Cor Jesu Works Out the Kinks in 51-24 Win over Villa Duchesne

Chaley Poth leads Chargers with 17 points; their 16th win of the season.

Lucky for the Cor Jesu Chargers, there are two halves to a basketball game. In a game where the visiting Chargers led Villa Duchesne 28-20 at the break; they outscored the Saints 23-4 in the last 16 minutes to win handily, 51-24. Veteran coach John Neff got his team more cohesive in the stretch run, and playing a lot more organized give and go basketball. “I really didn’t know at the beginning of the season if we would win 16 games, but the kids really started coming together. We lost our first three games of the season, then got to 3 and 3.” said Neff. “The second half we showed what we are capable of doing,” he said. One who listens is senior guard Chaley Poth. Averaging 15.1 points per game, she fired in a team-high 17. One came on a …

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Villa Senior Accepts Her Medical Condition With Grace & Dignity

Laura Collins has lost all of her hair, and everyone is fine with that.

Just look down the bench of the Villa Duchesne basketball team, and you will readily see one player with a shaved head. That’s not hard to notice on a girls’ team. The first thoughts are: how can this player be strong enough to be playing with cancer? Thank God it’s not cancer. Laura Collins, 18, senior suffers from a non-curable medical condition called Alopecia areata. This is a rare condition that causes round patches of hair loss and can lead to total hair loss. Collins, who was born in St. Louis began losing her hair to AA at age 13 while the family was living in Salt Lake City. “In the 7th grade, five years ago, I lost all my hair. It all grew back and then it fell out again. Over that summer, it started to grow back again,” she said…

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Villa Saints Pick Up Second Win of the Season

Villa rolls past Clayton to reach title game of the consolation bracket at the MICDS Holiday Tournament.

A 2-6 start to the season is not what veteran Villa coach Jane Ellen Kuenzle had in mind for her team. But she'll take a 43-40 win over Clayton and be satisfied, for the moment. Rachel Arnold dropped in both ends of a 1 and 1 free throw situation with 10.3 seconds left to seal the deal. Villa meets Francis Howell, 1:30 p.m. today in the consolation championship game. Howell defeated Triad in the opposite bracket, 74-54. See more tournament photos on the Ladue-Frontenac Facebook Page. Morgan Schlegel, 5-foot-4 sophomore guard led all scorers with 16 points. Senior forward Alex Roth chipped in 10. Laci Sams, a senior for Clayton had 15 points; Nina Murov added 8. Villa led Clayton at halftime 19-14. The Saints grabbed an early lead and were …

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Villa Shows No Love For Visiting Notre Dame In Valentines Evening Game

Saints blister the nets with nine three pointers, en-route to an easy 47-33 win.

It was Valentines Day all around the world, but the Villa Duchesne Saints basketball team showed no love for their opponents, the visiting Rebels of Notre Dame. The Saints scorers blistered the nets with eight-first half three pointers and ripped up the Rebels 47-33 in the second-to-last regular game of the season. They ended with nine three pointers. The Saints host Principia Thursday night on senior night. The Saints stormed out the gates leading 8-2 and had a commanding 18-9 first quarter lead and an even bigger halftime bulge of 29-9. The Saints are 15-7, the Rebels 6-16. Villa was expected to win this game. You know things are going bad when the second half started and the Villa coach was still talking to three starters when the ref’s…

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The Baer Facts

A Coaching Genius Is Right In Our Own Back Yard

Jane Ellen Kuenzle has brought a flair and brilliance to the Villa Duchesne basketball program.

From time to time, I like to write about our local coaches. These people dedicate their efforts to bettering the lives of athletes in the area. From years of experience, I know coaching at the high school level makes all the difference in the world. The athletes are gaining lifetime experiences from their coaches. They are learning about teamwork, cooperation and dedication. Great coaches make a difference. Prior to joining Patch, I had never heard of Villa Duchesne’s basketball coach Jane Ellen Kuenzle. That’s all changed. After almost two seasons of observing, I’ve learned a lot about this Saints coach. Trust me, she’s in the upper echelon of local leaders. When she talks, the team listens. Villa Duchesne’s talent doesn’t run quite as …

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32nd Annual Queen of Hearts Tournament This Coming Weekend

Saints precursor to Valentine's Activities runs Thursday through Saturday.

