St. Viator wins a classic, in Blenner's honor
Peggy Blenner said her husband Tom would have loved Monday's girls basketball game that went down to the wire at St. Viator's Cahill Gymnasium.
The St. Viator community showed its love to the late Tom Blenner before the game with a special tribute to the longtime Lions assistant girls basketball coach, who died earlier this month.
St. Viator athletic director Marty Jennings announced that the Snowflake Classic has been renamed the Tom and Megan Blenner Holiday Invitational. Tom's daughter Megan, a former St. Viator standout athlete, died this past summer.
"We were excited to be able to rename the tournament after Tom and Megan," said St. Viator girls basketball coach Paul Missavage. "And we were really excited that Tom's wife and daughters (Kelly and Jamie) were here tonight. That was awesome."
The type of intense game that Peggy said Tom would have loved ended with senior Kayne Stanley's 2 pressure free throws with 43.3 seconds left proving to be the difference in the Lions' 44-43 triumph in the first round of the Tom and Megan Blenner Holiday Invitational.
Leyden got to within the 1 point with 18 seconds left when sophomore Autumn McGee grabbed a third rebound on the same possession and put it back up for a layup.
After the Lions missed a free throw with six seconds left, Eagles first-year coach Stephanie Kuzmanic called a time out and set up a perfectly executed play.
Catherine Elliott's long football pass from under the Lions' basket gave the Eagles a chance to win the game.
But they missed two shots before the buzzer sounded giving the hosts a dramatic win in their newly-named eight-team tournament being held for the 32nd season.
"Right away we said we had to rename this tournament for coach Blenner," said Lions senior Jessica Holweg, who led her team 15 points.
"We are trying to dedicate the whole season to coach Blenner," said senior Maddie McAteer. "I miss him so much. He really liked close games like this."
A layup by senior Molly Murphy matched Viator's biggest lead of the game at 13-8 early in the second quarter.
But by half, Leyden had its biggest lead of the game at 21-16, thanks to two fastbreak layups by Alondra Chavarria (one off her own steal) and 2 free throws by Artasia Gusman.
The Lions (4-7) wasted little time getting back into the game at the start of the second half.
Two buckets by Hohlweg and a fastbreak layup by freshman Myia Clark in the first three minutes gave Viator a 22-21 advantage.
The Lions got their lead back up to 35-30 early in the fourth quarter when Catherine Hafner pulled down a rebound and got the ball to Hohlweg, who finished with a fastbreak layup.
The Eagles refused to go away and pulled into a 39-39 tie with 3:21 left on a free throw by Chavarria, who finished with a game-high 19 points.
Clark then got the big basket which gave Viator the lead for good as she rebounded her own 14-footer, and circled to the basket for a layup which resulted in a 3-point play with 57 seconds left.
Gusman made a nifty pass to Chavarria for an uncontested layup to get Leyden to within 42-41 before Stanley hit the two big free throws.
"Those were important free throws by Kayne," Missavage said. "These kind of wins are important for us to get to our goals of 15 wins. We'd also like to make a deep run in the state tournament."
Lions junior Julia Bergstom (6 points) had 4 big free throws in the first half and freshman Olivia Solimene converted a key free throw in the fourth quarter
Gusman finished with 9 points for Leyden (4-7) while teammate Cherish Sepulveda added 6.
"We were coming off a really tough loss on Friday (at Addison Trail)," said Kuzmanic, a former Wheeling star who a year ago was starring at guard for the Carthage College women's basketball team and was the Academic All-American Player of the Year for NCAA Division III.
"This was a complete turnaround and the kids can walk out of the gym knowing they played hard," she added. "They left everything on the floor.
"We executed on offense. As a coach, you've got to be happy."
Leyden outscored Viator 13-5 in the second quarter.
"We can't have a quarter like that," Missavage said. "We need less turnovers (17 in the first half) and better possessions. We did better with 8 turnovers in the second half."