Third quarter costly for St. Paul

NORWALK — St. Paul was hanging around with Seneca East. The Flyers trailed by 10 points at halftime, and defensively had done enough to keep themselves in the game. The Tigers erased any thoughts of an upset with the first 15 points of the third quarter. St. Paul gave Seneca East too many extra chances with turnovers as the Tigers ran away with a 47-20 non-league win Friday. "Those first three minutes of the third quarter just doomed us," St. Paul coach Steve Frazee said. "I told the girls we had to come out with energy. I was happy with our effort in the first half, but the three minute-span just killed us." Neither team was pleasant offensively in the first half. St. Paul (1-2) committed 20 turnovers, yet trailed just 16-6 at the break. Seneca East (3-0) came out on fire. Two scores from Izzy Stockmaster and one each from Alexa Snay, Luella Burkholder and Cami Lantz put the Tigers up 26-6. Stockmaster scored once again and added a three-point play as Seneca East pushed ahead 31-6. It was a lightning 10-0 run in just 2:46. All of a sudden, St. Paul was down by 25 points. "We had a little heart-to-heart," said Seneca East coach George Parks of the halftime speech. "I have eight seniors and three juniors that have been with me for three or four years now. We told them the first two minutes of the second half is going to determine the game. "We told them we could either end the game early or we're going to give them a chance where they think they can win this game. We responded well." The Flyers were able to answer later and play a little better. Down 35-8, Deanna Vazquez scored and Raeleigh Friend hit a 3-pointer. A 3 from Valeria Bordner at the third quarter buzzer gave Seneca East a 38-13 advantage going into the final quarter. Morgan Endsley scored and Vazquez drilled a triple to bring St. Paul within 38-18, but the Flyers limped to just two points the final 6:35 of the game. "We talked at the beginning of the year that we're going to win games with our defense," Parks said. "We can't control if the shot is going in, but you can control hard you work. Defensively, I was really pleased with our effort. We've been struggling offensively the first couple games. We'll look at film and fix it." Both teams struggled to do anything offensively in the first quarter. Snay scored the only two buckets of the first six minutes of the game. Seneca East led 10-2 after one quarter following buckets from Stockmaster and Snay. St. Paul didn't get much going offensively, only attempting seven shots in the first half. "I told them it was a great effort and a good half of defense," Frazee said. "We switched to our matchup zone and I thought that was really good. I was really happy with their effort and coming off a holiday and not practicing yesterday, that's hard to do." Friend led St. Paul with eight points while Vazquez scored five points. Both are freshmen for the Flyers. "We were playing three freshmen at times," Frazee said. "They came in and gave really good effort and played hard. They have a lot of potential in that class. I told the girls we have a lot of potential where we can sneak up on people this year because nobody expects anything from St. Paul after three wins last year." The Flyers opened the season with a close loss to Huron before a come-from-behind win over St. Mary Central Catholic on Tuesday. St. Paul finished with 30 turnovers, but just three came in the fourth quarter. "We have to take care of the basketball," Frazee said. "Our turnovers weren't as bad against St. Mary, but we had 36 or 38 the first game. "I told them to trust their teammates, trust the coaches and run what we teach them. When we ran stuff right, it was successful. When we didn't, that's when we got in trouble." SENECA EAST (3-0) Cami Lantz 1 0—2, Alexa Snay 5 1—11, Izzy Stockmaster 5 1—11, Luella Burkholder 1 0—2, Aubrey Ritzler 1 0—3, Karli Foos 1 0—2, Jordan Enders 2 0—6, Lillian Burkholder 0 3—3, Julia Enders 1 2—4, Valerie Bordner 1 0—3. TOTALS 18 7—47. ST. PAUL (1-2) Morgan Endsley 1 0—2, Aubrie Bogard 1 0—2, Ella Kalizewski 1 1—3, Raeleigh Friend 3 1—8, Deanna Vazquez 2 0—5. TOTALS 8 2—20. S. East 10 6 22 9 — 47 St. Paul 2 4 7 7 — 20 3-point FGs: (SE) Jo. Enders 2, Ritzler, Bordner; (SP) R. Friend, Vazquez.