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Quick and easy: STAB girls clamp down on SSSA to cruise to final four

Photo: Kristi Ellis

While the St. Anne’s-Belfield girls basketball team had not played St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes this season yet, less than a minute into the game it was pretty clear the Saints caught themselves one last tune up. Wednesday evening was a chance to work on some things, get a lot of playing time to players off the bench and get the whole team into a rhythm. That’s really all that can be said in an 86-24 victory in the VISAA Division 1 quarterfinals where it never really felt like the No. 2 Saints were up against a wall, a must win game against the No.10 team that knocked off No. 7  Episcopal the night before.

 

“The girls were geared up to get the momentum going for the playoffs,” said STAB coach Phil Stinnie. “We started it last week with the LIS tournament and then today we kept it going and we’ll try to keep it going as we go into the weekend and the final four where things really get tough quick.”

 

To say the Saints went for the jugular early is putting it mildly. With a heavy press led by Madeline Rice in the middle and Kymora Johnson, Olivia Wagner and Sabrina Lewis up front and Khamare Steppe playing center field in the back, it was turnover after turnover forced by St. Anne’s in the first quarter as the visitors had no room to operate. That paired with an offense that thrived on driving and then kicking out to the usual snipers, made sure that things got out of hand quick. Just 45 seconds in it was 8-0 STAB, with SSSA calling timeout.

 

“We just had to go and use our strengths and use each other, trust each other,” Rice said. “I feel like that really helped us especially in the first half.”

 

Out of that first timeout 8-0 quickly became 16-3. With all cylinders firing it was 23-10 after the first and then led 40-12 in the blink of an eye in the second quarter when the 3-point shooting firm of Wagner and Johnson started unleashing long range shots, seven total in the first half with a respective 4-3 split.

 

“We just tried to run our sets like you would in practice,” Johnson said. “From the beginning we were running our stuff and then once you get up big you run it even more just setting up easy shots, buckets and easy layups.”

 

It was 49-12 at halftime and then the Saints were able to give valuable playing time to its entire bench. But as it turned out, that just kept STAB’s clamp down going. Mickley Fitzgerald and Ruby Adkins each hit 3-pointers. Aryanna Branch hit a pair of three’s in the fourth quarter. Sophie Hangemi had a field goal and free throw in the third. Olivia Kushkin hit a field goal in the third as well.

 

With the game out of reach at 84-24, it was up to sophomore Bre Demore to make it a clean 12-for-12 with each STAB player logging not just a point, but a field goal. Demore didn’t catch too many breaks late the game opportunity wise but sure enough with the clock approaching 0:00 she got that one good clean look and finished the  62-point victory for the Saints final home game.

 

“We spread it out and everyone, literally everyone got to score, got play significant minutes,” Stinnie said. “As the season ends, as you get closer to the final four you want as many of those kinds of games as you can get because playing time starts to get tougher, hard to come by but also it’s a great experience for those kids too.”

 

STAB, the two seed in the tournament now faces Bishop Ireton, the No. 3 seed, in the state semi finals on Friday at Benedictine on its Goochland campus at 5:15 p.m.  

 

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