The Catholic Lady Irish can celebrate the continuation of their winning streak with a trophy after defeating the Marshfield Lady Jays in the Central Bank Lady Cat Classic championship. The 51-42 win Friday night in Rogersville is the fourth in a row for the young Catholic team that is simply having fun while gaining experience on the court.
“I told them they were the lowest seed team left on this side of the bracket, so just go out there and have fun and don’t worry about anything,” said Catholic head coach Dan Stander. “If you go out and play hard then good things will come.”
Stander said the team’s defense won the championship, but shooting 85 percent from the foul line didn’t hurt either. Catholic (5-10 overall) went 22 of 26 from the free-throw line for nearly half of the team’s total score.
“This group of kids, they are maturing every day,” Stander said. “They’re young and it’s good to be young and it’s bad to be young at times. There were some bad things out there tonight, but the good thing is they forget real quick, they don’t hold it in. When they forget their mistakes they come out and do something great.”
In contrast, Marshfield was only able to put in 11-of-23 from the foul line. Lady Jay head coach Shelly Jones said the free throw line is a test of a team’s focus, proving her team wasn’t all in tonight.
“We have kids who can make free throws, but when you go 11-for-23, that’s a lack of focus and that’s a killer that we have got to really work on to go up to the line and have confidence,” Jones said. “That’s an indication to me that we were not all here tonight.”
Emma Lucas, one of Catholic’s only non-freshman, went 6-for-6 from the foul line and was one of three Lady Irish to score 10 points in the contest.
“Our free throws were the strongest part of our game tonight, but overall I think we did really good and executed,” Lucas said. “We have a really strong connection and I feel that really helps us, especially to get through tough situations.”
Freshman Jaycee Cabasi hit two crucial threes for the Lady Irish, the first of which tied the score at 13 in the second quarter. She sank 4-of-4 free throws in the fourth quarter to help seal the deal for Catholic.
After trailing by two points at the half, Catholic outscored Marshfield 20-11 and took a 7-point lead into the fourth quarter. Marshfield attempted to pick up the pace of the game by enacting a full-court press defense. The Lady Jays capitalized on Catholic turnovers and made it a two possession ballgame.
But Catholic broke through and went up by 12 points with less than a minute on the clock, taking the game and the tournament trophy.
“It’s a big win for us because we came out and beat a team that is known for state championships and classy people over there, and it was just an honor to share the court with them,” Stander said. “They made us better tonight.”
Marshfield is now at an even 8-8 on the season and will play Mount Vernon and a conference match against Buffalo next week.
Catholic won’t have much time to celebrate their victory as they hit the road Monday to play conference foe Reeds Spring.
Catholic 51, Marshfield 42
Catholic 8-9-20-14—51
Marshfield 11-8-11-12—42
Catholic—Emma Lucas 10, Jaycee Cabasi 10, Olivia Wilson 10, Madison Chittenden 8, Maggie Meek 6, Lindsey Murphy 5, Lexi Sutherland 2
Marshfield—Peyton Greenlee 21, Savanna Vance 11, Lilly Johns 4, Caitlin King 2, Alexis Moon 1, Emma Tibbs 1
