08/30/2006

Glads shake off jitters, St. Mary's

TC Christian also advances at Tip-Off

BY DENNIS CHASE

dchase@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/
Jan-Michael Stump
Lake Leelanau St. Mary's Susan Herman drives past St. Francis guard Jill Kuhlman (14) and Nikki Hastings Tuesday.

TRAVERSE CITY — First-half jitters.

Second-half comeback.

St. Francis, down four at half, stormed back in the final 16 minutes for a 54-39 win over Lake Leelanau St. Mary in the second annual Katie Heintz "We Believe" Tip-Off Classic.

The Gladiators will face Traverse City Christian tonight in the championship game. The Sabres beat Glen Lake 36-24 in Tuesday's opener.

It was the opening game of the season for all four teams.

"We were a little nervous, a little anxious in the first half," first-year St. Francis coach Sue Nissen said. "We weren't following our game plan.

"We came out much more settled down in the second half. We were more patient on offense and had better spacing on defense."

The Gladiators also had a hot shooter. Lauren Currie scored 11 of her team-high 14 points in the second half. She hit four 3-pointers.

Currie's second triple of the night with 2:06 left in the third quarter snapped a 33-33 deadlock.

She connected on her third 3-pointer to start the fourth quarter, stretching the St. Francis lead to 41-35.

With the Gladiators up 45-37, Currie nailed a 2-pointer, then a 3 to give the Gladiators a double-digit lead and command of the game.

"Once I got in a zone," Currie said, "I put 'em down."

Nissen, making her head coaching debut, was impressed.

"She was dynamite tonight," Nissen said. "She definitely got us going. She stepped up when we needed her."

St. Mary's coach Paula Korson agreed.

"Currie's threes made a big difference," she said. "That really affected the girls. All of a sudden they looked up (at the scoreboard) and it was a 10-point game."

In the first half, it was St. Mary's Susan Herman lighting it up from the perimeter. She hit three triples, including one in the waning seconds, as the Eagles went to the break with a 27-23 lead.

St. Mary's, though, faded in the second half.

"They switched their defense, went to a man-to-man and we didn't adjust very well," Korson said. "We came out strong, but we lost some steam at the end."

Alyssa Korson paced St. Mary with 14 points. Herman added 11.

Kaylnn Britten provided the Gladiators a presence inside — to go with Currie's perimeter exploits — by scoring 10 points.

"I was so impressed with our effort tonight," Nissen said. "We hung in there, got through the tough spots and found a way to win."

Now comes Traverse City Christian.

Kara Finney scored 13 points in the win over Glen Lake. Emily Morgan added eight.

"We've just to be smart and use our zone principles," Nissen said. "They (Sabres) look like they're pretty much a zone team. They pressure the ball. We need to be patient offensively. And defensively we need to make some improvements. We got beat in transition way too many times tonight. That was very disappointing."

St. Francis will play Glen Lake in the JV finals. The Gladiators beat St. Mary's 64-25 behind Jamie Colburn's 16 points. Glen Lake edged Christian 32-29 on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.