GLEN CARBON – It’s always a good time when the two local Catholic schools play one another. This time, a regular-season conference title was on the line.
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The Father McGivney girl’s basketball team hosted Gateway Metro Conference rival Marquette Wednesday night. If the Griffins won, they would be conference champs.
It was McGivney who moved to 9-0 in the GMC to clinch first place after handling the Explorers by a score of 52-33. The Griffins improve to 24-3 on the season. Marquette slips to 14-13 on the season and 7-2 in the conference where they will have to settle for second place.
McGivney won the prior meeting between these two teams by a score of 59-35 back on Dec. 8.
After a relatively slow start by their standards, the Griffins were up 11-8 with neither team shooting particularly well. That quickly changed for the Griffins.
They outscored Marquette 22-7 in the second quarter to pull away to a 33-15 lead at halftime.
McGivney held off a third-quarter run from Marquette and still led 40-24 after three. The Griffins led this game the entire way.
It was the dynamic duo of Mary Harkins and Sami Oller again for the Griffins. Harkins led all scorers with 17 points while Oller had 14.
“It feels really good,” Oller said about winning the regular-season conference title and getting the win over her school’s rivals.
“Marquette’s a big rival of ours. When we have the crowd cheering with a lot of energy it really gets us going. I feel like we shared the ball well, made some plays with other people, and really got going,” she said.
Alexis Bond scored seven for McGivney while Sophia Ivnik scored six. Julia Stobe and Claire Stanhaus each scored three and Katherine Empson scored two.
As for Marquette, it was just an off-shooting night for them. It also didn’t help that they got into deep foul trouble midway through the first half.
Haley Rodgers, Livy Kratschmer, and Allie Weiner each finished the game with four personal fouls, most of them coming early on.
Rodgers and Weiner both led the Explorers with 11 points each. Kratschmer scored five, Payton Patterson scored four, and Nia Ballinger scored two.
Both teams will be back in action at home today (Feb. 2) at 7:30 p.m. The Griffins host Bunker Hill while the Explorers host Christ Our Rock for Senior Night.
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