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PERU – Visiting Dwight tried to match St. Bede’s physicality Thursday night in a Tri-County Conference girls basketball game at the Academy. It didn’t turn out so well for the Trojans.
Dwight left with one girl out with an apparent ankle injury, one with an ice pack on her face and another player with a gash under her eye that required her to seek medical attention early.
St. Bede left with a 55-43 conference victory to improve to 9-1 atop the league and 15-7 overall.
“I’m happy we got the win and we got out of here without injuries,” St. Bede coach Stephanie Mickley said. “Our girls play hard. We play clean, we’re just physically a strong team. It can be perceived the wrong way. We teach clean basketball. We work on our strength, and it’s read the wrong way sometimes.
“It was an intense ballgame. ... and they kept their composure well. I give [Dwight] credit. They played us hard. They didn’t back down, but we needed that to keep us sharp.”
“It was an intense ballgame. ... and they kept their composure well. I give [Dwight] credit. They played us hard. They didn’t back down, but we needed that to keep us sharp.”
— Stephanie Mickley, St. Bede basketball coach
St. Bede senior center Ali Bosnich led the Bruins with 22 points and drew the most attention and comments from the Dwight crowd about her physical play.
“What’s funny, they seem to love to hate her. But the thing is, they’d love to have her. They’d take her with open arms,” Mickley said.
Bosnich is not sure what to think about all the attention.
“It’s frustrating, for sure, but also it’s a compliment,” she said. “It’s a mental game, for sure, when you have coaches and parents yelling, but my coaches and teammates keep me centered. I’m grateful for our team.”
Lily Bosnich and Quinn McClain hit 3-pointers to give the Bruins a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Then the Bruins went to work in the second quarter, doubling up their guests 21-10, ending on a 10-0 run to grab a 35-20 halftime lead. Ali Bosnich poured in 10 points in the quarter.
Lily Bosnich got the run started with her second 3 of the half, Ella Hermes scored on a putback, and Ali Bosnich had a steal and layup before Lili McClain capped it with a putback.
Dwight (8-11, 2-8), which went down in defeat by 24 points (58-34) in the teams’ first meeting in late November, was pesky and never went away.
Ella Legner, a 5-foot sparkplug, hit a 3-pointer, and Makayla Wahl-Seabert converted a three-point play to draw the Trojans within 40-32 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Quinn McClain and Hermes each hit 3-pointers in the third quarter to lead the Bruins to a 46-34 edge at quarter’s end.
The Trojans got within 11 early in the fourth quarter at 48-37, but no closer as the Bruins closed out their ninth conference victory in 10 tries.
“I told the girls every game from here on out people are going to give us their best game, so we needed a game like this to kind of keep us sharp,” Mickley said. “It was physical. We were forced to play our best defense. We tried to switch to zone. They were hitting the outside shots. We really had to protect the paint so we didn’t foul out.
“Everybody knows our inside game is what we’re working on first half [of the season]. Now our outside game is starting to click, and they’ve really started to function really well.”
Ali Bosnich said the Bruins keep playing better and better.
“We just keep surprising ourselves, and the support we get from our coaches, our fans and each other is what’s making us succeed for sure,” she said.
Hermes backed Ali Bosnich with 10 points, Lily Bosnich had eight, and Quinn McClain added seven.
Kassy Kodat led Dwight with 18 points.
St. Bede will take the No. 1 seed into the Tri-County Tournament, scheduled to begin Saturday in Henry.