Cabrini Crushes Shrine Girls Basketball, 53-33

High School girls varsity basketball team was well aware it would have its hands full Monday night against Allen Park Cabrini, even on its home court.

Cabrini handed powerhouse Our Lady of the Lakes its first loss of the season – a team that defeated Shrine by 32 points two weeks earlier. And the Monarchs came to Shrine High School riding a three-game winning streak, with each victory coming by 14 points or more.

Nonetheless, the Shrine Knights held their own for the first 15 minutes of the game, trailing by only one point. But Cabrini scored back-to-back three-pointers with less than a minute to go in the half to open its biggest lead of the nigh. The visitors didn’t stumble from then, soundly defeating Shrine 53-33.

The key for Cabrini was strong defense on the Shrine high-scoring trio of senior guards Matti Baltrusaitis, Halle Wangler and Cora Essenmacher. The Monarchs were able to get Shrine’s big three into foul trouble early, resulting in the trio combining for only 22 points.

“We talked that they have three outstanding players,” Cabrini head coach Mike Rozanski said. “If you want to play 5-on-5 against them all night, you may end up on the wrong side of the score. So we had to be very aggressive with them. We were able to contain them enough to get the victory.”

For Shrine head coach Bill LeGault, the problem wasn’t in the play of his three senior leaders. Instead, it was the rest of the bench that was unable to provide support.

“We weren’t getting the balanced scoring,” LeGault said. “If you don’t get scoring from more than two or three people, it’s a tough game to win. The division we are in, they are quality teams. We just aren’t going to win if we don’t get a balanced attack. Everybody has to contribute that’s on the floor, whether it’s scoring or defense, everybody has a role to play. We didn’t get it done.”

Cabrini guard Molly Copple over took the game. The senior recorded five three-pointers in the first half – four in the second quarter– to help the visitors take a 22-15 lead into halftime. Of Cabrini’s 22 points at the break, 18 came via the three-ball.

“Molly kept us in the game,” Rozanski said. “I don’t know if I liked some of our possessions with how early we were getting our looks. But she was getting free off some well-set screens and getting good looks. We want her to shoot the ball.”

Cabrini kept up the pressure out of the break, going on a 12-2 run to start the third quarter. Shrine tried to make up ground by jacking up three-pointers, but struggled behind the arc. The team went 2-for-18 from three-point land on the night.

With Wangler and Baltrusaitis in foul trouble, Cabrini opened up a big 18-point lead by midway through the third quarter.

“We basically let them take us out of the game,” LeGault said. “We just scrambled around out there. We tried to take a couple timeouts and tell them what to do, but they just didn’t respond. We got basically what we deserved with a 20-point loss.”

Copple led the Monarchs with 17 points on the night, while junior forward Danielle Lollo had 11 points and junior guard Valerie Bertani had 10.

Shrine was led by Essenmacher’s 10 points, six of which came in the first quarter, and Wangler, who had nine points and seven rebounds.

The Knights (7-4) will look to bounce back quickly from the 20-point drumming, as they play two nonconference games to round out the week. Shrine will host Hazel Park on Tuesday and travel to Sacred Heart on Thursday.

“We will find out how we respond to this loss (Tuesday),” LeGault said. “Hopefully we will play better than we did in the second half. Hopefully our record will be a little better by the end of the week.”