High school basketball championship set

After falling behind in the opening quarter, the St. Mary’s Knights used a 22-5 run to earn a spot in Saturday’s city girls high school basketball senior final.

Trailing 8-6 at the end of the first quarter, the Knights would use a lengthy run to beat the Superior Heights Steelhawks 39-24 at St. Mary’s on Wednesday night to earn one of two berths in Saturday’s title game.

The Knights outscored the Steelhawks 11-3 in the second quarter to take the lead heading into the half before extending the lead in the third quarter.

“We came out to a slow start and we were a little nervous being at home, it was a good crowd,” Knights Coach Dave Zagordo said. “That run (in the second quarter) really helped. Then we carried that forward into the third quarter and extended the lead and we never looked back from there.”

Zagordo would add that the Knights defensive game was a key in the win on top of the run.

“Defensively we did an outstanding job,” Zagordo said. “Our focus was to watch Aliya (Zack-Coneybeare of Superior Heights). She’s a tough player and when she gets hot, she’s tough to stop. We played good team defence and offensively, we got some steals and transition points so that helps.”

Emma Filion, Tayrn Lamorie and Alicia Gibbs paced the Knights offensively with nine points each.

Megan Girardi added eight points for St. Mary’s.

Zack-Coneybeare led Superior Heights with 13 points.

In the other senior semi-final, Korah beat White Pines 53-30 to advance.

Tori Ivey had 14 points for Korah while Carina Hargis had 10 in a game that Korah broke open with a 15-2 run in the third quarter.

Darby Sewell had 12 points for White Pines.

In junior semi-final action, St. Mary’s beat Superior Heights 45-36.

Emily Scarpino led St. Mary’s with 11 points while Jayme Meser added 10 and Alyssa Rizzo chipped in with eight points.

Shayanne Jones had 12 points for Superior Heights while Ally Buchan had eight.

A 12-point performance from Samantha Hyde led Korah to a 33-9 win over White Pines in the other junior semi-final. Makenna Cameron added six points for the Colts.

The championship games, which both feature St, Mary’s and Korah meeting each other, are set for Sunday at White Pines with the junior game at 5 p.m. and the senior game at 7 p.m.