Good Week For Villa Saints In MICDS Holiday Tournament

Villa Duchesne has won state titles in volleyball, golf and field hockey, but not in basketball.

Energetic coach Jane Ellen Kuenzel, alumnus of the WNBA has other designs on that. She is molding and shaping her team like a sculptor. She is learning that getting over .500 can be a painful experience.

Friday night, the Saints put things together to beat Parkway Central 42-36 for the first ever girls title at the MICDS Holiday Invitational. Posting two wins in three games jumped the record to 5-4. Kuenzel would like to build on the year-ending outcome at MICDS.

“We shot poorly and they (Parkway Central) are such a super strong team. They have fine athletes on that team,” said the Villa coach.

She did, however find a silver lining in a rainy storm. “Overall, we had a good tournament. Now, she is looking for someone like Lauren Nickson or Kaitleya Frost, her seniors to take charge.

“The key for us is someone just has to make the shot. We handled the ball pretty well,” said the coach.

The game was nip and tuck from the start. At half, the Saints had a razor-thin 19-17 lead.

The Lady Colts, 5-5 on the season moved out to  a 29-24 lead in the third quarter, and by the end of the quarter, Villa had retaken the lead, 32-27.

At the five minute mark of the game, Frost might a nice left handed layup of a missed shot and converted a free throw for a 39-29 lead, the biggest in the game for Villa.

“We applied ourselves and made some shots. Our goal was to have a good tournament week and we did,” said Frost. “We just need to keep on shooting more and develop better shots. We’ll be alright,” said the new senior leader.

Nickson had 13 points. Frost had 12 points and Ashley Holmes led Parkway Central with 12 points.

Parkway Central was 8 of 16 from the line, Villa connected on 13 of 20 free throw attempts.

It could take some time to develop a championship caliber team. Kuenzel is definitely focused on the goal, trying to make that happen.