Semifinals are on tap today in the D8 Junior and Senior girls' leagues, with today's winners advancing to the finals on Friday (will be hosted at the highest remaining senior seed's school).Today's matchups, which feature the top four seeds, will see #1 Resurrection host #4 St. David, and #2 St. Benedict play at home against #3 St. Mary's.
(1) Resurrection vs. (4) St. David - Sr. Semi / 4:30pm
Rez took both of the matchups during the regular season, 51-29 and 35-16. The Phoenix were able to hold St. David's star scorer, Megan Goar, to reasonable outputs (9 and 11 points) during their two meetings and will look to do the same again here.
For St. David, they're not a high-scoring team, having cracked the 40-point barrier just once (against Woodland in their opener) but I can't see them winning this game unless they hit at least the 35-40 mark combined with a strong defensive effort. Might be too tall of a task to ask for against a very balanced Rez attack led by Krissia Vasquez, Jama Bin-Edward, and co.
Pick: Resurrection 48, St. David 27
(2) St. Benedict vs. (3) St. Mary's - Sr. Semi / 3:00pm
Both teams were victorious on their respective home courts during the season, with the Saints winning by 9 earlier in the year and the Eagles taking an 8-point win at home a couple of weeks ago.
This is one of the better semifinals that the D8 league has produced in recent years, given that both teams have high-level talent (Afifa Salaad - SBCSS & Summer Pahl - SMHS).
The Eagles did a much better job of containing Salaad in their last game (8 points) after she scored 18 points the first time around. With both stars drawing tons of defensive attention, the play of Laura Ivits & Julia Mascarenhas (SBCSS) and Brittany Gulic & Lexi Stoyakovich (SMHS) will go a long way to determining today's winner.
I think this will be a bit of a grinder, perhaps a first team to "35" wins.
Pick: St. Benedict 36, St. Mary's 31
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