Game 104: Bloomington Central Catholic vs. Bishop McNamara (Girl's Basketball)

Game 104
(2/26/10)
Bloomington Central Catholic vs. Bishop McNamara (Girl's Basketball)
IHSA Class 2A Semifinal

Walking back into Redbird Arena, I saw Galesburg Register-Mail sports writer Zach Creglow along press row at the opposite end. We talked a little bit, and discussed the big Galesburg/Moline boy's basketball game later that night.

With my new scorebook in tow, I had to sit down and fill out the book for the next two games, as well as gather my 2A notes, and compile stats for each team. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to do just that, and study the rosters, and in some cases, pronunciations. I'll give you my All-Name team in the next blog.

Fans began to fill in shortly after, and I heard my name being shouted out. It was Annawan Superintendent Joe Buresh. His daughter, Kelly, is a first-team All-Stater from both the Associated Press and IBCA. She will be teaming up with Quincy Notre Dame senior Karlee Gengenbacher at Quincy University next season. We talked about the Ridgewood/H-BR game. Annawan fell to Ridgewood in double overtime in a Sectional championship.

Bloomington Central Catholic is looking for a little redemption after going 31-0 last season, before getting upset in a Sectional championship (Tolono Unity). In the past two years, the Saints have gone 59-2.

The Saints and Bishop McNamara met on December 30th, and BCC won that game by two points (46-44). Bishop Mac plays a majority of their schedule against Class 3A/4A competition, and have faced some stiff competition with some of the best Chicago schools, such as Fenwick and Hillcrest.

Buresh asked my take on these next two games. I had predicted the night before, when asked in the broadcast chat room who would win, QND or Nashville, and I picked QND by two points. In this game, I told Joe that it was a toss-up and I'd take Bloomington Central Catholic by a few points. Boy, was I wrong.

The Saints came out, and just dominated from the onset. Playing in front of a very large fan section who had to only travel across town, the Saints jumped out to a 17-6 first quarter lead. It was the Jess Reinhart show, scoring 10 points in those eight minutes.

Bishop Mac tightened up and held their own in the second quarter, but had already dug that deep hole. They were outscored 13-11 in the second, and trailed BCC 30-17 at halftime.

Pronunciations come easy for me, until I start looking at the exact spelling. I had no trouble pronouncing Bishop McNamara's Emily Olszewski (Oh-sheff-skee), until I started looking at the actual spelling! Then I tripped once or twice. Another Fightin' Irish name that was tough was Nicole Coglianese (Cog-luh-neece), and Belinda Schaafsma (Scoffs-muh) was kind of tricky too.

It was more of the same through the second half, with Bloomington Central Catholic increasing their lead throughout the third and fourth quarters. The Saints would roll to a 67-40 win. Bishop McNamara was led by Erika Tatum's 15 points, the only double digit scorer. Bloomington Central Catholic was paced by Jess Reinhart's 21 points, along with Carly Norton and Allie Norton each toss up 15 points.

Both Norton sisters participated in the 3-point shootout preliminaries on Thursday night. Allie Norton advanced to the final four, which came between the Class 2A games tonight. After knocking down four three-pointers, and playing a large majority of the game, Allie picked right up where she left off in the finals.

Norton was one of three girls who tied with seven three's in the opening round, going into a shootout. She then went on to win the shootout, and the Class 2A 3-point showdown. Norton will shoot again next weekend during the Class 3A/4A finals in the Queen of the Hill competition.

The Quest File Notes
Game 104
Date: 2/26/10
Result: Bloomington Central Catholic cruises past Bishop McNamara 67-40
Miles: 0