Buchanan ousted by St. Joseph

Published 1:36 am Tuesday, March 3, 2009

By By TOM NYHUIS
Dowagiac Daily News
ST. JOSEPH – It was an uphill battle the entire night for the Lady Bucks in their opening game of the Class B district tournament at Saint Joseph High School.
Buchanan could never crest the hill as they fell to the host Bears 38-32 to end their season.
St. Joe opened the game hitting its first shot of the night, a 3-pointer by Kayla Mahler, and didn't surrender the lead the rest of the way to advance to Wednesday's semifinal game where it will take on Edwardsburg.
"It's our goal to open halves and close quarters the right way," St. Joseph coach Jeff Wallace said following the win. "Were young and tonight we got off to a good start and that certainly was a big part of it."
The Lady Bucks found themselves down early as the Bears built a 9-2 lead with three minutes to play in the first quarter and extended that lead to nine, 16-7, heading into the second period.
"They hit some shots early and we struggled a little bit on defense," Buchanan coach Bill Weaver said. "But we had some chances there in the second half. We cut it to two, but we just couldn't get it any closer then that."
A tough zone defense by the Bears limited the Lady Bucks to just four points in the second quarter. "There zone was tough," Weaver said. "They moved well and we had to work for anything we got."
Not only did the St. Joe zone cause problems for Buchanan the Bears controlled the boards 16-8 in the first half making a comeback for Buchanan a tough task.
"They rebounded very well, we struggled too, they won there too," Weaver said.
For the night St. Joe held a 31-23 rebounding advantage.
A 8-0 run for the Lady Bucks to start the third cut the lead to three after Elizabeth Hein open the quarter with a bucket followed by an Amanda Wynn trey off a St. Joe turnover. Julia LaBounty cut the lead to three, 22-19, with a rebound bucket and charity toss.
After a St. Joe timeout the Bears answered back with a 6-0 run of their own to push the lead back to nine, 28-19. The final two points of the quarter came at 1:53 from the free throw line for St. Joe after Anna Callahan picked up her fourth foul of the game sending her to the bench. A spot she occupied for the remainder of the third quarter and the first four minutes of the final quarter.
After the Bears widened their advantage to 11 at the start of the fourth. The Lady Bucks rallied once again. This time Wynn started a 9-0 run with her second 3-point basket of the night. Hillary Faulkner added two and Chelsea Adolph cut the lead with a pair a baskets, the second coming off another St. Joe turnover to leave the Lady Bucks trailing by two, 30-28 with 5:22 to play.
Several missed opportunities by Buchanan off of Bear turnovers kept them from knotting the game. St. Joe's Kaitlin Mavis, who had a game-high 19 points put her team up by eight, 36-28 with a basket at 1:34.
"Those were the keys to the game. We called time out and we came out and scored two quick baskets to answer that and we responded every time they made a run at us," Wallace said.
Buck seniors Anna Callahan and Faulkner playing in what would be their final high school game each scored two of the final four points as time ran out in their comeback attempt.
Faulkner and Hein each scored seven to pace the Lady Bucks while Adolph and Wynn tallied six points apiece. Callahan and LaBounty each added three points to round out Buchanan's scoring. LaBounty pulled in six rebounds to lead Buchanan.
Buchanan closes out their season with a 15-6 record and a Lakeland Conference co-championship.
"It was a great year and I enjoyed coaching everyone of them," Weaver stated. "The two seniors (Callahan and Faulkner) had a great career and you just hate to see it end so soon, that feeling never leaves you."
BUCHANAN 32
Hillary Faulkner 3 0-0 7, Elizabeth Hein 3 0-1 7, Chelsea Adolph 3 0-0 6, Amanda Wynn 2 0-0 6, Julia LaBounty 1 1-1 3, Anna Callahan 3-5 3. Totals 12 4-7 32.
ST. JOSEPH 38
Hailey Smith 1 0-0 2, Morgan Kline 0 0-0 0, Kayla Mahler 3 0-3 7, Kaitlin Mavis 6 6-6 19, Lindsay Peirce 1 2-3 4, Aleysa Schalk 0 1-2 1, Samantha Sukupchak 1 0-0 3, Sydney Weisser 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 9-14 38.
Buchanan 7 11 19 32
St. Joseph 16 22 28 38
3-point goals: Buchanan 4 (Wynn 2, Faulkner, Hein) St. Joseph 3 (Mahler, Mavis, Sukupchak). Team fouls (fouled out): Buchanan 14 (Callahan) St. Joseph 14 (none).
Records: Buchanan 15-6