In one of the longest standing regular season basketball tournaments in St. Louis, the 32nd annual Villa Duchesne tourney will be played Thursday through Saturday in the Saints' gym. The opening round is Thursday beginning with a 4 p.m. game featuring No. 4 seed Cape Girardeau Notre Dame and No. 5 seed Whitfield at 4 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., the No. 2 seed Jeff City Jays take on No .7 Beaumont. At 7 p.m. The No. 1 seed Kirkwood Pioneers meet No. 8. Lutheran North. The night cap at 8:30 p.m. features the host No. 3 Villa Duchesne versus No. 6 Metro. The winners will play semifinal games Friday at 7 and 8:30 p.m. The championship is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Consolation games will be played Friday at 4 and 5:30 p.m. and the consolation championship is…

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Strong Second Half Keys Villa Duchesne to Win over St. Charles

The Saints, who were held to 10 first half points and none in the second quarter, rebounded for a 36-27 victory at home Monday night.

Villa Duchesne senior guard Kaitleya Frost felt it was just a matter of time before her team's shots started to fall Monday night in a non-conference game against St. Charles. It would take a mighty long time as the Saints were held without a point in the second quarter and had another dry spell over almost five minutes in the third quarter. But the shots did fall when they counted the most as the Saints won their fourth game in a row and sixth of their last seven with a 36-27 victory. The loss snapped a four-game Pirate winning streak. "It was certainly a defensive game," Frost said. "When your shots are not falling you just have to focus your attention on defense and try to get stops. We finally were able to make some shots late in the …

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Saints Fall To Top-Seeded Jeff City

The Jays dominate in the final three quarters in a 49-26 win over Villa Duchesne in the semifinals of the Queen of Hearts Tournament.

Villa Duchesne basketball coach Jane Ellen Kuenzle studied the stat sheet from her team's contest against Jefferson City in the semifinals of the Queen of Hearts Tournament Friday night. The stats told the story as the Saints struggled from both the field (9-of-44) and the free throw line (7-of-16) in a 49-26 loss to top-seeded Jefferson City. "The math is right there," Kuenzle said. "We were terrible from the line. Those numbers are not acceptable and we didn't shoot it well from the field either. Our shooting has been our Achilles Heel so far this season and I feel that we are getting some pretty good shots. I believe that at some point those shots are going to fall." They did fall early in the semifinal game as the fourth-seeded Saints …

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Jefferson City Top Seed at Queen of Hearts Tourney

Host Villa Duchesne is seeded fourth in the eight-team tournament which begins Thursday.

Valentine's Day is still two weeks away but the Queen of Hearts basketball champion will be crowned Saturday. Villa Duchesne, a Sacred Heart school, has hosted the Queen of Hearts Tournament since 1980. It was usually held around Feb. 14 and thus the name of the tournament. The Saints have won the event four times but have not done so in the 2000's. Villa Duchesne won in 1987, 1992, 1995 and 1998. Villa is seeded fourth among the eight teams this season and will open up against fifth-seeded Metro Thursday at 7 p.m. "You always want to finish at least as high as you are seeded," Villa Coach Jane Ellen Kuenzle said. "But the emphasis at this point of the season is not on where you finish but how you play." Villa comes into the tournament …

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Saints Fall To Jennings

The Warriors outscore Villa 18-8 in fourth quarter in 50-47 victory.

The key for Villa Duchesne in its game against Jennings Wednesday night was obvious during the introduction of the starting lineups. The first four Jennings' starters announced were all guards and the other was a forward. The tallest player in the Warrior starting five was 5-foot-8 and all of the Saint starters were at least that tall, with Beth Nogalski at 6-foot-2. But Jennings proved that size is not all that matters in basketball as the Warriors came back from a seven-point fourth quarter deficit to record a 50-47 non-conference win at Villa. "They just beat us and outworked us, especially on the offensive boards and that should not have happened," Villa Duchesne Coach Jane Ellen Kuenzle said. "We did not put in that extra effort that …

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