By DON EDEN
Niles Daily Star

EAST LANSING – The Saints of St. Ignace marched like mad to a title tilt in the Class C Girls Basketball tournament at the Michigan State University’s Breslin Center Saturday afternoon by blitzing Brandywine (24-2) 64-35 in the semifinal on Thursday.

Waiting a decade didn’t dethrone the Upper Peninsula opponents as St. Ignace also eliminated a Lady Bobcat squad in the 2000 Final Four by a wide margin.

Brandywine sophomore Carlie Newman wasted little time putting points on the scoreboard with her first shot 26 seconds from tip-off and junior Lauren Leonard countered shortly thereafter.

Newman capitalized on a rebound basket with 6:10 left in the first quarter to give the Lady Bobcats a 7-0 shutout.

After a timeout, the injury-plagued St. Ignace (25-1) squad slowly squelched the disadvantage and deadlocked the contest at nine points with 1:21 still remaining in the in initial stanza after a 3-point bomb by senior Mallory LaLonde. Her second long range missile 15 seconds into the second quarter gave the Saints a 16-11 advantage they would never relinquish.

“We haven’t had a full practice all year because of injuries, but a couple girls jumped up from JV early and really played well for us,” explained co-coach Dorene Ingalls, who shares the title with her husband Doug, who both repeated proudly, “It is a great day to be a Saint.”

Star Saint player junior Nicole Elmblad hurt Brandywine midway through the second quarter by making two baskets off a turnover and rebound respectively for a 25-16 lead. The 5-foot-11 Elmblad not only plays point guard, but jumped center at tip-off and starred at hockey before concentrating on basketball with a possible Division 1 future forthcoming.

“She (Elmblad) is as good as advertised and is very tough, but they had other girls play well that made a difference in this game,” noted Brandywine coach Josh Hood. “Being the first time here the emotion just wasn’t there because of our inexperience and missing five free throws in a row can’t happen in a game of this caliber.”

Brandywine was behind by only seven points at halftime (27-20) after just four successful charity tosses on 10 attempts and 11 turnovers.

Leonard and Newman led the Lady Bobcats with eight and seven points respectively, with each also grabbing three missed shots to tie junior Kelsey Prestley for the rebound lead at intermission.

St. Ignace seniors Kristen Olsen and Chelsea Swope started the Saints quickly in the third quarter with made shots to build a 32-20 lead and layups by Swope and Elmblad midway through the stanza soared the score to 38-23.

The final eight minutes started with Brandywine having a 46-28 deficit to overcome.

“We haven’t seen a lot of pressure this year, but when we did it was only with smaller girls and their (St. Ignace) length gave us a lot of problems today,” said Hood. “Our two seniors (Nicole Newman and Michaela Greer) deserve a lot of credit for being building blocks for us.”

Greer scored the final four points of the year on the successful Lady Bobcat campaign as the team only saw defeat twice in 26 games.

“It is too bad I don’t have another year to play with these girls since it has been real fun and a good experience,” stated the elder Newman. “Coach Hood did a very good job even though it was tough to learn in the beginning.”

Elmblad finished the game with 19 points, 12 rebounds and four steals with Swope also reaching double digits with 11 markers for the victors.

Brandywine was led by Leonard with 13 points and was the only Bobcat to make more than half her free throws.

Improvement from the charity stripe (7-16) and being more careful on offense (23 turnovers) will be the concerns for the repeat trip to the finals next year.

“Next time we will be more ready to play a basketball game,” concluded Hood. “We are building a nice program like a monster waiting to erupt for us to make it a habit to play in these games.”

BRANDYWINE 35
C. Newman 3 2-4 8; N. Newman 0 0-0 0; Prestley 1 1-2 3; Smallwood 1 0-2 2; Leonard 5 3-4 13; Greer 1 1-2 4; Shelton 1 0-0 3; Pellow 1 0-2 2.  Totals 13 7-16 35
ST. IGNACE  64
Elmblad 5 9-10 19; Olsen 2 2-2 7; Swope 3 4-6 11; Wheeler 3 1-4 7; LaLonde 2 0-0 5; Cullip 1 0-0 2; LaTour 0 1-2 1; St. Andrew 2 0-0 4; Radecki 2 0-0 4; Gugin 0 2-2 2; Hepker 1 0-0 2.  Totals  21  19-26 64

Brandywine 11 20 28 35
St. Ignace 13 27 46 64
3-point baskets: Brandywine (Greer 1, Shelton 1); St. Ignace (Olsen 1, Swope 1, LaLonde 1). Rebounds: Brandywine 23, St. Ignace 34. Total fouls: Brandywine 17, St. Ignace 13. Assists: Brandywine 7, St. Ignace 8. Turnovers: Brandywine 23, St. Ignace 17. Steals: Brandywine 8, St. Ignace 17.
Varsity records: St. Ignace 25-1, Brandywine 24-2. Attendance: 2,375