Two losses to Good Counsel in the final three days of the regular season didn’t bode well for St. John’s when the teams met again Monday in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference semifinals.
But that was before the Cadets discovered how to defend the Falcons. Using a diamond-and-one to negate Good Counsel junior Shanel Harrison, St. John’s rolled to a 72-53 victory at Gonzaga to advance to the WCAC title game for the 10th time in the last 11 years.
St. John’s (20-9) will play Holy Cross (23-5), Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Gallaudet University.
“Defense, all defense,” said St. John’s point guard Katherine DeHenzel, who had 18 points and six assists. “We had to stop Shanel Harrison. She killed us last time. Once we got her frustrated we knew it was our game.”
To combat the silky moves of Harrison, who scored 26 points when the teams last met, St. John’s coach Eddie Simpson shadowed her with defensive stopper Caroline Lalley. After Harrison hit a 3-pointer on Good Counsel’s first possession, she missed 10 of her next 12 shots and finished with 10 points.
“We never got into the flow that we got into the other two games,” said Good Counsel senior Claire Wheeler. “We didn’t adjust well to their diamond-and-one. We never saw that this year.”
Led by the Harvard-bound Wheeler (24 points, 15 rebounds), Good Counsel (23-7) was effective early, grabbing a 26-18 lead. But St. John’s scored the final six points of the first half and started the second with a 17-4 run.
The Cadets got contributions from Pittsburgh-bound 5-11 Taneisha Harrison (19 points), St. Joseph-bound 6-footer Dominique Bryant (seven points, 14 rebounds), and 5-11 sophomore Dymond James (11 points, nine rebounds).
With Lalley putting the clamps on Harrison, the Falcons had no one to complement Wheeler.
“Every day [in practice], my coach was yelling at me, ‘Don’t let her have the ball,’” said Lalley, a junior. “We lost the other two games, but we got the one that counted most.”
Finally
» Led by Kaili McLaren, Good Counsel won the previous two WCAC titles.
» St. John’s won the WCAC title in 1998, ’99, ’00, ’02, and ’04.
» The last time Holy Cross won the title, in the early 1980s, the league was called the Catholic Girls Athletic Association.
