#11 posting 3.5.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information
Here is another Spy Out & About
#1 seed St. Francis advanced to the section 7AAAA finals as expected, though it was perhaps not expected that they would advance in lackluster fashion, 65-58 over the Andover Huskies. They’ll meet the #7 seed Blaine, whose presence in the final was completely unexpected. After surprising #2 seed Forest Lake in the 1st round, the Bengals defeated #3 Duluth East 44-36 in the other semi played at North Branch High School on Wednesday night.
St. Francis 65 Andover 58
Andover led 9-7 early, but five different Saints scored 10 straight points to grab a 17-9 lead that they would never relinquish. The Huskies made the Saints work hard for their win, however, getting with 23-21 at 4:30 of the 1st half and within 44-41 at 8:30 of the 2nd half. But from there, the Saints went on a 13-1 run as sophomore guard Melissa Borstner scored 7 of the 13 points. Once they got ahead 48-42 at 7:38, the Saints spread the floor and started milking the clock. Over the next 2 minutes they scored 9 unanswered points. Andover went 4 crucial minutes without a field goal, missing on 4 attempts while making 1 of 4 free throws and 3 turnovers.
Still Andover came back from 57-42 at 5:21 to 60-56 at 1:24, as senior post Aubrey Graves scored 9 of the Huskies 14 points during the rally, 5 of them off the offensive glass. Draves and Andover’s other senior post, Deena Ewert, scored (unofficially) 33 of the Huskies’ 58 points, and 23 of its 34 in the 2nd half.
But St. Francis guards Ali Schwartzwald and Borstner were even better, scoring (an unofficial) 26 2nd half points and 41 for the night. After scoring those 7 key points in the Saints big run, however, Borstner only made 2 of 10 free throws the rest of the way. Schwartzwald got caught at the bottom of a scrum with the Saints guarding that precarious 60-56 lead at 0:55.6 and left the game briefly, limping on her left ankle. She returned in time to get an offensive rebound, followed by a couple of free throws to pad the Saints lead to 63-56.
Blaine 44 Duluth East 36
Blaine faced off against the Greyhounds with a lineup that was young and short and won just 6 games while losing 21 coming in. The Bengals started one senior, three juniors and a sophomore, and everybody else who played is in 9th, 10th or 11th grade as well. The Bengals tallest starter is 5-10 junior forward Kirsten Goodroad, and its post is 5-8 sophomore Stephanie Jergenson who gave up 4 inches to the East post, junior Taylor Tyllia.
And Tyllia was the difference in the first half, scoring 6 points with 5 boards and 2 blocks (unofficially) as East took a 17-14 half-time lead. Marisa Yernatich, also a junior, also scored 6 for the Hounds, while Goodroad led Blaine with 7.
Blaine scored the first 8 points of the second half, however, and enjoyed a 13-2 run before East scored 6 straight to get within 27-25. It got within 2 again at 30-28, and within 3 at 33-30 at 7:12. But the Bengals put the game away from there with an 11-4 run, making it 44-34 at 0:59.9. On defense, Blaine denied Tyllia the ball throughout the 2nd half, though it seemed that the Greyhound wings also passed up several open opportunities to get the ball to her down low. Yernatich also had a tough time, scoring just 1 bucket out of East’s set offense. Her other 2 came on break-aways after steals, and for the half she shot 3 for 12 with 2 turnovers.
On offense, the Bengals scored 5 buckets in transition off of defensive rebounds and steals, and got Jergenson, who was shut out in the 1st half, involved. Her specialty is a high-trajectory, rainbow of a shot from the free throw line. All 3 of her field goals were from that location, and she also canned 5 of 6 free throws in the half. Goodroad scored 7 points in each half for a total of 14, while senior guard Alissa Dombek also scored 14, 9 of hers coming in the 2nd half.
Credit Bengals coach Steve Reiter for making some nice adjustments at half-time, and his team for executing more like a team that came in 21-6 than 6-21.
Tonight’s game MVPs are both sophomores—Borstner and Jergenson.
Marc Hugunin
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next up: tomorrow morning.