Seton Catholic outlasted Salpointe Catholic in a gritty, exciting game Saturday afternoon to claim its second consecutive 4A girls basketball title with a 70-62 win.
Dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks at the school, a shortened season, one of its toughest schedules in team history and the pressure of playing all season as championship favorites did not phase the Sentinels. Coach Karen Self said this title, of the many the Sentinels have won in her long tenure, was ‘special.’
“Just to finish this thing with a state championship feels so amazing and it feels so great for what our kids put in to be able to come with this in the end,” Self said.
Unlike many of its victories this year, though, the championship did not come easy for the Sentinels.
The Sentinels started hot, behind hot perimeter shooting from junior Lexi McNabb. She hit three three-pointers in the first half and ended the game with 21 points.
“My game normally isn’t shooting threes; it’s driving to the basket. But the fact that they gave me that space, I’ll take those,” she said.
Seton took a 29-25 lead into halftime and looked to extend the margin from there. But Salpointe’s solid perimeter defense and shooting kept it in the game in the second half.
The Lancers continually made clutch baskets to cut the lead closer. But Seton kept making plays at just the right time to stay ahead. Having played 4A semifinalist Mesquite three times, along with tough competition such as 5A finalist Millennium and 6A finalist Hamilton, among others, the Sentinels had experience in tough environments. Those games seemingly put them over the hump.
“This is the first year where, since I’ve been on the team, we’ve played all these top schools. And it’s meant so much to us because it teaches us what we need to know for these games that we have in the playoffs,” McNabb said.
Salpointe just would not go away though, behind stellar second-half play from wing Jaya Nelson. She played all 32 game minutes and scored 15 of her team-high 23 points in the second half. The Lancers twice cut the lead to just two points in the fourth quarter but could never quite get over the hump to tie the score.
Seton got just enough stops and hit enough late-game free throws to keep up the lead late as Salpointe heaved desperation shots. Senior Amanda Barcello hit ten foul shots in the second half, ending with a team-high 23 points.
Self extended playoff practices by 30 extra minutes, working a half-hour exclusively on free throw shooting. Those extra repetitions, Barcello said, paid off.
“I was definitely nervous, don’t get me wrong, but learning from my siblings, learning from my coaches, that’s a key in the game. And especially gritty games like this, that’s just something that you have to be able to do under pressure,” she said.
Barcello, along with the rest of the Sentinel seniors, finish their high school basketball careers as three-time state champions and one-time runners-up. Self, who has coached for 29 years, said she has had few, if any, graduating classes that have gone through so much adversity but still came out on top.
“There literally aren’t words for how proud I am of them and how much space (there is) in my heart, my heart is just exploding for them,” she said.
