ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Catholic women's basketball team returned to action after a two week break for its first game of two in St. Petersburg against #25 Messiah. After a tightly played first half, the Cardinals stymied the Falcons in the third quarter to open up a double-digit lead that they would hold onto to come away with a 62-47 victory.
After falling behind 7-0 to open up the contest, the Cardinals responded nicely with a 10-2 run to take its first lead of the game.
Anna Scoblick spurred the run, scoring six points with two from
Keegan Douglas and
Amelia Kennedy. The offense stalled out for the remainder of the quarter for Catholic, going scoreless the final 3:30 of the quarter without scoring to give the Falcons a 13-10 lead.
Scoblick was the most effective player for Catholic in the first half, finishing with 11 points to lead the team. For Messiah, Liv Monturo dominated inside the paint and led all scorers at the half with 15 points while going 7-for-7 from the field. The Cardinals held the rest of the Falcons squad to just 4-for-20 (20%) from the field in the half but Catholic shot just 5-for-18 (28%) and trailed 25-24 going into the break.
Catholic opened up the largest lead of the game in the third quarter, taking a 43-31 lead into the final frame. The Cardinals dominated the latter half of the quarter, going on a 14-0 run over the final five plus minutes of the third to take control of the contest. Scoblick scored the first seven points of the run and Kennedy,
Carly Mulvaney and
Sam Blumenthal all added field goals to take a 12 point lead into the final quarter. The Cardinals defense held the Falcons to just 2-for-14 (14%) from the field and six points in the quarter.
The Cardinals took care of business in the fourth quarter as well, outscoring Messiah 19-16 to come away with a 62-47 win over the 25th ranked Falcons. Catholic had its best offensive quarter in the fourth, shooting 8-for-16 as a team to help close out the victory and improve its season to 9-1 and extend its winning streak to six games.
Scoblick's offensive prowess stood out throughout the game as she finished with a career-high 26 points, while shooting 11-for-19 (58%) from the floor. Her 26 points also mark the fourth 20+ point game of her career and second this season. Douglas was the other Cardinal to reach double figures in the game, dropping 11. She has now scored double-digit points in seven out of the 10 contests this season. Mulvaney was solid as well, scoring nine points and pulling down eight rebounds and Kennedy led the team in boards with a career-high 10 while adding seven points.
The Cardinals held the Falcons to just 33% from the field which marks the fifth straight opponent that the team has held their opponent to 36% of less shooting in a game. Messiah also shot just 1-for-20 from three which is the second fewest triples made in a game against Catholic this season.
Catholic earned its first ranked win of the season and its first since knocking off #9 Scranton last season. The Cardinals are now 3-0 in neutral site contests this season and have not lost a neutral site game since the 2017-18 season.
Catholic is back in action tomorrow for their last game in Florida when they take on Vassar at St. Petersburg Catholic. Tip off is set for 1 pm.
