CHARLESTON — St. Joseph’s experience proved to be too much for St. Marys in the girls Class A championship game.
Brooke Keeton scored 15 points, Stephanie Dorsey added 13 and St. Joseph never trailed in earning its second straight title with a 58-44 win over cold-shooting St. Marys on Saturday.
“I think this one was a little harder,” said St. Joseph coach Shannon Lewis. “We had some ups and downs this year. We had times where we were exceptionally good and we had times when we didn’t take care of the ball.
“Today we were very focused in on what we were doing. We’d heard St. Marys all year. I think we had a little bit to prove today.”
St. Joseph and St. Marys were perched atop The Associated Press girls poll all season. They split the first-place votes in the final regular-season poll and St. Marys overtook the No. 1 spot with three weeks remaining with St. Joseph a close second. But St. Joseph earned the top seed in the postseason with St. Marys at No. 2.
St. Marys was trying to become the first public school since Williamstown in 2003 to win the Class A title. Before that the last public school to accomplish the feat was Burch in 1990.
The battle between the top two teams in Class A was more of a mismatch. St. Joseph (22-5) opened up a 19-5 lead at the end of the first quarter and made 54.5 percent (12 of 22) of its first-half shots.
St. Joseph’s lead remained in double digits until Sara O’Neal capped a 9-2 with two free throws to bring St. Marys within 41-35 with 1:52 left in the third quarter. But that’s as close as St. Marys got. St. Joseph finished the quarter with four straight points and St. Marys was held to just two field goals the rest of the way.
St. Marys (24-2) was limited to 26 percent shooting (11 of 42) from the floor and had its second-lowest scoring output of the season.
The Devils’ Kelsea Fickiesen, who had averaged 20 points in two earlier tournament wins, was held to 2 of 10 shooting and finished with 16 points with the help of 12 free throws. She also had 15 rebounds.
“Nothing was really falling for me and everyone has days like that,” Fickiesen said. “They played great defense.”
Dorsey came off the bench earlier than usual after Sara Sang went to the bench with early foul trouble. Lewis found a gap in St. Marys’ 2-3 zone and moved Dorsey there with great results.
Dorsey hit three 3-pointers in a 1:27 span of the first quarter and St. Joseph never looked back.
“I wasn’t shooting very well at the beginning of the season,” Dorsey said. “I hit a spurt and starting shooting really well. When two of them went in back to back, it was really great. I was pumped.”
St. Marys was trying for its first title since 1990, when it won its third Class AA title in six years.
“We did our job the best we could today,” said St. Marys coach Howard Meeks. “It just wasn’t enough.”
