St. Mary's Boys Win

Crofton Holiday Tourney

Tait Sibbel - pulls off a tough shot in action against Wynot at the Crofton Holiday Tournament held last week. Photo courtesy Jim Podany.

The St. Mary's boys basketball team finished the 2011 portion of their schedule with two victories at the Crofton Holiday Tournament. The Cardinals enter the new year with a 8-0 record with many challenges ahead of them.

On Thursday, Dec. 29, the Cardinals took on the host Crofton Warriors. The Warriors presented a physical man defense and the Cards after a slow start were able to defeat Crofton 72-56. St. Mary's placed four men in double figures led by senior center  Tom Chvala with 18 points. Chvala was followed closely by teammates Tait Sibbel and Ty Eiler with 16 points each. Sophomore Adam Moon chipped in with 10 tallies. Sibbel led the rebounding with 10 boards and Moon pulled down five caroms. Eilers led the ball handling with 11 assists while Sibbel and Tyler Timmerman added five assists each. Eiler's led the defense with three steals followed by Sibbel and Timmerman with two each. Chvala recorded two blocked shots.

On Friday the Cardinals took on the undefeated Wynot Blue Devils in the championship contest. After having St. Mary's take an 11 point lead in the second period the Blue Devils fought back and a see saw battle continued until with six seconds remaining in the game junior Ty Eiler drilled a three point field goal and the Cards prevailed 51-48. Tait Sibbel led the offense with 19 points while Tom Chvala and Adam Moon added 11 and 10 points respectively. Chvala and Moon also led the rebounding with nine boards each. Point guard Eiler led the assist column with eight and Moon led the defense with three steals and two blocked shots.

The Cardinals will have one game this week as they travel to Cody-Kilgore this Saturday. The rest of the month will see the Cardinals playing two or three contests each week.

St. Mary's Lady Cards Finish 2011 At 7-1 

Getting mauled - Brooke Bauer of O'Neill St. Mary's gets fouled in action against Crofton.

On Dec. 22  the St. Mary's basketball teams went on the road to face a tough group of Wildcats at Hartington. The Lady Cards came out on top in a very physical game, with a score of  71- 39. This would be our last game before the Christmas break. Leading SMH in scoring were Emily Everitt and Bridget Schneider with 15 and 14 points. Top rebounder in the game was Justine Blumenstock with six. Megan Schneider and Bridget lead in steals with four and six. Both teams committed 22 fouls on the night. This was a team effort as the bench saw a lot of action as well. 

The Crofton Holiday Tournament proved to be a tough opening round for the Lady Cards as the Lady Warriors posted a 72-26 victory over SMH. Their junior post player literally ripped the nets as she scored 29 points in their victory. Crofton was a very physical team and showed us what we needed to work on. As a team we were able to get shots off, but just couldn't get them to fall. Their tough defense was a huge factor in scoring and rebounding as well. Bridget Schneider and Marisa Miles led in scoring with seven and five points. Top rebounder was Brook Bauer with eight boards. 

The second round action put us up against the Bloomfield Lady Bees. This proved to be a better outing for the Cards. With a great effort by our entire team, SMH posted an 88-39 win. St. Mary's came out strong and never let up. After a dismal game the night before, SMH Lady Card's looked like a breath of fresh air. The Card's had five players finish in double figures. Mackenzie Wecker, Emily Everitt, Brooke Bauer, Bridget Schneider and Jessi Simons had 14. 14. 14.13 and 13 points. Jessi Pongratz led in steals with six, while Justine Blumenstock pulled down six boards. Bridget also had a break-out night in assists with 15 dish-outs. This was a nice win to finish 2011 on along with a third place trophy. SMH Lady Card's improve to 7-1 on the season and host Elgin/Pope John on Friday, Jan. 6.