St. Paul shuts down Yates Center

By Camden McFarland

camden@hometowngirard.com

The St. Paul Indians’ girls and boys basketball teams improved their records to 17-2 and 11-8, respectively, after key matchups against Yates Center last night.

For the Lady Indians, this game determined their fate in the run to be Three Rivers League champions.

Despite being such an important game, it became apparent St. Paul would have no issue surpassing Yates Center after they established a 16-2 lead in the first quarter.

The Lady Indians enhanced their lead in the second quarter by scoring 11 and allowing Yates Center to score ten.

With a 27-12 lead heading into the second half, St. Paul needed to be steady and maintain their momentum, so that is exactly what they did.

By outscoring Yates Center 14-9 in the third quarter, St. Paul moved the score to 41-21.

To quickly wrap things up, St. Paul stayed alive and scored 18 additional points in the fourth quarter while allowing only seven.

With a final score of 59-28, the Lady Indians clinched their fifth consecutive TRL championship title.

Katelin O’Brien and Emily Winter shot their way into double digits against Yates Center, scoring 21 and 13 points, respectively.

On the boys’ side, St. Paul met strong opposition from Yates Center, who was 9-0 in the league, but persevered to earn the victory and deny Yates Center the TRL championship title.

In the first quarter, the Indians immediately found a five-point lead by outscoring Yates Center 16-11.

St. Paul held onto their lead through the second quarter by adding 13 points to their score, but Yates Center began making creeping back up on the Indians after scoring 15.

As the third quarter arrived, Yates Center came out eager to steal the game and outscored St. Paul 19-15.

Now trailing 44-45, the pressure was on St. Paul to hold their composure and finish the game. Fortunately, they did exactly that to earn the 63-59 victory.

Four of St. Paul’s boys scored into double digits this game, including Adam Albertini with 17 points, Braven Born with 15 points, Brenden Doherty with 11 points and Caleb Pecha with 11 points.

St. Paul will host their next matchups against Crest Thursday, Feb. 22.