see all the emotions we’re having,” Wagner said. “We’re sisters on and off the court so they’re really special, they mean a lot (to me).”
The Saints jump into LIS tournament play next week.
Correspondent Emmy Franklin contributed to this report.
