St. Charles Earns Holiday Hoops Title at Duchesne

Lots of defense and just enough offense was the winning formula Thursday for the girls basketball team.

Armed with their signature defense-first mentality, the Pirates were successful in disrupting the host school’s sharp-shooting offense and it led to a 42-36 win in the championship game of the Holiday Invitational.

“We really tried to stop their 3-point shots because we know that’s how they depend on winning their games,” said St. Charles junior Olivia Hollander, who scored seven of her team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter. “So we just tried to keep pressure on the outside and shut them down.”

There were two stretches in particular in which the Pirates buckled down on defense.

The first instance came in the first quarter when, after Duchesne had built an early 8-2 lead, St. Charles held the Pioneers scoreless for a stretch of 6 minutes, 27 seconds. The Pirates took advantage by scoring 12 unanswered points for a 14-8 lead.

The second instance came in the third quarter, as Duchesne endured a scoreless streak of 5:39 and fell behind 27-19.

“I thought our defense was outstanding, especially Lauren Willis who was up at the top guarding (Alex) Rohlfing,” St. Charles coach Ben Owens said. “I don’t know how many points she got–she might have got her average–but Lauren did a wonderful job (against) their screens all night.”

Duchesne finally got some shots to fall and made one last push for the tourney title.

Melissa Eisenbath closed the third quarter with a 3-pointer and opened the fourth with another, and Rohlfing and Janelle Eisenbath followed suit with consecutive 2-point baskets to trim St. Charles’ lead to 32-31.

But a putback basket from Hollander with 2:53 remaining extended the Pirates’ lead and allowed St. Charles to seal the win at the free-throw line.

“It felt really good to be able to do that for my team,” Hollander said. “I knew we’d have to do something to bring our lead up. I tried my hardest to contribute.”

Sophomore guard Ellen Weaver helped St. Charles put the exclamation point on the win by finding an open Hollander in transition, and the 6-foot forward converted an old-fashioned three point play with 11.1 seconds left to cap the scoring.

“We made a few mistakes getting the ball to her (Hollander) and we didn’t have our eye on her, but we know she’s our bread and butter,” Owens said. “She’s been playing real well and we’re glad she’s just a junior.”

St. Charles, which beat Hazelwood East and Jennings to earn a berth in the championship game, improved to 8-3 overall and will open its Gateway Athletic Conference North schedule next Thursday against Warrenton.

Rohlfing scored a game-high 18 points in a losing effort for Duchesne (4-6), which got to the finals by beating McCluer and Lutheran South. The Pioneers next play St. Dominic, a future Archdiocesan Athletic Association opponent, on Tuesday.

“They were just the better team tonight I guess,” first-year Duchesne coach Monica Steinhoff said of St. Charles. “I didn’t know it would be this close after they took over in the first quarter. Our girls battled back, did a great job.”