St. Bede cruises to victory in regional opener

PERU- With only five players and a young team Gardner-South Wilmington knew it had a tall task against a St. Bede team that made a state run a season ago.

The No. 11-seeded Panthers were shown no mercy as the No. 5 Bruins came away with a 61-19 victory Saturday at Abbott Vincent Gymnasium in a Class 1A St. Bede Regional quarterfinal.

“We wanted to pressure them from the start and play man to man,” St. Bede coach Tom Ptak said. “They are young and had low numbers so we wanted to make them uncomfortable and I think we did that all night.”

The Bruins wasted little time as they took the opening tip and Lili McClain drained a corner 3-pointer for the early lead.

Bailey Engels hit 4 of 4 from the line and Savannah Bray collected one of her 10 rebounds on the night for a putback as the Bruins scored the first nine points of the game.

Maddie Simms hit a pair of free throws to give the Panthers their first points, but St. Bede kept up the pressure, which led to a 12-foot jumper by Bray and a long 3-pointer from Quinn McClain for a 15-4 edge.

With the quarter coming to an end, St. Bede pushed the ball ahead and Lili McClain drained another 3-pointer as the Bruins led 20-5 at the end of the first.

“It’s kind of been the story all year with being young and seeing pressure,” GSW coach Adam Leigh said. “St. Bede is a very good team and we tried to do our best, but St. Bede has a lot of shooters and can play the post as well and it showed tonight.”

St. Bede started off the second quarter the same way it started the game with a 3-pointer from Lili McClain to extend the lead to 23-5.

Simms converted a bounce pass from Madison Wright into a bucket, but Quinn McClain launched a 3-pointer from NBA range as the lead ballooned to 28-8.

The Bruins got a fast break layup from Engels as St. Bede scored the final five points of the half to go into the break with a 33-10 lead.

The Bruins scored the first 13 points of the second half to put the game away for good as Engels hit from behind the arc and then found Bray for a layup and 38-10 advantage.

Lili McClain hit another 3-pointer and quickly followed that with a steal and layup before Bray’s layup extended the lead to 46-10 before Simms hit a bank shot with 1:40 remaining in the third quarter for the Panthers' first points of the half.

As the third was winding down, Lili McClain hit her fifth shot from long range to give the Bruins a 51-13 edge going into the final eight minutes.

Aubrey Male hit a 3-pointer for the Panthers, but Ashlyn Ehm converted a pair of buckets as the Bruins cruised to a 61-19 victory, setting up their fourth contest of the year Tuesday against rival Marquette in the regional semifinals.

“We got everyone in the scoring column tonight, which is a great thing,” Ptak said. “We have a tough game against Marquette coming up Tuesday, which is our fourth of the year with them winning two of them, so we have to come prepared because they can flat out shoot the ball.”

Lili McClain led St. Bede with 17 points, while Engels and Bray added 15 each with Bray also adding 10 boards. The Panthers were led by Simms with nine points.