CCHS girls best Big Red
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STEUBENVILLE -- The girls basketball teams from Catholic Central and Big Red brought the fourth-annual Chuck Watt/John Nese Holiday Classic to a thrilling end inside the Crimson Center Friday night.
Central, thanks to a couple of Julia Zatta free throw makes, pulled out a hard-fought 56-53 victory over its crosstown rival.
The Crusaders (8-3) used a quick start to grab a 20-10 lead after the opening quarter. Christine Dombrowski registered 10 points for Central, while Zatta added eight, six coming via the long ball.
Big Red, however, battled back and closed to within a point (25-24) at the intermission. The Steubenville rally was led by Madison Fields, who scored 10 of her team's 14 points.
Central rode some critical free throw shooting by Zatta and Bella Oliver to a 47-38 advantage heading into the final frame. Dombrowski's 3-pointer at the buzzer put the Crusaders up by nine.
The game became a back-and-forth affair for most of the fourth quarter before Big Red's Myla Gulan drained a 3 from the corner to make it 54-53 Central with less than a minute to go. Zatta was fouled with less than 10 ticks remaining and calmly drained both shots. A desperation 3-pointer by Big Red fell short, securing the win for Central.
"Just an outstanding game in a great environment," Central coach Jess Looman said. "I am so proud of my girls. We asked them to start fast and they did, building a 10-point lead. We kind of took our foot off the pedal in the second quarter, and you can't do that against a good team like Big Red. We knew they weren't going to quit and they battled back.
"We had a nice run in the third quarter to build the lead then had to hang on down the stretch. We spent a lot of time at practice shooting free throws, and that time really paid off tonight. We made some big ones in the second half and those two by Julia were the biggest."
Big Red (6-4) finished with 23 made field goals compared to 14 for the Crusaders. Looman's club, however, made 31 trips to the line, converting 25 shots into points.
"We knew coming in the atmosphere was going to be great, and I told our girls it was OK to be a little nervous," Big Red coach Jeff Lombardo said. "We knew at some point Central was going to make runs, and we were going to make runs.
"I thought we were a little tight early. Central made its run but we were able to weather the storm and make a run of our own to get back into the game. From there, it was just a dogfight."
Dombrowski, Central's MVP for the game, led her team with 23 points. Zatta finished with 19 and Oliver eight to go with nine rebounds.
Fields was named Big Red's MVP after scoring a game-high 26 points. Leah Ferguson, Makayla Abram and Elexis Martin all had six for Lombardo's squad.
Central is back in action today, facing Bellaire St. John in Madonna's inaugural holiday shootout.
"Once again, our six varsity players played extremely hard," Looman said. "I just can't say enough about the effort. We ask them to play hard, play smart and play together. I think we did that for the most part tonight, and it helped us grab a huge victory. We have so much respect for Jeff (Lombardo) and what he's done at Big Red. Our games have become real battles and tonight was definitely no exception."
Big Red is off until Thursday when it visits Weir High.
"We got close a couple of times but we just couldn't get over the hump," Lombardo said. "There were some bad bounces here and there. We had some good looks at the basket, but the shots just didn't go in.
"Overall, we played hard. When we look at the film, there will be some things we need to work on. We got beat a couple of times in transition and that hurt us."
GAME NOTES
¯ Elexis Martin netted eight points as Big Red earned a 23-21 victory in the junior varsity contest. Maggi Cucarese added five for the winners. Katie Zatta had 10 for the Crusaders and Bri DeChristopher seven.
Catholic Central 56, Big Red 53
Central 20-5-22-9 -- 56
Big Red 10-14-14-15 -- 53
CENTRAL (8-3): Harold 0 0-0 0; Zatta 4 9-9 19; Fayak 0 2-2 2; Dombrowski 8 6-10 24; Oliver 1 6-8 8; Olszewski 1 2-2 4. TOTALS: 14 25-31 56.
BIG Red (6-4): Ferguson 3 0-0 6; Crownover 0 0-0 0; Fields 12 2-5 26; LaRue 0 0-0 0; Minniefield 0 0-0 0; Gulan 1 0-0 3; Taylor 1 0-2 3; Marshall 1 0-0 2; Abram 2 2-4 6; Martin 3 0-0 6. Totals 23 5-11 53.
3-POINT GOALS: Central 3 (Zatta, Dombrowski); Big Red 2 (Gulan, Marshall).