Eric Spruill
The Edmond Sun
EDMOND — No. 4-ranked Edmond Santa Fe rattled No. 2 Edmond North early and hounded the Lady Huskies Elizabeth Donohoe as they led throughout, in a 50-44 win at the Siberian Gym on Tuesday night.
The Lady Wolves swept the two-game series and likely wrapped up the Metro Conference title in the process.
Santa Fe (17-3) limited Donohoe to just 10 points in the win, with four of those points coming at the charity stripe and another four in the last minute of the contest.
“We doubled her every time she touched the basketball. Lefty (Anna Kimsey) got some points, but we did a nice job on her. We didn’t think they could score enough points if we limited her. Our posts did a good job on her, and our guards did a good job of pressuring their guards and limiting her touches,” Santa Fe head coach Paul Bass said.
North had few answers for Courtney Walker, who scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Walker scored six in the first quarter as the Lady Wolves jumped out to a 14-4 lead.
“They came out swinging and we didn’t,” North head coach Kevin Korstjens said. “They were aggressive. This is the type of game where you have to be ready from the tip. They were just more aggressive and physical than we were tonight.”
Baskets by Walker and Arielle Cooper made it 18-4 early in the second quarter before North finally got rolling. Kimsey and TaNita Dewberry hit back-to-back treys to make it a eight point game with 5:52 left in the half.
Donohoe scored her first points of the night with a minute left in the half, and Santa Fe took a 28-16 lead into the break.
Santa Fe scored the first five points of the third and led by 17 before North started to claw back into the game.
North managed to pull within five late in the fourth using a 6-0 run that was sparked by a Kimsey 3-pointer. Santa Fe led by 9 with 14.7 seconds left and North’s Jennifer Lee hit a three with 2.2 left to make it 50-44.
“I liked that we were able to claw our way back into the game. But when you only play one full half of basketball, you’re not going to win against a team like this,” Korstjens said.
“We have only been out-rebounded twice this year, and both times it came to Santa Fe. Hats off to Paul Bass, he and his staff did a good job of getting their girls ready to play tonight.”
Cameerah Graves had a nice night for the Lady Wolves scoring five points and pulling down four rebounds in the freshman point guard’s third start of the year. Daisha Gonzaque had a huge night, scoring 12 points and just missing out on a double-double with nine rebounds.
Kimsey finished with 18 points, while Donohoe had 10 points and 16 rebounds.
The Lady Wolves won the battle on the boards, out-rebounding North 38-26.
“On the offensive end our girls did a nice job of taking it straight at them. Just driving in the lane for open looks or forcing them to foul us. We only attempted two three’s tonight. That’s much better than what we had been doing. We had taken 30 in both losses to Choctaw,” Bass said.
The Lady Wolves will travel to Putnam City on Friday night, while North will host Putnam City West for senior night.
