Rosary opened and closed its game against St. Edward in impressive fashion Friday night.
The Royals did enough to emerge with a 51-47 win.
Rosary openend with a 10-minute stretch that saw it build a 17-point lead early in the second quarter, while the other was the gut-check time down the stretch where the Royals had to hold onto a lead that eventually closed to three in the game’s waning seconds.
In the end, it was enough for Rosary to improve to 11-10 overall and 5-3 in Suburban Christian Conference play.
“We know St. Ed’s fights to the end and they were coming in with momentum,” said Royals coach Jessie Wilcox. “We knew they weren’t going to roll over, so our goal was to weather the storm. They rose to the occasion, and I was really proud of our girls.”
From the opening tip it seemed like the Royals might take their ball and go home, opening up an 11-1 lead before the Green Wave could even pick up their first basket. With Rachel Choice scoring eight points in the period and Karly Tate adding seven, Rosary owned a 21-7 lead after eight minutes.
“I’ve never seen us shoot so well,” Wilcox said. “We were really on all cylinders. It wasn’t just one girl attacking, it was all five.”
That stretched to 24-7 when Tate later drained a 3-pointer, but led by seven points from Rena Ranallo, the Green Wave cut that lead almost in half (27-18) heading into the break, then a trey by Clarissa Ramos cut it to 34-31 with 2:08 to go in the third.
The Royals responded with an 8-0 run to stretch it back to double digits, but St. Edward hung on and got it back to 50-47 when Ranallo dropped another three with 18 seconds to go. But Choice added the front end of two free throws to make it a two-possession game and close it out for the Royals.
“It all comes down to confidence and right now we are playing as a team really well,” said Tate, who scored a game-high 22 points. “We had to keep our composure and know that we had been in these situations before, and dig our way out of it and keep the lead.”
Choice tossed in 11 for Rosary and Quincy Kellet hit three threes and scored 10. Ramos and Cecile Rapp led St. Edward with 14 apiece and Ranallo added 12.
