Lady Bruins top Tigresses

PRINCETON — Entering the second half of play in Tuesday’s Princeton 2A Regional semifinal at Prouty Gym, the St. Bede Lady Bruins led by five points over the Princeton Tigresses. It didn’t take them long to open their lead up.

St. Bede scored eight of the first 10 points in the second half, leading by 12 entering the fourth quarter. After trading baskets three times, St. Bede closed out the game on an 11-2 run to post a 52-31 win to advance into Thursday’s finals against Hall.

“I think we had them worn down a little bit. I made sure I kept rotating people through. I felt really good about what we were doing offensively in the second half,” said St. Bede coach Tom McGunnigal.

St. Bede, which beat PHS for the third time in two weeks, was led by senior center Kayla MacDavitt, who scored 12 points and had 6 blocks. Carly Ficek also had 12 for the Lady Bruins.

Princeton was led by seniors Jasmine Kunkel (18) and C.J. Rhodes (8) who combined for 26 of Princeton’s 31 total points. At halftime, Rhodes and Kunkel scored all of Princeton’s 20 points.

“We did a lot of good things in the first half. We did a lot of good things against them that they didn’t like,” said Princeton coach Matt Huber.

Princeton cut the lead to one at the end of the first quarter on a late three-pointer by Rhodes. Princeton took its final lead of the game, 14-13, before St. Bede went on an 8-0 run sparked by three Princeton turnovers.

“We had too many self inflicting turnovers,” said Huber. “Turnover after turnover after turnover had been the story of the year.”

The closest Princeton got to the lead after that was eight points.

• Notes: According to BCR research, Kunkel went over the 1,000-point mark for her career at 1,003, fifth all-time at PHS. She played her final game along with classmates Brittany Bejster, Kaitlyn Gorman, Tesha Woolley and Rhodes. ... Advancing to the finals of the three-point contest were McCaela May (PHS), C.J. Rhodes (PHS), Carly Ficek (SBA) and Whitley Funfsinn (SBA). .. St. Bede advances to play Hall Thursday for the regional title at 7:30 p.m.