Girl’s basketball will be playing in the State Tournament for the first time since 2016. They will be playing at Maturi Pavilion March 13th at 6 PM. Holy Family was given the number two seed and will play Albany.

How They Got There

The Fire played Annandale Friday night after in the section finals after dispatching Southwest Christian and Providence Academy in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The game would end up being a dogfight, with strong defense from both teams in the first half. Holy Family would be held to 6-22 FGs and 1-9 on 3-pointers. The lone three-point make came from Freshman Nicole Bowlin who scored 5 straight in the last 20 seconds of the half giving Holy Family momentum going into the 2nd half. The Fire needed that spark as they had only scored 9 points in the 17 minutes prior. The Cardinals didn’t shoot any better in the first half as they were held to just 6-26 on FGs and were also 1-9 on 3-pointers. The score at halftime was Holy Family 14 Annandale 15.

The second half would be as close of a game as the first had been. Annandale’s 3-point struggles would remain throughout the 2nd half as they finished the game with only 3 made 3-pointers on 20+ attempts. The Fire would take their first lead of the game with 12 minutes left in the game on a Senior Anna Vakulskas mid-range jumper to make the game 22-21. This would spark a 12-2 run as the Fires lead blossomed to a 30-23 lead. Hannah Purcell would try to keep the Cardinals in the game. She would score 12 of the first 16 points for the Cardinals in the 2nd half. Holy Families free throws would win the Fire the game. The final score would end as Holy Family 47 and Annandale 32.

Senior Leigh Steiner finished the game with 11 points and 11 rebounds with Senior Julia Geurs adding 11 and 7 respectively. A total of 7 different players scored for the Fire as they won the section for the 2nd time in four years.

Come out and cheer on the Fire as they continue their amazing season in the first round of state on Wednesday night at Maturi Pavillion.