St. Mary’s 3-point barrage sinks St. James at CresCom Invitational

There’s a reason the 3-point shot has been referred to as “the great equalizer.”

St. Mary’s Catholic (Canada) used a flurry from beyond the arc to bury St. James on Thursday, cruising past the Sharks 68-29 in the first round of the CresCom Bank Holiday Invitational. The Crusaders knocked down 11

St. James never led in the contest, but did keep things fairly close early on.

A quick 10-2 run staked the Crusaders to an early advantage. However, with a run of their own the Sharks were able to cut the St. Mary’s lead to three with just over eight minutes remaining in the first half.

“I thought we came out and the girls were ready to play. I think around the 8-minute mark left in the first half, it was a three-point game,” Patterson said. “Give [St. Mary’s] credit, though; they just shot the eyes out.”

It would be as close as St. James would get though, the Crusader lead ballooning to 25 points at halftime. The hot shooting would continue in the second half, opening the stanza with a 13-0 run.

St. James went on a 9-0 spurt midway through the half, but proved too little, too late.

“I thought we did a good job of responding for a bit there in the second half,” Patterson said. “But [St. Mary’s] did hit 11 3-pointers and it sort of slipped away from us out there. I’m still proud of the girls’ effort and we’ll just move on.”

Senior guard Kimmie Hotzelt paced St. James with 15 points, four rebounds and four steals.

Albany signee Mackenzie Trpcic had 19 points and four assists, Duquense signee Halle Bovell added 14 points and seven rebounds, and Mia Palang scored 10 for St. Mary’s, which will see the winner of Norcross (Ga.)-Providence Day (N.C.) in the quarterfinals.

“It’s sort of an icing on the cake tournament for us. We’ve been to a lot of these kinds of tournaments, so the older kids know what it’s all about,” Crusaders coach Rich Wesolowski said. “But you don’t know when you’re playing such great competition. Like this next game, we’ll be playing one of the top teams in the nation. Both teams are really good. We’ll just try to do our best and compete. It’s hard, I’m not sure how we might do.”

Patterson said he could see St. Mary’s possibly hoisting a championship trophy when it’s all done.

“If they shoot the ball like they did, yes, they’ll have a chance [to win it all],” Patterson said of the Crusaders. “They have some shooters. They’re not very big on the inside, but they take you away from the basket with their 3-point shooters. They have a shooter’s chance to win it.”

Meanwhile, Patterson knows his team will still see good competition in the consolation bracket of the tournament.

“We’ll just keep trying to get better,” Patterson said. “And seeing teams like this will really help us when we get to [Region VII-AAA] play with teams like Myrtle Beach and Wilson.”

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 10:03 PM with the headline "St. Mary’s 3-point barrage sinks St. James at CresCom Invitational."