St. Paul rallies past SMCC

NORWALK — Whatever it takes. The turnovers are still piling up. The self-inflicted errors still come at inopportune times. But two games in, the St. Paul girls basketball team had two chances to win games late. And Tuesday night, the Lady Flyers came up a winner against visiting St. Mary Central Catholic. Trailing 28-22 with under three minutes left, St. Paul closed the game on a 9-0 run for a 31-28 victory inside Harvey Keller Gymnasium. In its season opener at Huron on Nov. 21, St. Paul trailed 32-30 with under five minutes left before falling by a 41-34 score. "I told the girls it wasn't the prettiest game in the world, but a win is a win, and we'll always take those," St. Paul head coach Steve Frazee said. "There are a lot of things that if we watch them on film, this is a bigger margin game for us. We left way too many layups out there and again with too many turnovers. "But watching SMCC on film in their win against Crestline, they were aggressive with their rebounding," he added. "But our girls never backed down an inch tonight. They just kept playing hard, so even down six at the end, they stepped up and made their shots." St. Paul tied the game with consecutive 3-pointers from Morgan Endsley and Annie Friend. The Flyers then took the lead when Aubrie Bogard scored on a rebound putback. With a 31-28 lead and SMCC with the ball and under 20 seconds left, St. Paul still had two fouls to give. After fouling the Panthers twice to shorten the final possession, the Flyers came up with a steal to finish off the win. The Flyers opened the game with a quick 5-0 lead on a pair of baskets by Ella Kalizewski and a free throw from Endsley. Bogard then scored by splitting a pair of free throws over two trips to the line for a 7-4 lead after one quarter. SMCC's Reid Didion cut the deficit to 7-6 early in the second quarter, but Georgia Crabbs countered with her lone basket of the game around another score from Didion. Leading 9-8, Friend split two free throws and Kalizewski scored inside again for a 12-8 lead with 2:01 left in the first half. Evelyn Shafrath scored for the Panthers (1-1) with 1:36 left in the half for a 12-10 deficit, which is where things stood at halftime. The Panthers grabbed control in the third quarter by limiting the Flyers to just one basket — a 3-pointer by Endsley. Meanwhile, Allison Lill scored all five of her points for SMCC, and a 3 by Rae Roth helped the Panthers surge ahead 20-17 entering the final eight minutes. That set up the final eight minutes, which saw the Panthers go up 28-22 after six points from Didion and two foul shots from Finley Karr. "The girls never lost hope or lost their cool," Frazee said. "They didn't make shots all night, but when we needed them, we knocked them down. They did a great job of pulling it together despite us using several different lineups so far. "We're still trying to find that right combination." St. Paul will host Seneca East at noon Friday in another non-league matchup. SMCC (1-1) Finley Karr 0-2—2; Allison Lill 2-0—5; Rae Roth 1-0—3; Reid Didion 5-2—12; Evelyn Shafrath 2-0—4; Laney Torres 1-0—2. TOTALS 11-4—28. ST. PAUL (1-1) Georgia Crabbs 1-0—2; Morgan Endsley 2-2—8; Annie Friend 1-1—4; Aubrie Bogard 2-4—8; Ella Kalizewski 3-0—6; Deanna Vazquez 1-1—3. TOTALS 10-8—31. SMCC 4 6 10 8 — 28 St. Paul 7 5 4 15 — 31 3-point FGs: (SM) Lill, Roth; (SP) Endsley 2, Friend.