Tenacious Manchester Rolls Over St. Joseph

With one loss on the regular season, and a tenacious defense to boot, the Manchester girl’s basketball team is tough enough to beat as is.

Let them get on an early run, and it’s nearly impossible, as St. Joseph found out Friday night at Manchester in the second round of the Class LL State Tournament.

The Indians started the game on a 9-0 run and used an 11-0 run at the beginning of the second half to catapult them to a 65-29 win over the Cadets.

Manchester pressed St. Joseph from the opening tipoff, producing 23 steals and making it a struggle for St. Joseph to break past half court for stretches of the game.

“That’s what we wanted to do,” Manchester head coach John Reiser said.”Somebody said that we gamble, but when we’re doing it right, it’s not a gamble.”

It took St. Joseph just over halfway through the opening quarter to get on the board when Nancy Steblein’s three-pointer made it 9-3 at 3:45. Steblein scored all eight points for St. Joseph in the quarter as they made it 13-8 after one.

But Manchester ripped off an 11-0 run to start the second quarter, highlighted by an Ashley Perez steal and uncontested layup to make it 18-8 and force the Lady Cadets to call timeout. Despite dealing with a injured ankle from the CCC East championship game, the junior guard led the Indians with 17 points and seven steals.

“It’s all about timing,” Perez said of Manchester’s pressure defense. “We have to read the offense and see how they go. We work on it in practice so that way in the game we know what to do.”

Perez appeared to be trying to shake off the ankle injury which has nagged her for most of the season early in the game, as several of her shots lofted short of the basket. But while Manchester’s star player was trying to find her rhythm, others stepped up to help fill the void, led by  Zanaija Gibson, 14 points, and Talia Gabriel, 10 points.

“I know she's a little frustrated,” Reiser said of Perez.” But everyone else was playing so hard along with her that we were still OK and then she settled down in the second half,” adding that he expected her to be at full strength for  the next round action next Thursday.

A late third quarter push, including a pair of three-point baskets by Caitlyn Mockler in the waning seconds, helped Manchester push the lead to 51-24 and they cruised from there, taking Perez and several other starters out of the game.

With a first round bye, third-seeded Manchester had all the time they needed to prepare for St. Joseph.

“The past few weeks with all the snow we’d  play every other day and hadn’t been able to get into the gym,” Reiser said. “We had nine days after the CCC final to get where we are.”

Stablein led No. 14 St. Joseph with 14 points. Manchester will face Glastonbury, who dealt them their only loss of the regular season in January and also upset the girls in the CCC tournament in late February, in the Class LL semifinals next Thursday.