Looks like St. Viator is a tournament champion

First-year St. Viator girls basketball coach Jason Raymond spends a significant amount of time watching his team on video.

"While doing that, I've been saying the last couple of weeks that we are not too far off," he said. "On video, I see us playing hard and getting good looks."

When he looks at the film of Wednesday's game, Raymond will see the look of a champion.

The Lions won the title game of their own Blenner Holiday Classic with a 53-46 triumph over Zion-Benton.

Sophomore guard Olivia Solimene certainly will catch Raymond's eye in this game video as the all-tournament selection fired home a career-high 20 points while also pulling down 6 rebounds with a steal and an assist.

"My team has one goal - play to win," said the scrappy 5-foot-3 guard. "In the beginning, we had trouble with defense but at the end we finished strong.

"This is an amazing experience as a sophomore. I can't wait for what is to come in the future."

It looks bright as Solimene's classmate Myia Clark was named the tourney MVP.

Clark had 8 rebounds and 7 points, including a big 3-pointer that gave Viator a 42-38 lead in the fourth quarter.

"That No. 2 (Solimene) is really a nice player," said Zee Bees coach Tanya Johnson. whose team is 10-4. "And No. 32 (Clark) is a nice player. We had too many breakdowns defensively. You can't be as small as we are and not play defense."

Playing one of her finest games, Solimene was hardly set to take any individual accolades.

"It wasn't just me," she said. "It's a team sport. We all pitched in and I'm thankful."

Senior Julie Bergstrom pitched in with 4 points and 4 rebounds to help the Lions (7-9) secure their first tournament title since 2010, when current assistant coach Taylor Skala was a junior guard.

"Olivia had a great game," said Bergstrom, one of only two seniors on the team along with Maggie Leazer (8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals). "We're really lucky in that we even though we are a younger team, our younger players really step up."

Junior Haley Robinson stepped up inside again where she scored 12 points and came down with 7 rebounds.

Classmate Jenna Breslin had a big rebound and basket on an assist from sophomore Michaela Mueller in the fourth quarter.

"We knew we were in for a challenge from Zion," said Bergstrom, whose mother Lucy played for Johnson when she coached at Marillac High School in Northfield. "But we know what kind of team we are and we wanted to show everyone. We want to use this for the rest of the season and finish every game like this one."

It started with Solimene hitting two 3-pointers and a driving layup in the first three minutes to put Viator ahead 10-3.

"Olivia came out hot," Raymond said. "She kind of set the tone offensively in the first quarter.

"As the game went on, their (Zion) defense picked up the pressure. While she didn't score as much then, Olivia was able to handle their pressure for us."

A fastbreak layup by Robinson gave Viator a 20-14 lead and capped the scoring in the second quarter (combined 8 points in the period).

The two teams scored more points in the first two minutes of the third quarter than they did the entire second.

With 6:12 left in the third quarter, Viator called time out leading 24-22.

Neither team would lead by more than 3 points until Clark's 3-pointer made it 42-38 and a fastbreak layup by Leazer extend the advantage to 44-38.

Junior guard Ledallia Maggett, who scored a game-high 23 points, hit a 3-pointer to get Zion to within 44-41 with 3:35 left.

But the Lions outscored Zion 8-4 the rest of the way. The lead got as big as 50-41, thanks to Breslin's bank shot, a coast-to-coast layup by Solimene off her own defensive rebound and a fastbreak layup by Solimene.

"Olivia never gives up," Bergstrom said. "She is always attacking the hoop. She really stepped up."

Solimene and the Lions should look pretty good when Raymond checks out the video.

Lions fans hope to view more of the same in the 2016 portion of the schedule.

"St. Viator just out-hustled us, and outplayed us from the get-go," said Johnson who began coaching in 1981 and has 700 career wins. "We had a good game plan but we didn't try to stick to it.

St. Viator was playing with a purpose. They wanted to win the tournament."

"The biggest thing right now is how our kids are believing in themselves," Raymond said. "And they are coming together as a team."