Girls basketball: St. Bede closes tourney’s opening day with triumph over Newark

PERU – St. Bede started out strong and used its rebound and turnover advantages to take care of business during Day 1 action of the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic for a 45-24 victory over Newark. It was the Lady Bruins’ second victory of the day, as they defeated Sandwich earlier.

St. Bede was strong off the boards right out of the gate against Newark, with Ashlyn Ehm collecting two offensive boards and the stickbacks as the hosts opened with a 4-0 edge. Moments later, it was Ella Hermes with the block and then ahead to Ali Bosnich for the layup and the 7-1 advantage.

St. Bede’s defense was just as good as their rebounding early and caused several turnovers, which led to a bunny shot from Bosnich and then beautiful passing from Hermes to Bailey Engles to Ehm for the layup and an 11-1 lead after the first quarter.

“I thought we came out focused tonight,” St. Bede coach Stephanie Mickley said. “We kind of go with what’s working, and tonight our rebound and inside play was working really well with Ashlyn [Ehm] and Ali [Bosnich]. And teams have been pressuring us all season, and for the most part I thought we did well except for some turnovers late.

“But overall, I was very happy.”

With a foot on the line, Addison Ness drained a long 2-pointer to start the second quarter, but Ehm once again got the putback to make it 13-3.

Newark started to get things going a bit as Ness made a strong move to the hoop and then Madison Miller found Ness breaking to the basket for a 6-0 run that cut the St. Bede lead to 14-10.

“Coming off the Ottawa tournament, I thought we did the same thing with the turnovers,” Newark coach Jasmine Mitchell said. “We started to play better in the second, but St. Bede is a bigger team, and the rebounding was an issue for us tonight like it’s been most games this year. We’re a scrappy bunch, but we just don’t have a lot of size.”

St. Bede had a response to the Newark run with a 6-0 run of its own to end the half. Bosnich hit 1 of 2 free throws and then made a solid move to the basket before Quinn McClain found Bosnich again for a 20-10 halftime lead.

Then to start the second half it was Bosnich again cutting to the hoop, Ehm this time finding her for the layup. Danica Peshia then drained a 3-pointer for Newark, but St. Bede immediately responded with a bucket and the foul for Ehm that made it 27-14 St. Bede.

Kiara Wesseh’s drive and layup along with the layup from Long gave Newark a 7-0 run that cut the deficit to 27-21, but as they did all night, St.Bede had an answer. Hermes drove and hit the bank shot before drilling the corner 3, and a five-foot jumper from Bosnich ended the third quarter with a 7-0 St. Bede run and a 34-21 lead.

Peshia started the fourth quarter off with a 3-pointer to make it 34-24 St. Bede and started to cause several turnovers, but couldn’t get the offense rolling enough to make a dent in the deficit.

“It was nice to see Danica hit a couple 3-pointers,” Mitchell said. “She’s been shooting better lately and is one of those girls that does all the things you don’t necessarily see in the stat book, so it was nice to see that.”

“We got a little sloppy at the end, but teams have pressured us all year,” Mickley said. “We’re starting to handle it a little better, and we have to keep doing that if we want to beat good teams.”

For the game, Bosnich led all scorers with 26 points, while Ehm had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Newark was led by Peshia and Ness with nine points each.

St. Bede returns to tournament action Wednesday as it takes on state-ranked Annawan at 5:30 p.m.

Newark returns to action at 1 p.m. against Annawan and then 4 p.m. against Sandwich.