Last-Minute Miscues Cost Cor Jesu In Nerinx Tournament Championship Game

WEBSTER GROVES – With his team down by a point, and only a minute and 31 seconds left in Thursday’s Nerinx Hall Invitational Tournament championship game, Cor Jesu girls basketball coach John Neff called timeout to set up a play and deliver a message to his team.

After drawing up a play, he thought would help the Chargers win the game, Neff implored his Chargers several times, to “be strong with the ball.”

Unfortunately though, the Cor Jesu players weren’t able to execute like the coach hoped, and committed three critical turnovers in that final 91 seconds, that led to a series of successful free throws for Nerinx, and helped the Markers put away a 67-60 tournament-clinching victory over the Chargers.

“I thought that was a really good ballgame to watch,” Neff said, after watching his players accept the second-place plaque at the Nerinx Invitational for the second straight year. “Both teams played very well, I thought. That last two minutes, we just didn’t have the execution that we needed.”

And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as the Cor Jesu seemed primed to take a last-minute lead over Nerinx, by running a play that would run down the clock, and possibly set up the Chargers for one final, game-winning shot.

Instead though, an errant pass sailed out of bounds and gave the ball back to Nerinx.

Cor Jesu was forced to foul to stop the clock, with the Markers’ Abbie Marshall making two free throws to make the score 60-57.

The Chargers got the ball back, but similar miscues happened on both their next two possessions, and both times, Nerinx wound up with the ball, forcing Cor Jesu to have to foul again.

And both times, Nerinx’s Lexi Cochran, who finished with a game-high 26 points, made her free throws to extend the Markers’ edge to 64-57 with 21.8 seconds left in the game.

Cor Jesu top scorer, Chaley Poth sank a deep three-pointer with 13.8 seconds left to make it 64-60, but that was as close as the Chargers would get, as Nerinx added three more free throws in the final 12 seconds to finally put the game away.

“In that last 91 seconds,” Nerinx Hall head coach Mike Slater said, “I told (the girls) was all about desire and focus. If we could take care of the basketball, and want it on defense, and demonstrate that, then we were going to be OK.”

The night certainly didn’t start that way, as Cor Jesu began the game with a furious start, scoring the first 11 points of the game and leading 19-11 at the end of the opening quarter.

Nerinx spent most of the rest of the game trying to recover, and despite its own periods of brilliant play, didn’t enjoy its first lead until a Cochran bucket gave the Markers a 56-54 edge with just over three minutes left in the game.

Poth put the Chargers back ahead about a minute later, with a three-pointer that made the score 57-56 Cor Jesu with 2:17 left.

But that lead didn’t last long, as Cochran knocked down another huge bucket that gave Nerinx the lead for good, with 1:57 left in the game.

“She had such a great game,” Slater said. “And she’ll sneak up on you if you’re not careful. I couldn’t believe it when my assistant coaches told me she had 26 points tonight.

“I thought she had a good game, and I knew she had scored a few points, but I was stunned when they said she had 26. She’s just a great player for us, and you could see that when she was out of the lineup last week.”

The victory was Nerinx’s third straight, and raised the Markers overall record to 4-2. 

Cor Jesu fell to 3-1 on the season.