December 22, 2000

St.Joe pulls out a win

By John Montgomery
Sports Writer

BASCOM -- It could have been better, it could have worse, but one thing was for certain -- it was ugly.

Fremont St. Joseph overcame 42 turnovers, an 11-of-23 showing from the line -- a little better than average for the Streaks -- and watching a 13-point advantage by the end of the third quarter and a 12-point lead late in the fourth turn into a 4-point edge with less than a minute to go before pulling out the 52-44 victory.

"I think the best thing you can say is that it was ugly, but the overall plan was to win because we hadn't won against Hopewell in six years," St. Joseph coach Gary Geller said. "That was the game plan, No. 1. I thought we could have won by more than we did, but they made a nice comeback in the fourth quarter when we didn't take care of the basketball.

"It's a good thing that Rachel (Babione) can shoot foul shots," he said.

The senior went 4-of-6 from the line in the fourth quarter after going 4-for-4 over the first three quarters.

Two of those foul shots in the fourth gave the Streaks (4-1 overall, 2-1 Midland Athletic League) what seemed like an insurmountable 46-34 lead with 2:24 lead to go.

But the Chieftains (1-5, 1-4) had other plans.

Kara Johnson (17 points) bombed in a 3-pointer and Kim Norris (9 points) hit a foul shot before scoring on two drives to cut the deficit to 46-42 with 55 seconds to play.

Babione then sank two foul shots 15 seconds later, but Elizabeth Hoover scored two of her 14 points down low for the Chieftains to make it 48-44 with 21.5 seconds left in the game.

The rally ended there, though.

Babione hit one foul shot, but missed the second with 12.7 seconds to go, with Marianne Fox grabbing the rebound and scoring two of her 14 points to put the Streaks up 51-44 at the 11.2 mark. Jessica Heberling would add one more free throw with just under 5 seconds to play for the final margin.

And while Babione and Fox both had good scoring games for the Streaks, it was St. Joseph's advantage in rebounding, led by Babione's 17 boards, and Hopewell-Loudon's terrible showing at the foul line.

The Chieftains were just 6-of-21 from the foul line and outrebounded 44 to 20, facts that had coach Bernie Hohman upset.

"They killed us on the boards," he said. "We had a problem giving them second shots, third shots. If you give them three shots and they're shooting 33 percent, they're going to make it. Too many missed chances there.

"The free throw line's where we lost it. Horrible, just horrible," Hohman said. "We lose by, what, eight? We lose by eight, shoot 50 percent in free throws and figure out what the score's going to be.

"That's four of five more points, that puts it real close late in the game and that makes a big difference."