Jazmin Torres leads St. Vincent-St. Mary over Norton for girls basketball district title
PARMA HEIGHTS — Jazmin Torres is a gamer.
Because of the senior’s efforts Saturday, the St. Vincent-St. Mary girls basketball team will play at 6 p.m. Tuesday in a Division II regional semifinal.
She paved the way for the second-seeded Fighting Irish’s first sweet 16 appearance since 2019 in a 49-34 win over seventh-seeded Norton.
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Torres did it with an 18-point performance in which she shot 3 of 6 from the floor and 11 of 12 from the free-throw line to help STVM (20-4) advance to face Bryan (23-2) in Mansfield.
The Golden Bears won their first district title since since 1984 with a 47-39 win over Bath.
“The best thing about Jazmin Torres is she has a short-term memory,” Irish coach Carley Whitney said. “Even in games, if she makes a mistake she's always there to do something else that's good.”
A year ago, Torres turned the ball over late and Northwest scored with less than five seconds left to beat STVM 28-26 in a district final at Nordonia.
Not a single soul blamed her for the loss.
Past shortcomings push STVM girls basketball to regional semifinals
Torres could have dwelled on the defeat, but instead used it as fuel for her final season.
When Norton (17-9) took the floor, Torres turned it on.
“I think last year definitely motivated me to do better this year,” Torres said. “We have a really great team this year. I think we were a little rocky in the beginning, but now everything's slowly coming together. I love playing with these girls. There’s a great energy between the whole team. I think that they motivate me to be on top of my game. I feel like the competition makes us a little stronger. It makes us want to play harder.”
That showed in the stat line with Erica King (14 points, six rebounds) joining Torres in double figures.
Once again, defense got it done as STVM held the Panthers to 10-of-34 shooting (29%) and forced 27 turnovers. Norton missed its first 10 shots and committed nine turnovers before it made a bucket.
“Obviously, some faces are new, but they're completely different than any team I've ever coached,” Whitney said. “Not one girl on the team is the same. Their personalities are all unique. Their playing styles are all unique, so that's got to be hard to scout. You probably scout me and you say, ‘Whoa, who do I have to guard?’ I think that playing us is probably hard for other people to figure out.”
Norton girls basketball will be back strong in 2023-24
While the Irish push on to their first regional in four years, Norton bows out having reached its eight consecutive district final.
A state semifinalist last season, the Panthers will lose 15-point scorer Addie Kopp and Metro Athletic Conference Player of the Year Bailey Acord (17 points, six rebounds) to graduation. Although that seems like a big loss, only Acord played in the district final because of an injury to Kopp.
So there will be a lot of experienced players back for a coach used to playing into late February and early March.
“Like I say, every year we don't rebuild, we just kind of reload,” coach Brian Miller said. “There are players on that bench that I know next year will be good basketball players. This was a game that they just weren't ready to play in a little bit.”
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: STVM girls basketball gets it done with defense, Torres leading way
