Veritas widens lead in district race

Southern Sports & Travel

The Veritas Lady Lions completed a season sweep of defending Class A Champion Mt. Salus last night 60-51 and in doing so climbed closer to clinching the District 7-A title. Veritas junior Maryanna Story and senior Tori Earnhart combined for 34 points as the third ranked Lady Lions held off a late fourth quarter rally from Mt. Salus to earn the nine point win at home and improve to 17-3 overall.

(Above) Veritas senior Tori Earnhart drives for 2 of her 15 points

Although Veritas handily defeated Mt. Salus 59-41 three weeks ago the defending champions came out with resolve in the first quarter of last night’s contest.

Anna Grace Govero set the tone early for the Lady Eagles with a basket in the paint, plus one, just 30 seconds into the contest.

A steal and lay-in from Christine Davis put Mt. Salus on top 7-3 at the 6:11 mark but Veritas would put together a 6-0 run to take their first lead of the night at 9-7 with 4:41 remaining in the opening quarter of play.

Following two Tori Earnhart free throws to tie the game at 12-12 at the 2:28 mark, Mt. Salus would close the quarter with four straight points as Anna Grace Govero went strong in the paint and scored, plus one, and Govero hit one of two free throws with less than one minute remaining to give the Lady Eagles a 16-12 cushion heading into quarter number two.

Veritas exploded with an 11-4 run to start the second quarter with the run capped on Taylor Warriner’s 3-pointer from the wing to give the Lady Lions a 23-20 lead just over three minutes into the second quarter.

After a free throw from Mt. Salus guard Amia Green pulled the Lady Eagles to within two points at 23-21 Veritas closed the half strong.

Maryanna Story drained a 10 foot jumper and after Cydria Gray converted on one of two free throws to push the Veritas lead to 26-21 Story drove the lane and converted to give the Lady Lions their biggest lead at 28-21 with 2:45 remaining in the half.

Taylor Warriner hit an 18 foot jumper and Story canned two free throws with 21 seconds left in the quarter to finish off the run and send both teams into the locker-rooms with Veritas holding a 32-24 advantage.

Veritas came out of intermission on fire.

Taylor Warriner drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Maryanna Story’s steal and lay-in (Photo right) quickly pushed the lead to 37-24 and forcing a Mt. Salus timeout.

Story nailed a 3-pointer coming out of the timeout and scored on a transition basket to stretch the lead to 42-24 and the junior finished the 12-0 run by serving up an assist to Tori Earnhart to give Veritas a 44-24 lead with 3:12 left in the third quarter.

A Sh’Keithia Evans offensive rebound and put back halted the Veritas run at the 2:42 mark and Mt. Salus would pull back to within thirteen points on a Christine Davis 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining to close the quarter looking at a 46-33 deficit.

Mt. Salus rapidly closed the deficit to within single digits to start the fourth quarter as Jelisa Smith converted in the paint and a steal and basket from Anna Grace Govero made it 46-37 less than one minute into the final quarter but as they had done all night the Lady Lions of Veritas produced another run to stymie Mt. Salus’s efforts.

This time an 11-5 run over the next three minutes would extend the Veritas lead back to fifteen points at 57-42 with 4:24 left in regulation but Mt. Salus responded like most champions do.

Anna Grace Govero and Allie Sandifer would produce a 9-0 run between them to pull the Lady Eagles to within six points at 57-51 with 56 seconds remaining, the closest they had been since 1:36 of the second quarter, but an Emily Ables free throw and a Maryanna Story fast break lay-in would close the door on Mt. Salus as they would fall 60-51 to slip to a 4-2 tie with Newton in the district 7-A race.

(Above) Anna Grace Govero (#34) of Mt Salus gets pressure from Maryanna Story of Veritas

Veritas improved to 7-0 in district play and was led by Maryanna Story with 19 points, Tori Earnhart added 15, Emily Ables 9, Taylor Warriner 8, Cydria Gray 5 and Jordan Warriner 4.

Anna Grace Govero led Mt. Salus with 19 points, Allie Sandifer had 16, Amia Green and Christine Davis 5 each, Sh’Keithia Evans 4, Deepali Bajay 3 and Jelisa Smith 2.
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Post Game with Veritas Head Coach Charlie Warriner

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