St. Bernard’s Superior Athletes Again Get the Best of Alemany Girls

Ask Alemany High girls’ basketball Coach Melissa Hearlihy and St. Bernard is ready to graduate from high school play and head into the college ranks.

St. Bernard dominated in all aspects of play Saturday night, handing host Alemany its worst loss of the season, 62-40, in a Mission League first-place showdown.

“I played college ball for four years (at the University of San Francisco) and I played two teams that were as athletic as St. Bernard is,” Hearlihy said.

Both of Alemany’s league losses are to St. Bernard (16-4, 7-0 in league play). The Indians (17-4, 5-2) were defeated by the Vikings, 67-46, on Jan. 5 in a league opener.

Nowhere was the Vikings’ dominance more evident than on the boards. Led by 6-foot-3 junior center Olympia Scott with 11 rebounds, St. Bernard outrebounded Alemany, 38-19.

“We’re blocking out and they are jumping over us by three feet to get the rebounds,” Hearlihy said. “I don’t feel bad about this thing. Our kids played hard. We didn’t lose, we got beat.”

St. Bernard Coach Lori Pawinski acknowledged her team’s superior athletic ability. “We’ve worked hard on our rebounding,” she said. “They just didn’t have enough bodies. We wore them down.”

St. Bernard also used its switching pressure defense to bowl over the Indians. With senior guard Joi Turner fueling the Vikings’ effort with six steals, St. Bernard forced Alemany into 23 turnovers.

Alemany was held to four field goals as St. Bernard stormed to a 31-17 halftime lead. The Indians shot 11 of 41 (26.8 %) overall.

The Vikings led by as many as 26 points in the second half. “We kept switching up and trying some different things on defense,” Pawinski said. “I think it frustrated them.”

On offense, four St. Bernard players scored in double figures, led by Kelly Shimabukuro with 14 points. Turner added 13 points and five assists, Scott had 11 points and Olanike Farodolu contributed 10.

With the Indians still hampered by the injury of Kelly McKay (stress fracture in her right foot), Samantha Rigley again was forced to carry the offensive load. Rigley finished with a game-high 19 points and added five assists, but no other Indian player scored in double figures. Freshman reserve Carly Funicello added nine points and six rebounds, but the Vikings held the Indians’ other two post players, Zevette Mitchell and Barbara Ward, to a total of six points and 10 rebounds.