St. Ignace wins hosted B.C. Pizza Classic over Frankfort
ST. IGNACE – The St. Ignace girls' basketball team hosted and won the B.C. Pizza Classic over the weekend.
St. Ignace opened the tournament with a narrow 43-41 win over the Menominee Maroons, and knocked off the Frankfort Panthers 56-35 to take home the first-place hardware.
St. Ignace players Jillian Fraser and Addison Cullen were selected to the All-Tournament team.
Frankfort beat Pickford to reach the title game.
Against Menominee, the Saints trailed 30-28 heading into the final quarter, but outscored the Maroons 15-11 over the final eight minutes to get the win. The Saints trailed 41-40 with 1:16 left to play before Tabitha Shepard knocked down a driving runner in the paint to put the Saints up 42-41.
Fraser then went 1-2 from the line, making the lead two points. Menominee had a chance to tie or win after getting a steal and calling a timeout with three seconds left, but Addison Cullen stole a long inbounds pass to preserve the victory.
“Every game continues to be lessons learned for this team,” St. Ignace coach Dorene Ingalls said. “They showed a lot of competitiveness and didn’t hang their heads after missed opportunities or turnovers. They show a great ‘next play’ mentality.”
Cullen led the Saints in the scoring column with 14 points, and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Tabitha Shepard notched eight points and had seven boards, while Fraser had nine points, eight boards, three assists, and four steals.
In the championship game, the Saints led 22-18 with 24 seconds left in the first half, but then went on an 8-0 flurry to close the half. Tabitha Shepard hit a layup and Cadence Cullen stole the inbounds pass. The ball ended up in Fraser’s hands, who knocked down a triple. Riley O’Rourke then stole the ensuing inbounds pass and found Fraser again for a deep three-pointer at the buzzer, putting St. Ignace up 30-18. Frankfort was unable to recover from that run and the Saints ran away with things from there.
“Defensively, we are getting better at rotations and locating threats. Frankfort is a strong team who beat Pickford handily,” Ingalls said of her squad. “I was impressed with our girls being able to compete at an intense level with two games in an 18-hour span.”
Frankfort was led by Kinzee Stockdale, who finished with 14 points, and by Evelyn VanTol, who added 13.
Fraser led the Saints with 20 points, and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Addison Cullen scored 16 points and led the Saints on the glass with 15 rebounds. Cadence Cullen was also in double figures with 10 points.
St. Ignace will be at Pickford on Tuesday.
MENOMINEE 7 7 16 11 – 41
ST. IGNACE 7 11 10 15 – 43
FRANKFORT 10 8 6 11 – 35
ST. IGNACE 6 24 16 10 – 56
MENOMINEE – Chowakard 2, Coduti 6, Artell 9, Drifka 6, Javerl 2, Bouty 4, Barker 2, Olson 10; FT: 6-10; F: 25; Fouled out: Olson, Coduti; 3PFG: 3 (Olson 2, Coduti 1).
ST. IGNACE – Visnaw 3, Dorenbecker 3, Tabitha Shepard 6, Fraser 9, O’Rourke 23, Cadence Cullen 6, Addison Cullen 14. FT: 8-23; F: 13; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 1 (Cadence Cullen).
FRANKFORT – Stockdale 14, Chainyk 2, Harris 6, VanTol 13. FT: 9-22; F: 19; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 2 (Stockdale 1, VanTol 1).
ST. IGNACE – Shepard 6, Fraser 20, Adams 2, Cadence Cullen 10, Addison Cullen 16, Cece 2. FT: 12-18; F: 18; Fouled out: None; 3PFG: 4 (Fraser 2, Cadence Cullen 2)
This article originally appeared on The Sault News: St. Ignace wins hosted B.C. Pizza Classic over Frankfort
