Benilde-St. Margaret's Survives Second-Half Scares to Finish Third at State

Benilde-St. Margaret’s survived a pair of scares Saturday en route to a 54-51 win over Alexandria and a third-place finish in the Class 3A girls basketball state tournament.

The Red Knights, banished to the third-place game after 55-46 in the state semifinals Thursday, shook off the effects of that loss with a torrid first half. The Red Knights shot 68 percent in the opening half to open up a 33-21 lead over Alexandria in a game played at Concordia University’s Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

But Alexandria staged a furious comeback and cut BSM’s lead to 49-47 with 3:35 to play. On the ensuing possession,  BSM junior Olivia Antilla was knocked hard to the floor going for a rebound. Antilla hit her head on the floor and remained down for about 30 minutes while she was treated by medical personnel before an ambulance crew came and took her from the gym on a stretcher.

“I think Antilla is going to be OK,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s head coach Bob Lyons said. “There were precautionary reasons they had to take her and stabilize her.  She hit her head pretty hard and had some pain in her neck and back.”

“I was really worried for her actually,” BSM junior Josie Dillon said. “But she told us she wanted us to win, so we knew we had to. She’s a fighter.”

To get that win, the Red Knights had to survive a thrilling final three and a half minutes.

Alexandria’s Warnes Jolynn made a free throw to cut BSM's lead to 49-48. The Red Knights then suffered back-to-back turnovers, but Alexandria couldn’t take advantage.

BSM junior forward Khadijah Shumpert followed with a layup to give the Red Knights a 51-48 lead with 1:32 to play.

The two teams exchanged turnovers before Shumpert scored again for a 53-48 edge with 35 seconds left.

Alexandria’s Alli Haar drained a 3-point field goal with 25 seconds left to cut BSM’s lead to 53-51.

BSM's Sidney Pilarski then made one of two free throws with 10.5 seconds left for a 54-51 advantage.  The Cardinals called time out with 9.2 seconds left to work a final shot, but Jolynn’s 3-point try failed and the Red Knights had the victory.

It was a satisfying way to go out for the Red Knights, who came into the contest upset about not being able to defend their 2010 state championship.

“I think right away everyone was a little down, because who doesn’t want to go to the state championship?” Shumpert said. “But we all came in today and said we want to win something. We want to go out with a win.”

Junior guard Josie Dillon had 16 points, including 2-of-3 from the 3-point line to lead the Red Knights. Shumpert had 15 points and five rebounds. Freshman point guard Grace Coughlin added nine points, four assists and two steals.

The Red Knights held Alexandria to just 38 percent from the floor, but the Cardinals fought hard throughout.

“You know it never seems to be easy. It doesn’t matter if its regular season or playoffs,” Lyons said. “Alexandria is such a good, well-coached team. We knew they were going to battle back, and they’ve got such good athletes. I’m proud of my girls. They really handled adversity and they stuck with it.”

The future looks bright for the third-place Red Knights. Nine of BSM’s top 14 players are eligible to play next season, including returning starters Dillon, Shumpert and Coughlin.