Girls basketball: St. Bede wins Tri-County Conference Tournament

HENRY – In its first season back in the Tri-County Conference, the St. Bede girls basketball team dethroned the defending conference tournament champion.

The No. 1-seeded Bruins established an inside-outside offense early, played tough defense and pulled away from No. 2 Putnam County for a 53-29 victory in the tournament title game Thursday at Henry-Senachwine.

“It’s really surprising,” St. Bede senior Ali Bosnich said. “We definitely surprised ourselves throughout the conference. We’ve just been on an uphill climb, and we continue to push each other.”

It was the seventh straight win for the Bruins, who have not lost in 2024 and improved to 18-7 on the season to double last year’s win total.

“It means a lot,” St. Bede coach Stephanie Mickley said about winning the conference tournament. “Last year we only won nine games. This was another goal we had to play our best, to keep it rolling. They’re all starting to really work together and jell. I’m really proud of them and really happy for them.”

Against PC, Ali Bosnich established herself in the paint early.

Bosnich scored eight of the Bruins’ first nine points with a free throw, a three-point play in the post, a steal and fast break layup and a second chance bucket as St. Bede led 9-6.

The Bruins started to pull away when they started to his outside shots as well.

Senior Ella Hermes knocked down a corner 3-pointer with 16.8 seconds left in the first quarter for a 15-8 lead.

“I knew the offense would get running eventually, and it did,” Mickley said. “We’re learning that if the inside game is covered, we have to think of other options, and we did tonight.”

To start the second, Bosnich scored on an assist from Ashlyn Ehm, and Hermes followed with another corner 3 for a 20-8 lead that caused PC coach Jared Sale to call timeout.

“We talked about getting up into Hermes,” Sale said. “We gave her too much space a couple times. We know she has a quick trigger. We have to do a better job of understanding that. Once she gets going, your zone expands and it opens up everything for Bosnich. Every cut she makes, every drive she makes is intentional. She knows what she’s doing, and she does it really well. She’s super physical, and I don’t think we were physical enough with her before she caught the ball.”

The Panthers managed to pull back within nine at 25-16 on a bucket by Maggie Richetta with 2:48 left in the second, but Bosnich hit a long jumper with 17 seconds left in the half for a 27-16 lead at the break, and the Bruins led by double digits the rest of the way.

“We stayed contained and calm,” Bosnich said about not allowing PC back into the game. “We always stay humble, but we still have that drive within us. We had to have patience to get a good shot and not feel rushed.”

Defensively, the Bruins focused their efforts on Richetta and Ava Hatton, with Bosnich on Richetta and Ehm guarding Hatton.

Hatton finished with 14 points, while Richetta had 10 as she missed large portions of the game because of foul trouble.

“We really had to lock in on defense,” Mickley said. “Ali had a big job guarding Richetta and she did a nice job. They do a nice job trying to feed her and it was hard to defend.

“With Ava Hatton, she’s a really good player. It’s just trying to contain her as best we can. She’s going to score, but we wanted to at least make it a little more difficult and Ashlyn did a great job.”

Richetta was whistled for her second foul with 3:32 left in the first quarter. She was called for her third and fourth fouls less than two minutes into the second half.

“With her athleticism and physicality, she can kind of match Bosnich with that,” Sale said. “When she has to be off the floor, that takes a toll on us. I thought Maggie Spratt did a good job plugging in, but we have to have her on the floor.”

Bosnich finished with a game-high 22 points and had 11 rebounds and five steals, while Hermes hit three 3s and finished with 16 points.

The Bruins and Panthers meet again Monday at St. Bede.

Bosnich, Hermes, Ehm, Hatton and Richetta made the all-tournament team along with Henry’s Kaitlyn Anderson, Marquette’s Lilly Craig and Kaitlyn Davis, Roanoke-Benson’s Avery Alford, Dwight’s Lilly Duffy, Midland’s Sophie Millroy and Seneca’s Alyssa Zellers.

Midland beat Marquette 52-39 in the third-place game, while Seneca topped Dwight 45-36 in the consolation final.