Background

The state playoffs for 1A girls basketball begin on Friday, February 12. There are four regions in 1A with each region having between 10-12 schools in them. Four teams from each region qualify for state.

Unlike the other three regions, the South does not have a region tournament. Their selections come from regular season power points.

This is how it is shaping up in the South Region for the girls as of this afternoon:

Gila Bend is part of the region and they are the power. They are ranked 2nd according to the AIA. They are obviously in the state tournament. (Gila Bend is not considered part of Southern Arizona for our reporting purposes).

Patagonia is ranked 5th. They are in with only a home game on Friday against Immaculate Heart.

St. David is 9th with one last game against Green Fields. It is safe to say they are in.

Green Fields is 11th and St. Gregory is 16th. They were separated by 6.9608 points before they played each other Thursday night.

St. Gregory beat Green Fields 49-33 Thursday night so the margin will decrease.

St. Gregory still has Gila Bend on their schedule and Green Fields has St. David.

You could say the state playoffs for St. Gregory began last night.

The Game

Green Fields and St. Gregory played even for the first four minutes with Bev Bass scoring 4 early points for St. Gregory and Isa Baldwin hitting a 3-pointer for Green Fields. It was 7-6 Green Fields with 4:51 left in the first quarter.

The Griffins of Green Fields would not scored again until there was 5:31 left in the first half.

The Hawks, on the other hand, found themselves up 27-9 at that point thanks to a relenting press that pretty much decided the game.

The halftime score was 33-9 with Emma Finklestein scoring 10 points, Alex Berman scoring 9 points, and Bass scoring 6 to lead St. Gregory.

Maya Holzman had 4 to lead Green Fields.

“We aren’t real deep,” said St. Gregory coach Michelle Berry. “But we are fun to watch. We don’t have many offensive stars so we play pressure defense to get things open.”

St. Gregory maintained its lead to 46-21 after the third quarter but Green Fields started to show some life as Baldwin hit another 3 and Sophie Ward scored 5 in the period.

Jennie Bass hit a 3 for St. Gregory to open up the fourth quarter to put the Hawks up 49-21 with 7:41 left in the game.

If you recall, Green Fields went scoreless for over 7 minutes in the first half. Now it was St. Gregory’s turn to go cold as they would not score again.

The Griffins outscored the Hawks 12-3 in the final quarter thanks to the spirited play of Olivia Snyder but it was too late. “There isn’t enough time,” as one parent said in the stands.

The final score was 49-33

Snyder told me the first half was difficult. “It was rocky in the first half. We started to pull together in the second half but it was too late.”

Snyder scored a team-high 9 points but she said defense was her game. It was, in fact, her two steals at the end of the game that led to easy scores for her.

St. Gregory did what it needed to do.

They needed a win to stay alive and they got it.

“It was great game and we played really well,” said Berman. “Green Fields is a tough team and this was good for us. Hopefully this will help us make state.”

Green Fields coach Tom Danehy speculated that the final power point margin might be really close. I agree.

Scoring:

St. Gregory

Berman 15; Finklestein 13; B. Bass 8; Jennie Bass 5; Jordan Davis 4; Taryn Parsons 2; Jordan Davies 2.

Green Fields

Snyder 9; Holzman 7; Ward 7; Baldwin 6; Kya Coletta 2; Cora Beckett 2.

Frankie Mgbolu out for the season

The St. Gregory boys have won back-to-back state championships with Frankie Mgbolu on the floor. The top ranked team will have to try to win one without him this time.

The junior all-star fractured his hip in a game against St. David last week and is expected to be out for 6 weeks.

The Hawks lost second ranked Surrey Garden 71-54 without him. St. Gregory will be seeded first in the state tournament as player injuries have no bearings on seeding like the NCAA tournament.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.