Same Church, Same Verse, Same Results

Nice game for Heather Pesigan and Hannah Weisbrod of Ursuline Academy. The two juniors combined for 30 points against mighty St. Joseph’s Academy, an even 15 points apiece.

However, four Angel starters combined for a record-setting 69 points and St. Joe crushed Ursuline 85-55 to win the Class 5, District 2 title at St. Louis U. High on Saturday.

With 2:59 left the floor was cleared of all the St. Joe starters. Mizzou-bound Maddie Stock scored 24; juniors Erin Nelson had 17 and Sydney Stipanovich 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 blocked shots, and Morgan Stock, also off to Mizzou had 12 points. It was never close, just like the semifinal 42 point win over Webster Groves on Wednesday.

Both games ended with the mercy rule running clock.

The Angels punched their tickets early for a Wednesday 6 p.m. regional showdown with Jackson at the Farmington Civic Center.

“I don’t care where we play. We’ll go anywhere,” said their coach, Julie Matheny.

The championship game was another shooting clinic in a 24-5 season. The Angels can ill afford to look ahead, anticipating a quarterfinal match with Incarnate Word Academy next Saturday at UM-St. Louis.

No doubt, the Angels are playing their best ball of the year. “It all starts with our defense. We scored a lot of points off transition,” said Maddie Stock.

Stipanovich was just happy to get the win. “It was a good win, though it was a little bit sloppy. We really are playing well together,” said the junior center.

“I’m looking forward to that game with Jackson,” she said.

At one span, Maddie Stock scored 16 of her 24 points in a three minute first-half stretch. She had a scintillating 19 points alone in the first half.

“We got lots of points off fast breaks. The points just kept on coming.”

Matheny liked the defensive effort of her team. ”We did a lot better job on that. We did a lot of talking on our defensive end,” she said. “We did a good job of moving up and down the court. We had to work for every bucket,” she said.

Ursuline coach Mary Hannig has seen enough of St. Joe this year. “They are so good at what the do. You can’t leave them open any time. We’d try and guard (Sydney) Stipanovich and Maddie Stock would kill us.

“They are such quick shooters. (Maddie) Stock is the fastest shooter I’ve ever seen. There’s no way of blocking her shot.”

Still, with a finishing record of 20-8, Hannig sees a silver lining. We had only one senior (Rebecca James) and we feel we’ve put down some building blocks for next year.

For this year, it seems to be all-Angels all the time.