By Rich Stevens
St. Marys coach Howard Meeks, for one, wouldn’t mind calling his team’s 47-43 Class A girls state tournament loss to seven-time defending champion St. Joseph a moral victory.
While not using those exact words, Meeks – whose team lost to St. Joseph by a combined 76 points in the 2013 and 2014 title games – certainly intimated as much after the Blue Devils dropped a hard-fought 47-43 decision to the seven-time defending state champion.
St. Joseph (21-3) faces Gilmer County (24-2) for the Class A title at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“We got over the top of the mountain today,” Meeks said. “My girls stepped up and played with the physicality that was out there tonight.”
The mountain Meeks spoke of might have had something to do with his fourth-seeded team coming back from a 17-point deficit with 5:46 left in the third quarter, or beating the tradition-heavy Irish at its own game.
St. Joseph labored through a lackluster fourth period while St. Marys beat the Irish back down the court regularly. The Blue Devils took the lead with four consecutive Jordan Fox free throws with 5:07 remaining. The teams traded baskets until a Tyesha Taylor score with 1:48 left put St. Joseph back on top. Mychelle Johnson added a layup with 30 seconds remaining to extend the lead and Taylor added a free throw with two seconds left to seal it.
“They played with so much more energy than we did,” St. Joseph coach Shannon Lewis said. “Since January, we’ve just been going through the motions. We better play with more energy tomorrow.”
St. Marys went on a 21-2 run spearheaded by Fox and Ashley Hall, who combined for 36 points and 23 rebounds.
Meanwhile, the closest game St. Joseph had this season against a West Virginia opponent was against Class AAA Hurricane, a 56-38 victory.
“They outplayed us,” Lewis said. “We weren’t playing with energy, we were playing scared. The pressure got to them.”
Taylor had 17 points and nine rebounds to lead St. Joseph. Whitney Jemison had 10 rebounds for St. Marys, which had 21 turnovers, but also was outrebounded by only four.
“They gave me everything they had,” Meeks said of his team. “I think we proved they got the seeding wrong this time.”
