Sacred Heart tunes up for league foes with non-league victory
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Sacred Heart warmed up for its biggest stretch of games this season with a 46-39 home win over Section V's Nazareth (8-7) last Saturday at the Villa Maria Athletic Center. The game was the first of eight in 17 days for Sacred Heart (14-0), ranked second among Western New York large schools.

The Sharks opened this week against Holy Angels on Monday, faces third-ranked Nardin at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Canisius High School, and hosts Nichols at 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Villa.

Sacred Heart used a half-court trap defense to outscore Nazareth, 23-4, in the third quarter to erase a 21-19 halftime deficit.

Tied at 21-21, the Sharks scored its next six points off steals, two coming from Katie Keller, which led to easy inside layups. The senior guard scored 12 of her 15 points in the quarter. She hit three three-pointers and also finished with five steals and three assists. As a team, the Sharks made 12 steals in the game.

"We have a nice offense and when we run it, it works," said Sacred Heart coach Sister Maria Pares. "That's what we did in the second half. We got in the high post or in the baseline when we had it, and our third person was getting back to the middle on the press. That was the difference. Early on, we were not doing it."

Nazareth, who advanced to the Class B New York State finals last year, was held to 4-of-6 free throws in the third.

"We encouraged our kids to shoot, but for some reason they did not," said Nazareth coach Chris Belmont. "It seemed like the bottom fell out on us."

Belmont said he changed personnel in the fourth and the Lasers outscored the Sharks, 14-4.

Gina Ricotta (eight points), Meaghan Daley (six points), Alicia Pontello (three points, seven rebounds) and Krystal Watson (two points, five rebounds) also contributed. Watson held Nazareth center Nicole Jones to nine of her 11 points in the first half. Jones did block eight shots. Nazareth's Kristina D'Ercole knocked down three three's.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com