Lady Indians survive and advance

BY NICK CORN

In the first round of the state tournament, a win is all that matters, regardless of how you get that W. It certainly wasn’t pretty, but the St. Paul Lady Indians found a way to win in their first-round matchup with Thunder Ridge last night, advancing to the semifinals.

After a layup by Raquel Rice and a jump-shot from Holly Hutcherson, St. Paul took an early 4-0 lead. After that, the Lady Indians ran into problems with turnovers stemming from the Lady Longhorns’ full-court press. Those problems remained pretty much throughout the game for St. Paul, but a strong defensive effort kept them in the game. Still in the first, St. Paul trailed 7-6 before another basket from Hutcherson and Josie Albertini’s first three of the game. St. Paul led 11-8 after one.

Thunder Ridge tied the game early in the second after an old school three-point play, and both teams would go scoreless for over three minutes before Albertini hit another trey with 4:26 left in the half. In the next three minutes, Thunder Ridge would go on a 6-0 run to take a 17-14 lead before Albertini would hit a pair of free throws. At halftime, St. Paul found themselves down 19-16, and Albertini’s eight points were keeping them in the ballgame.

After falling down by six points in the third, the Lady Indians started to show their potential. Keyahnah Burk and Holly Hutcherson spurred a 14-0 run to end the third. Burk started by hitting a layup, followed by a rebound on the defensive end, and finishing with an assist to Hutcherson. On their next defensive possession, Hutcherson came up with a steal, and it was another Burk-to-Hutcherson layup that tied the game at 22-22 with 3:56 to go in the third. A long ball from Albertini gave St. Paul their first lead in nearly eight minutes of game time, and another basket from Hutcherson (assisted by Burk once more), followed by Albertini finding Burk in the corner for a three gave St. Paul a 30-22 lead heading into the fourth.

The Lady Indians had it working on both ends of the court, and it looked like they would run away with the victory. Neither team would make a shot from the field in the fourth quarter, as all 17 combined points came from the free-throw line. After Ashton Wood hit a free-throw with 7:23 remaining in the game, St. Paul held their largest lead of the night at 31-22. Over the next four minutes, Thunder Ridge went 7-11 from the charity stripe to make it a two-point game. Wood came back to hit a pair of free throws to give the Lady Indians a 33-29 lead. With their lead cut to one, Katelin O’Brien picked up an offensive rebound with 1:00 remaining and was fouled while shooting. She sank both free throws, giving St. Paul a five-point edge. The Lady Longhorns would cut it to three points once more, but Burk hit 2-4 free throws in the final 10 seconds to seal the 37-32 win.

Albertini led St. Paul with 11 points, and Hutcherson score 10. Burk put seven in the books. With the win, St. Paul moves on to face seven-seed Centralia (20-4) on Friday at 6:30. The winner will move on to the state championship game.

BOX SCORE

SPHS    11   5    14    7    FINAL  37

TRHS    8    11    3     10             32

ST PAUL: Albertini 11, Hutcherson 10, Burk 7, Wood 3, O’Brien 2, R. Rice 2, S. Rice 2

3-PT FG: Albertini 3, Burk 1