CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Padua girls basketball team put on a strong effort to cut St. Joseph Academy’s 11-point lead in the final quarter of Wednesday’s game.
But after senior guard Ellen Vichill drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key, the Jaguars took the momentum from the Bruins leading to a 52-44 win.
“We just had to keep the energy going,” said Vichill. “When we saw it slipping away, I thought we have to get it together, work as a team and make it happen.”
Check back later for video highlights, and reaction from coaches and players.
Despite St. Joseph, ranked No. 5 in the cleveland.com Top 25, finishing the game with a win and holding its largest lead of 16, turnovers hurt the Jaguars against No. 20 Padua.
“We’ve been really focused on trying to play all four quarters and our word has been ‘poise’,” St. Joseph head coach Maggie Ferrando said. “We ended up coming up with it [a win] and finding a way, but we’ve got to eliminate our turnovers at the end, focus on that poise and be smart.”
Recognizing their three seniors before the game, the Jaguars started the game slowly with a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Jaguars began to see more of their shots fall in the second quarter as it they forced turnovers leading to a 17-7 run.
St. Joseph when into halftime with 24-13 lead.
Padua exchanged baskets with the Jaguars in the third quarter trailing 38-28 in the ensuing quarter. But in the fourth, the Bruins forced turnovers and cut the Jaguars lead down to five with the help of senior guards Alianna Conroy, Elena Rauha and a key 3-pointer by Ali Medaglia.
With 3:52 left in the final quarter and a 43-38 lead, St. Joseph Academy cut down its turnovers and was rewarded as Vichill knocked down a 3-pointer taking the momentum from the Bruins. The Jaguars ended Padua’s 10-1 run and finished the rest of the game at the charity stripe.
“Their fight is outstanding,” Padua coach Dan Brown said about his girls. “Every game we’ve played this year they never given up. That’s a tenacity that will help us to league and district title, hopefully.”
Conroy led all scorers with 19 points including 2 3-pointers. Rauhe finished with 12.
Sophomore forward Molly Neitzel’s 13 points paced St. Joseph followed by junior Bre Coleman (12) and Vichill (12) all scoring in double figures.
What’s next:
St. Joseph will host East Tech on Friday with a 5:30 start time. Padua will play for a share of the North Coast League Blue Division title when the Bruins host No. 11 Archbishop Hoban.
The code has been selected for you. Please use CTRL-C (or CMD-C on Mac) to copy to your clipboard.
North Coast League – Blue Division TEAM CONFERENCE OVERALL Archbishop Hoban 8-1 13-7 Padua 6-1 15-3 Walsh Jesuit 5-3 7-12 Lake Catholic 3-6 7-12 Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin 1-5 5-9 Beaumont 0-7 1-16
See More Girls Basketball Standings »
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
