Lady Bruins in Christmas spirit

The Lady Bruins opened the day with a 52-22 win over Seneca,

“Our girls came out and they played really, really well. They had a good focus, good energy. We played our style of ball…played athletically. Played like I knew we could. I was just glad to see them do that and start the tournament off at a real good pace,” St. Bede coach Tom McGunnigal said.

The Lady Bruins’ Morgan Dean, Lydia Stariha, and Raley Mauck were atop the leaderboard with 14 points each. Laura Sickley was not far behind with 12 points.

The Lady Lion’s Sheila Browning netted 17 points in the loss.

At the end of one quarter, the Lady Bruins were up 11 points. That lead would only continue to expand as they game went on. If the Lady Lions could have protected the ball better, it may have been a different story. At the end of one they had turned the ball over eight times, a trend that would hold.

“We had 32 turnovers in the game. You just can’t do that,” LaMoille coach Richard Gross said. He also added that he had a young team that was plagued with injury and illness. Coach Gross himself was under the weather.

St. Bede continued its steady play. The Lady Bruins never got too hasty and stayed within their halfcourt offense.

“We want to make sure we’ve got good habits going. The girls practice very hard. And kind of know where were at on the pace. No matter who has the ball or who is on the floor, we want to make sure we’re constant, we’re steady, and focused. That’s a credit to them working, communicating and playing good basketball,” McGunnigal said.

• In its first game, the Lady Bruins raced to a 32-13 lead at halftime and never looked back. Dean had 16 points and Lydia Stariha (8) and Raley Mauck (7) combined for 15.