St. Anthony girls basketball claim CIF championship

SANTA ANA >> It took three quarters for the St. Anthony girls basketball team to get in gear on Friday, but once the Saints did, there was no stopping them.

The Saints’ seniors helped them overcome a slow start as they ended up cruising to the school’s third CIF-SS Division 4A girls basketball championship, topping Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary 56-40.

“It’s a pretty amazing feeling,” said Saints head coach James Anderson, who coached the school’s first two champions in 2010 and 2011. “This is a small school, championships aren’t expected. We’ve built this program from the ground up.”

Friday night’s win at Godinez High was a slow build, to be sure. The Saints led the whole way but were only up 7-5 after the first quarter and 21-17 at halftime, as both teams shot under 20 percent from the field. A whopping 54 foul calls produced 71 free-throw attempts, further taking both teams out of rhythm.

It was St. Anthony that caught fire on a deep 3-pointer by Tayler Beett in the third quarter that put the Saints ahead by 10 points.

The Cardinals made a run in the early part of the fourth quarter to cut the Saints’ lead to two points, but Beett’s team-high 16 points helped the Saints pull away. St. Anthony closed the game on a 14-2 run.

“This means a whole lot,” said Beett. “This is something I’ve been dreaming about since I was a freshman.

“I think in years past we would have crumbled under the pressure early in the game, but we’ve gotten much better at handling adversity.”

The Cardinals were led by Lily Perkins, who had nine of their 11 field goals and scored 28 points.

St. Anthony outrebounded Cantwell 61-47 (including 25 offensive boards), and Beett’s scoring effort was backed up by 10 points from Juliana Louis and nine points from Tiara Scott. Beett added 12 rebounds to lead the team as well.

The Saints (24-11 overall) will take 48 hours to celebrate their championship and await the release of the CIF State brackets, where they’ll be playing in Division 4. Brackets will be released Sunday evening.

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