BLUFFTON – St. Marys jumped out to an early lead in Thursday nights sectional semifinal against Van Wert but found themselves having to hold on to survive a Cougar comeback en route to a 37-31 victory.
“We had to fight through some adversity to pull off that win, hopefully it makes us stronger for Saturday” said St. Marys coach Jon Burke after the contest.
Nearly two minutes into the contest Van Wert pumped in the first points of the night to take a 2-0 lead on a basket by Kyra Welch but watched their lead quickly disappear as the Riders mounted their first run. Senior Morgan Hesse tied the contest with 5:32 to go before the first stoppage and helped teammates Cora Rable, Reese Rable, and Ella Jacobs run the advantage to 9-2 deep in the opening period.
Trailing now 11-4 early in the second thanks to another Jacobs steal and score, the Cougars pulled within five as Welch scored again for her side. The Cougars lone basket in the first half not to come from Welch was pushed through by senior post Erin Schaufelberger to pull the deficit down to six before a 5-0 run by the blue and gold closed the half at 19-8 St. Marys.
Morgan Hesse and Reese Rable dominated the scoring in the third quarter for the designated hosts as Rable connected on her second triple early to make it a 24-8 score.
Sofi Houg, a 1000-point scorer who notched that mark against the Roughriders in the regular season hit on her only shot of the night, a three point goal as time expired in the stanza to send the game 28-13 to the fourth.
While holding the Riders to just one make from the field the Cougars found the basket much bigger in the last eight minutes as they knocked down a trio from deep from Kendra Deehring, Maria Bagley, and Erin Schaufelberger. Van Wert got within 32-28 with 1:26 remaining on the triple by Bagley but were never able to get any nearer as St. Marys finished 7 of 10 from the free throw line to ice the win.
“I’m proud of the overall defensive effort of our team tonight. I give a lot of credit to the Cougars for a hard fought game, that senior class has been tough to play against the last four years” said Burke postgame.
St. Marys (14-10) was paced by Morgan Hesse with 12 points and will return to Bluffton on Saturday for a 12pm sectional finals tilt against Fostoria that can be heard on WKKI K94.3 FM.
Van Wert (13-10) found their scoring leader in senior Kyra Welch who hit for 11.
Scoring:
St. Marys (37):
Ella Jacobs 7
Reagan Allemeier 2
Ashlie Nuss 3
Morgan Hesse 12
Reese Rable 7
Cora Rable 6
FT: 10/15
3PT: 3 (R. Rable 2, Nuss)
TO: 18
Van Wert (31):
Kendra Deehring 5
Jordanne Blythe 2
Kyra Welch 11
Sofi Houg 3
Maria Bagley 5
Erin Schaufelberger 5
FT: 6/7
3PT: 5 (Deehring, Welch, Houg, Bagley, Schaufelberger)
TO: 18
By Quarter:
SM: 9-10-9-9
VW: 4-4-5-13