Article By: Mark Bryson
CAMBRIDGE — The St. David Celtics couldn't
find their groove and the St. Benedict Saints made them pay for it.
The Saints capitalized on a dismal shooting
performance by the visitors on Wednesday afternoon, scoring a 31-13
victory in District 8 senior girls basketball play.
Kayla Leusink led the undefeated Saints
(7-0) with 11 points and Bobbi-Sue Hentges had five for the Celtics
(4-3), who suffered their second straight loss this week.
"Both teams started slowly but we started to
play our game in the second half and we pulled away," said Leusink.
"It was just one of those games ...
sometimes teams come out flying and sometimes they come out cold."
The Celtics were downright frosty in the
opening quarter and trailed 9-0 at the end of it on three-point efforts
by Brooke Wanklin, Afifa Salaad and Julia Mascarenhas.
The teams played a little role reversal in
the second quarter as the Celtics outscored their hosts 8-2, including a
buzzer beater by Maria Valencia that made it 11-8 at the half.
St. David's first point came with 6:17
remaining in the opening half when Elizabeth Scanlon converted one of
two free throws.
Leusink, a first-team D8 all-star last year,
posted all her points in the second half as the Saints outscored the
Celtics 12-4 in the third quarter to all but put away the victory.
Several St. David players were fatigued by a
rigorous hiking trip this week, said Hentges, which might have played a
role in their struggles.
"We just couldn't seem to get it going today
and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe we didn't have a good warm-up, I
don't know," said Hentges, a second-team all-star last year.
Many of the girls that played in Thursday's
game have a bit of history together. In addition to playing alongside
each other or against each other on club squads, the Celtics ousted the
Saints in a D8 junior playoff game two years ago that both squads
remember well.
"Yeah, we'd like to forget about that. I
remember how disappointed we were after losing (44-43) to them in the
semifinals," said Leusink, who smiled at the game's mention.
This year's St. Benedict lineup features two
players that were D8 first-team junior all-stars in 2013 — Salaad and
Laura Ivits. St. David's Megan Goar was on the second team.
All three turned in solid efforts on
Wednesday, particularly Salaad, a point guard who sees the floor well
and dishes out accurate passes with confidence.
The seven-team District 8 league separated
into two divisions after last week's games, with St. Benedict and St.
David in the top group with Resurrection (6-1) and Woodland (3-4).
Monsignor Doyle (2-4), St. Mary's (1-5) and Rockway (0-6) are in the bottom bracket.
The regular season wraps up at the end of
the month with playoff semifinals on Wednesday, Nov. 5 and the
championship final set for the following evening.
