Mission nips Blackhawks, falls short of state berth

By Trent Makela / Leader Staff

The St. Ignatius Lady Bulldogs shook the rust from their limbs last weekend, sandwiching the most exciting victory of the weekend between two close losses at the Western B Divisional Tournament in Hamilton.

St. Ignatius (7-16) started their tournament by playing Tokyo to the Godzilla of tournament champion Loyola Sacred Heart (20-4) for a third time this season, giving a valiant effort against the taller, stronger Breakers. Momentum shifted their way early Friday, though, as Kim Christensen went coast-to-coast to force overtime and an eventual victory against Seeley-Swan (10-14). The Lady Bulldogs ran into another buzzsaw on Saturday morning as third-place Florence (18-6) kept them at arm's length for the entire contest.

Christensen, who sat out the first half of the season as a transfer student, is the only player St. Ignatius will lose to graduation.

She will be missed, though, after she keyed the team's second-half surge from the point guard position.

"She brings exceptional quickness from a left-handed guard - those are two things that are hard to find and great to have," Lady Bulldogs coach Les Rice said. "Defensively she got us a lot of steals and offensively she created layups for her teammates and herself. All of that will be missed."

St. Ignatius will return a deep and solid core, however, including juniors Mattea Grant, Lisa Larson, Kelsey Cable, Saundra Curley and Jordan Adams. Sophomore contributors Katie McDonald, Rachel Jensen and Bella Daily will also return with freshman letter-winner Kyla Mitchell to help provide the team's depth.

"We're going to have another year under our belt," Rice said. "It may not take us so long to learn our roles and find out who's going to do what on the team. We should be much better out of the gate if we put a lot of work in this summer."

Loyola Sacred Heart 41, St. Ignatius 33

The Lady Bulldogs led 17-15 at half and appeared ready to avenge two early-season losses to the Breakers, but they couldn't find the shooting touch against Loyola's twin towers in the second half.

"I thought we were going to play them tough and we did," Rice said. "They went from man to zone in the second half. That required us to hit some outside shots and we just couldn't get it done."

The Breakers' starting posts, both taller than 6-foot, combined for 18 points and nine rebounds. The pair was able to frustrate St. Ignatius on both ends in a game that had 11 lead changes and five ties.

"There's no question they hurt us most with their inside presence," Rice said. "We can't coach 6-foot-2, though. They did a great job of using that to their advantage."

11 lead changes and five ties.

led by as many as 12 points in the second half.

St. Ignatius 9 8 6 10 — 33

Loyola 11 4 13 13 — 41

ST. IGNATIUS — Kim Christensen 7, Kelsey Cable 2, Kyla Mitchell 4, Rachel Jensen 7, Mattea Grant 9, Saundra Curley 2, Katie McDonald 2.

LOYOLA — Rose Harrington 6, Chelsea Jansson 6, Emma Priddy 2, Nicky Porch 3, Alex Lamey 6, Brittney Anderson 10, Christina Medeiros 8.

St. Ignatius 60, Seeley-Swan 52, OT

The Lady Bulldogs were coasting with a third-quarter lead of 17 points last Friday before the Blackhawks stumbled upon a leprechaun and nearly doubled their score in the fourth.

St. Ignatius appeared well prepared for their cross-lake rivals after dropping their first game of the season to Seeeley-Swan by three points.

"Both teams were obviously a lot better than in the first game of the season," Rice said. "They got hotter than blazes in the fourth quarter. We gave up 24 in a flash and I looked up as we inbounded with 6.3 seconds left and three points down."

The lead was the Blackhawks' first since early in the first period.

Christensen was able to dribble the length of the floor and bank a deep heave off the backboard to tie the game as time expired.

The teams switched lucky charms in after regulation, with the Lady Bulldogs posting an equally-impressive 13 points in the four-minute overtime period.

"When Kim made that shot you could tell in the girls' eyes that we weren't going to lose," Rice said. "They were pressing the issue as far as trapping in overtime. They weren't going to let us hold the ball."

St. Ignatius 9 18 6 14 13 — 60

Seeley-Swan 8 4 11 24 5 — 52

ST. IGNATIUS — Kim Christensen 18, Kyla Mitchell 4, Rachel Jensen 7, Mattea Grant 19, Katie McDonald 10, Kelsey Kable 2.

SEELEY-SWAN — Ashley Holmes 7, Catalina Parcell 11, Jessica Baier 11, Amy Meyer 7, Kyoni Murphy 6, Danielle Anderson 5, Bobbie Pierson 5.

Florence 50, St. Ignatius 36

The Lady Falcons went against the grain of their scouting report and surprised St. Ignatius in loser-out action last Saturday morning.

"We hadn't played them before, but we were able to watch them twice during the tournament," Rice said. "I thought we would see pressure and man defense and we didn't. They just sat back in a 2-3 zone."

St. Ignatius was still able hold off the Florence attack early, toting a one-point lead after the first period. The shots stopped falling for the Lady Bulldogs in the second quarter, though, and Florence opened up nine-point lead in the final two minutes of the first half.

"I thought we fought hard as a team to the end," Rice said. "With two or three minutes left in the game, they were still only up eight. It seemed like they were up eight for the whole day. We just couldn't string any shots together."

St. Ignatius 13 5 9 9 — 36

Florence 12 15 12 11 — 50

ST. IGNATIUS — Kim Christensen 5, Kelsey Cable 1, Kyla Mitchell 2, Rachel Jensen 2, Mattea Grant 6, Saundra Curley 5, Katie McDonald 9, Jordan Adams 6.

FLORENCE — Rae Baerlocher 2, Katie Niemeir 4, Brooke Zeiler 8, Jordan Rick 10, Odeaa Conley 2, Taylor Shepherd 4, Kristina Kmetekova 16.