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Challengers stagger past St. Mary's Despite a poor shooting night, Cascade Christian gets the best of the Crusaders in the SCL showdown By Kris Henry Mail Tribune For the most part, the basketball nets at St. Mary's High were given the day off Saturday night. The backboards and rims, however, were forced into overtime as the host Crusaders and Cascade Christian struggled to find their range in Southern Cascade League girls basketball action. Thirty-three percent efficiency isn't going to win many games, but it proved to be just enough for the Challengers on Saturday as Cascade used a third-quarter surge to claim a 44-30 victory. The win improved Cascade to 15-3 overall and 4-1 in SCL play, while St. Mary's dropped to 5-12 and 2-3 in the SCL. St. Mary's proved solid on defense but managed to shoot only 19 percent for the contest. "We missed a lot of shots," first-year St. Mary's coach Pete Zappas lamented following the game. "I think Cascade's a better team than we are, but that should have been a much closer game. We've got to make those easy buckets. We missed about five or six layups and a lot of putbacks." Zappas said part of his team's struggles could have been pinned to a long bus ride following Friday night's return trip from Gilchrist. "I kind of expected our legs to be a little tired," he said. St. Mary's was within 21-19 early in the third quarter when a missed layup by the Crusaders served as a cue for the "Whitney Brookins Show." The Cascade senior was responsible in some way for the next 10 points of the game. After an assist on Kristin Salamone's inside basket, Brookins found a hole on the left side of the offense for two three-point plays and an 8-foot jumper. The last basket put the Challengers comfortably ahead, 31-19. "Whitney did a great job," said Cascade coach Loren King. "That's what we needed and she stepped up and did it." Brookins' breakout in the second half included nine of her team-high 10 rebounds and 12 of her game-high 14 points. "We were feeling pretty good going into halftime (trailing 19-16), but it seems like we always have a lull in the third quarter," said St. Mary's junior Christina Vaninetti. "We needed to keep it up so we didn't get into a hole, but that didn't happen. "It's hard to stop them when they can shoot outside and inside because you can't really guard them both." For her part, Brookins didn't have an answer as to why the game suddenly became so easy during that pivotal third-quarter run, when Cascade outscored St. Mary's, 19-5. "I don't really know when I'm on," she said. "I just shoot the ball and see what happens. I guess whenever I put my mind to something, it usually goes well for me." In contrast, little was going well for the Crusaders at that time. St. Mary's went 1-for-14 from the field in the third quarter, allowing Cascade to open a 17-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. "We had a third-quarter meltdown for about five minutes, where they got a couple quick points on us and we panicked and threw the ball away and that was the game," said Zappas. "One thing about this team, if we go down by more than 10, it's hard for us to catch up because we just don't have the scorers." That fact rang true in the fourth quarter as St. Mary's never really threatened the Cascade lead. Vaninetti had 11 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots to lead St. Mary's, while freshman post Brittany Farrer added 10 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots. Most of the damage by the Crusader duo, however, came in the first half, when St. Mary's took advantage of lapses in weakside defense by Cascade. "I thought Cascade did a great job of keeping the ball away from Brittany and forcing somebody else to score," said Zappas, "and we don't have a lot of scorers on our team other than Brittany and Christina." Only two other Crusader players scored Saturday, with freshman Kelly Walden dropping in seven points and sophomore Anelise Montan making one basket. The same couldn't be said for a Cascade team rich in diversity. Senior Laural Kelley scored the game's first seven points on her way to 10, while sophomore Jessica Fischer came off the bench to score five of her seven points in the third quarter. Salamone chipped in with six points and eight rebounds, and senior Amy Roseberg had five points and five rebounds for the Challengers. "This is the best help we've had off our bench this season," said King, who went 10-deep in his rotation. "It's not going to show up in how many points they scored necessarily but they all came in and did a really good job." CASCADE CHRISTIAN (44) - Brookins 14, Kelley 10, Fischer 7, Salamone 6, Roseberg 5, Gettman 2, Mellow 0, Roberts 0, Josephson 0, Clarke 0. Totals: 19-57 3-4 44. ST. MARY'S (30) - Vaninetti 11, Farrer 10, Walden 7, Montan 2, Maurer 0, Huizinga 0, Lanahan 0, Tomlinson 0, Beckstead 0, Boggess 0, Seus 0. Totals: 12-62 5-9 30. Cascade Christian..................................13 6 19 6 - 44 St. Mary's.....................................................8 8 5 9 - 30 3-point goals - Cascade Christian 3 (Kelley 2, Fischer 1), St. Mary's 1 (Vaninetti 1). Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.