The St. Pat’s boys and girls basketball teams didn’t need a lot of time to put Sutherland away in Saturday’s season opener.
The girls let the 3-pointers fly in the first half, and the boys used hustle and aggressiveness on both sides of the ball in the first half to put the Sailors away.
The play style was different, but the results were the same as both St. Pat’s teams started 1-0.
St. Pat’s 48, Sutherland 18
Jack Heiss and Sam Troshynski scored 10 apiece, and the Irish’s bench played the majority of the second half as St. Pat’s defeated Sutherland 48-18.
“I thought they did a good job,” St. Pat’s coach Bill O’Malley said. “Of course everybody’s keyed up and excited to show what they can do in game 1, and I thought we settled in and had a pretty good first half after the first couple of minutes. There were a lot of good things.”
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Zarek Branch added eight off the bench, and Brecken Erickson contributed seven, all in the first quarter.
The Sailors held the lead only once after Cole Gerdes scored the opening basket. Troshynski made back-to-back baskets to not only tie the game, but also give the Irish the lead for good. St. Pat’s scored the next nine points to go up 13-2, and later closed out the first quarter 22-4.
The Irish used aggressive defense to keep Sutherland off the board in the second quarter. St. Pat’s scored 18 points in the frame to take a 40-4 lead at halftime.
When Caleb Munson made the opening basket of the second half, O’Malley called timeout to substitute his starters out and clear out the bench.
“We didn’t want to get into a running clock situation,” O’Malley said. “We wanted to try to get as much time out of it, and I thought it did both teams a lot of good in the second half.”
The Irish would not score again in the third, but James Heirigs made a shot and Branch scored twice in the fourth.
“That was nice to get everybody some game experience,” O’Malley said. “That’s probably the biggest thing we got out of it was we got our first game done, and everybody got some extensive playing time. So you hope that will help them out going forward.”
St. Pat’s 63, Sutherland 24
Kate Stienike couldn’t miss in the first quarter. The St. Pat’s senior scored the Irish’s first nine points off three 3s and finished with a game-high 19 as the St. Pat’s girls defeated Sutherland 63-24.
“You always worry about the first-game jitters,” coach Nathan Stienike said. “We maybe had a little of them, but once we started rolling there offensively, it was pretty fun to watch.”
Tonja Heirigs scored 15, Mae Siegel added eight, and five St. Pat’s players made a 3. The Irish made nine total, eight of which came in the first half.
“It was nice to see us knock down some 3s. They were in a 2-3 (zone), so they were giving us some open looks. Kate had a really good first quarter knocking down those three 3s and starting us offensively out on the right note.”
Four St. Pat’s 3s helped the Irish take a 19-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Irish kept the pressure going in the second quarter, with each starter scoring, led by five points each from Stienike, Siegel and Heirigs and going into halftime up 41-16.
St. Pat’s held Sutherland to just three points in the third quarter and forced a running clock after a Kinsey Kimberling 3. The Irish were able to empty the bench for the remainder.
“It was nice to get out to a good start there,” Stienike said. “Second half, we played some man, which we don’t do very often, so it was nice to work on some things in the second half.”