Girls basketball: Late burst by Kaitlyn Davis leads Marquette Academy past St. Bede Academy

OTTAWA – With a minute to play in the fourth quarter and down a point against St. Bede Academy on Monday night at Bader Gymnasium, Marquette Academy freshman guard Kaitlyn Davis took a pass around five feet behind the top of the key and rose up for a shot.

“It was pretty deep, maybe too deep,” Davis said. “To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about shooting it because I knew how far behind the (three-point) arc I was, but then I heard coach (Eric) Price yell ‘pull the trigger.’ From there I shot it, and it went in. It felt good off my hand, but I’m just glad I made it.”

Davis – who finished with a game-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds, two assists and five steals – then followed up her 3-pointer with a defensive rebound-turned layup with 25 seconds left and finally a pair of free throws in the final seconds to wrap a 60-55 Tri-County Conference victory over the Bruins.

[ Photos: St. Bede vs Marquette girls basketball ]

“I’m nervous before every game I play in, and tonight was no different, plus I got off to a slow start,” said Davis, who missed her first four shots. “I was able to make a couple of baskets in the second quarter and that seemed to get me calmed down a little. I feel like this is the best game I’ve played so far and hopefully I can keep it up.”

Marquette (4-2, 2-0) also received solid games from Lilly Craig (14 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four steals) and Avery Durdan (12 points, 11 rebounds), while Chloe Larson and Hunter Hopkins had five points each.

“What saved us was we shoot the ball (25 of 56, 45%) pretty well; we held our own in rebounding (45-41 advantage) and (freshman) Kaitlyn (Davis) had a great last minute of the game.”

—  Eric Price, Marquette Academy girls basketball coach

“(Davis) had a similar shot earlier that she didn’t shoot it,” Price said. “I know she has that range, so that last one was really one I wanted her to take. I’m glad she heard me.

“We had way too many turnovers (30) tonight. What saved us was we shoot the ball (25 of 56, 45%) pretty well; we held our own in rebounding (45-41 advantage) and Kaitlyn had a great last minute of the game. It was a physical game, but even though we may have been outsized, we battled for everything.

“I felt like we settled in in the third quarter and things really started to click for us in the fourth. We had better possessions as the game went on.”

St. Bede (2-4, 1-1) led 12-10 after the opening quarter and 27-24 at halftime of the back-and-forth contest.

Marquette held a 43-42 lead heading to the fourth, but the Bruins used a 6-0 burst, including two hoops from Lily Bosnich and another by Ashlyn Ehm, to push ahead 53-50 with three minutes to play.

Craig’s triple at the 2 minute-15 second mark knotted the game a 53-all before Davis took over.

The Bruins, which finished 22 of 72 (31%) from the floor, were led by Ehm’s 16 points, eight rebounds and six steals. Ali Bosnich added 15 points, 10 rebounds, five steals and four assists, while Lily Bosnich had nine points and six steals.

“I knew coming into this game that it was going to be close, probably from start to finish. I guess I was right,” St. Bede coach Stephanie Mickley said. “A big focus and what I wanted from my girls was for us was keeping our composure if we made mistakes or calls didn’t go our way. I thought we did an excellent job of that, throwing on top what a physical game it was both ways. Normally our outside shooting is pretty solid, but we struggled with that tonight and we didn’t rebound the ball as well as I hoped we would.

“We played hard for four quarters and didn’t have any mental meltdowns. Even though its a loss, we have a lot of things to build on from this game.”

Both teams are back in TCC action on Thursday as St. Bede travels to Dwight, while Marquette visits rival Seneca.