French drops 50-piece in win over Saints
ST. IGNACE — Conventional wisdom states that the game is never just about one player. Every so often though, it just is.
Monday night was one of those nights as Leah French set a new career-high, scoring 54 points in a 72-66 overtime win over the St. Ignace Saints in the annual Pink Game at Lasalle High School.
The Saints tried everything they could to slow French down, including double-teaming her, pressuring her, and trapping her. None of it worked. She had the kind of night that players dream about, where the basket looks like the ocean and everything that gets thrown in that general direction goes in.
“I came into the game knowing that I was probably going to have to score a lot of points,” French said. “They are a really good team and I knew we were going to have to play very well to win. I never thought it would go like this though.”
It was not just a career-high for French, it was also a career-high for the gymnasium. French broke both the boys and girls individual scoring marks Monday as part of her big night.
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She hit six three pointers as part of her scoring outburst, and was 19-of-24 from the free throw line. She had six points in overtime, all coming at the stripe.
While a night like French’s is much nicer with a win, that was no certain thing as the Saints completed a furious fourth quarter comeback to take a late lead. St. Ignace trailed by nine, 50-41 entering the final eight minutes.Tabitha Shepard scored 10 of her 20 points for the Saints in the fourth and her layup with 1:04 left gave the Saints a two-point lead at 63-61.
French split a pair of free throws with 55 seconds left in regulation before Claire Oven split a pair from the line with 28 seconds left to tie the game at 63-63.
The extra session was hard on the Saints as Cadence Cullen fouled out at the 3:02 mark. Shepard was forced to leave the game with an injury, and Allison Cece fouled with just under a minute left.
“We missed some interior shots and lost some players to injury over the course of the game,” St. Ignace coach Dorene Ingalls said. “The night belonged to Leah though. She was impressive to say the least.”
Engadine coach Roger French was also impressed with his scoring ace, but cited some other reasons for her success.
“We knew that we were going to have to deal with their press,” he said. “And we had three or four girls step up and handle the ball tonight. I had a feeling Leah was going to have a big night once I saw her hit a step-back three in the second quarter. That was a tough shot and the confidence she took it with was a good sign for us.”
Hali Butkovich scored 10 points for the Eagles in the win.
For the Saints, Addison Cullen was scored 16 points, while sister Cadence hit for 14. Addison battled through an ankle injury suffered early in the game.
ENGADINE 13 15 22 13 9 – 72ST. IGNACE 11 16 14 22 3 – 66
ENGADINE — Butkovich 10, Oven 4, French 54, Carfora 4. FT: 25-29; F: 23; Fouled out: Carfora; 3PFG: 6 (French 6).ST. IGNACE — Visnaw 2, Shepard 20, Fraser 8, O’Rourke 2, C. Cullen 14, A. Cullen 16, Cece 4. FT: 13-24; F: 26; Fouled out: C. Cullen, Cece; 3PFG: 3 (C. Cullen 2, Shepard 1).
This article originally appeared on The Sault News: French drops 50-piece in win over Saints
