St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Class of 2019 already has three LIS championships to their names but the idea of getting a fourth had a little more weight to it.
“These seniors, they’ve always been the sidekicks on the other teams, but this team is theirs, they’re running the show,” said Saints coach Phil Stinnie.
Facing Trinity Episcopal at home, the Saints were also looking for a season sweep of the Titans. While Trinity was able to put up a fight late in the second quarter and early in the third, St. Anne’s cruised from there behind its balance and an impressive night from eighth grader Kymora Johnson in a 67-52 win.
“This is pretty impressive,” Stinnie said. “Look at the season we’re having. These seniors have stepped up, held everyone accountable and so this is the product we’re getting on the floor. It’s amazing how a senior group has been so selfless and come in and say ‘Hey, this eighth grader is really good and we need to be able to let her take control of the game when she can.’ They have given her the okay to do that. So when (Kymora) is feeling it, they let her do her thing and then have her back. That speaks volumes.”
STAB only trailed once in the second half, and it was briefly. After Trinity’s Kristy Hamze made it 32-31 on an and-1 for the visitors, the Saints got a pair of buckets from Jovia Winkey off a steal and off an offensive rebound to kick start the beginning of a 15-0 run in a three minute span.
“Offensively we knew we just needed to take our time, stay spread,” Winkey said. “Kymora Johnson really stepped up big for us in the third quarter hitting threes and she did really well handling the ball so that helped a lot.”
When Johnson hit her fifth 3-pointer of the night at the end of the third, it sent the Saints into the fourth with a 51-38 advantage.
“I was short Tuesday so I had to come back ready for this one,” Johnson said. “(Trinity’s) defense had gaps and so we just tried to attack them and figure out ways to get through them.”
The Titans had one last push in them and behind Alyssa Chapman’s work in the paint, they were able to get as close as 43-47 thanks to a 9-0 run. However, STAB’s passing and depth shone from there as Sallie Vick knocked down a quartet of field goals to make it 59-49 with 3:09 to play.
“Our motto there was to give up good shots for great shots,” Stinnie said. “That’s what they did they’re. Trinity was playing out because we’re a pretty good 3-point shooting team so we tried setting it up in the paint to take advantage of that. I told them if they penetrated underneath, they’d get easy layups and that’s what happened.”
Trinity tried to foul its way back into the contest briefly, but with Winkey knocking down all six of her fourth quarter free throws, there was no comeback window to crawl through and the Saints were allowed to dribble out the clock for a comfortable win.
“It’s really nice to have a fourth LIS under our belt,” Winkey said. “The season doesn’t stop here for us though, we’re ready to keep going.”
The first quarter was tight early on with Trinity leading 11-10 but an 8-0 spark from STAB gave them an 18-11 lead. The Saints led by as many as 10 in the second quarter but Elaina and Alyssa Chapman whittled away at the margin and cut it to 31-27 going into the break.
On the night, Johnson led all scorers with her 24 points paced by her five threes. Winkey finished with 14 points with eight of those coming at the charity stripe. Vick had 14 points while Woodfolk added nine. Those four accounted for all but four points for the Saints.
Elaina Chapman had 16 points to lead Trinity while Hamze chipped in 11.
Both teams await their VISAA Division 1 opponents for next week.
