JACKSON – The Sacred Heart girls’ basketball team season won’t be remembered for its 48-27 semifinal loss to Baldwyn. Instead, the 2019-2020 Lady Crusaders, who started the year 3-6, will be remembered for their string of unlikely accomplishments.
Sacred Heart turned its season around with head coach Matt O’Keefe taking over the reins.
“I’m still proud of the kids to go from 3-6 to win their first region championship and make it into the final four is a great accomplishment by a bunch of young kids of a great young team,” O’Keefe said. “When I retired 12 years ago, I never thought that I would be here except to watch a game, but to have to coach up here for my 11th time was fun. The thing I enjoyed the most was bringing this group of kids to this environment. This is a memory they will have their entire life.”
O’Keefe helped guide the young Crusader squad to a 16-11 season, which is the program’s second only winning season as well as playoff appearance. Sacred Heart also came up with its first-ever District Championship win over top-seeded Lumberton to secure a No. 1 seed in the 1A playoffs. According to lead-scorer Gracie Falla, the success of the season would not have happened without O’Keefe.
“Nope not at all (would have guessed this is where we would),” Falla said. “It’s crazy and awesome to see the increase in how much we improved this season. We thank Coach Matt a lot for that because, without him, we wouldn’t be here and never did think we would be here. Even though we lost, we gave it a great effort. I’m proud of these girls.”
Sacred Heart (16-11) quickly jumped out to a 7-0 start, but after a timeout by Baldwyn, the Bearcats answered with a 14-3 run to take a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Bearcats (24-5) kept the momentum in the second quarter and outscored 13-8 in the second quarter.
The Lady Crusaders had a string of opportunities to try to retake momentum a lingering factor was missing early free throws a Sacred Heart went 8-for-19 behind the line in the first half. However, Baldwyn forced 25 turnovers against the Lady Crusaders, which according to O’Keefe was the difference in the game.
“Today, turnovers killed us and the inability to score hurt us,” O’Keefe said. “I thought they did a real good job defensively. They were playing a really wide matchup zone defense that gave us some problems. We shot ourselves in the foot with unforced turnovers as well as forced turnovers.”
After the first quarter, Sacred Heart’s offense never scored double-digits in each quarter. A large part of that defensive success was the Lady Bearcats’ ability to hold Falla as she was double-teamed the entire game. Falla was held to 15 points, which led Sacred Heart in scoring. As a team, Sacred Heart shot only 25.8 percent from the field as well.
“They doubled, tripled (teamed her), and were chasing her at the end. We are limited offensively if she doesn’t score, and that kind of hurt us,” O’Keefe said. “We didn’t play well in any compacity, in my opinion. I thought early with their 2-2-1 press, it took us a little bit out of synch. We were going to try and beat each possession and run some clock. But they got us (running) up and down a little more than we would like to do. We didn’t play well, and I think a lot of it has to do with this setting for the first time in school history.”
Despite the loss, the Lady Crusaders are a team that look to have a bright future as Sacred Heart does not graduate any member of its starting five.
“We have a lot to look forward too,” O’Keefe said. “We are known as a soccer school, but hopefully now we are known as a basketball school. This team is very young and has a lot to look forward to next year. We get Avery Smith back next year, which is a big deal. No one expected this team to get this far. No one expected us to win the district championship and especially make it to the final four. Hats off to our kids. I’m real proud of them.”
JACKSON – The Sacred Heart girls’ basketball team season won’t be remembered for its 48-27 semifinal loss to Baldwyn. Instead, the 2019-2020 Lady Crusaders, who started the year 3-6, will be remembered for their string of unlikely accomplishments.
Sacred Heart turned its season around with Head Coach Matt O’Keefe taking over the reins.
“I’m still proud of the kids. To go from 3-6 to win their first region championship and make it into the final four is a great accomplishment by a bunch of young kids of a greatly young team,” O’Keefe said. “When I retired 12 years ago, I never thought that I would be here except to watch a game, but to have to coach up here for my 11 time was fun. The thing I enjoyed the most was bringing this group of kids to this environment. This is a memory they will have their entire life.”
O’Keefe helped guide the young Crusader squad to a 16-11 season, which is the program’s second only winning season as well as playoff appearance. Sacred Heart also came up with its first ever District Championship win over top-seeded Lumberton to secure a No. 1 seed in the 1A playoffs. According to lead-scorer Gracie Falla, the success of the season would not have happened without O’Keefe.
“It’s crazy and awesome to see the increase of how much we improved this season,” Falla said. “We thank Coach Matt a lot for that because without him we wouldn’t be here and never did think we would be here. Even though we lost, we gave it a great effort. I’m proud of these girls.”
Sacred Heart (16-11) quickly jumped out to a 7-0 start, but after a timeout by Baldwyn the Bearcats answered with a 14-3 run to take a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Bearcats (24-5) kept momentum in the second quarter and outscored 13-8 in the second quarter.
The Lady Crusaders had a string of opportunities to try retake momentum, but the biggest lingering factor was missing early free throws as Sacred Heart went 8-for-19 behind the line. However, Baldwyn forced 25 turnovers against the Lady Crusaders, which, according to O’Keefe, was the difference in the game.
“Today, turnovers killed us and the inability to score hurt us,” O’Keefe said. “I thought they did a real good job defensively. They were play a really wide matchup zone defense that gave us some problems. We shot ourselves in the foot with unforced turnovers as well as forced turnovers.”
After the first quarter, Sacred Heart’s offense never scored double-digits in each quarter. A large part of that defensive success was the Lady Bearcats’ ability to hold Falla as she was double-teamed the entire game. Falla was held to 15 points, which led Sacred Heart in scoring. As a team, Sacred Heart shot only 25.8 percent from the field as well.
“They doubled, tripled and were chasing her at the end. We are limited offensively if she doesn’t score, and that kind of hurt us,” O’Keefe said. “We didn’t play well in any capacity in my opinion. I thought early with their 2-2-1 press, it took us a little bit out of synch. We were going to try and beat each possession and run some clock. But they got us (running) up and down a little more than we would like to do. We didn’t play well, and I think a lot of it has to do with this setting for the first time in school history.”
Despite the loss, the Lady Crusaders are a team that look to have a bright future as Sacred Heart does not graduate any member of its starting five.
“We have a lot to look forward to,” O’Keefe said. “We are known as a soccer school, but hopefully now we are known as a basketball school. This team is very young and has a lot to look forward to next year. We get Avery Smith back next year, which is a big deal. No one expected this team to get this far. No one expected us to win the district championship and make it to the final four. Hats off to our kids. I’m real proud of them.”
Baldwyn 48, Sacred Heart 27
Girls 1A Semifinals
At Mississippi Coliseum
Baldwyn (23-5) –I’Yana Ragin 4 3-3 12, Amarie Anderson 6 0-1 15, Taitianna Beene 1 0-0 3, Kezia Hayes 2 2-2 6, Autum Richardson 0 0-1 0, La”Embri McGaha 2 0-3 4, Emilee Hill 2 0-0 4, Sommer Tyes 1 2-3 4. Field Goals 18, Free Throws 7-13, Total Points 48.
Sacred Heart (16-11) – Mallory Gilbertson 1 0-0 3, Sarah Gallardo 0 0-2 0, Ella Mercier 0 0-0 0, Gracie Falla 4 7-12 15, Kate Gallardo 2 3-6 7, Mary McIntire 0 0-0 0, Madalyn Hasselbring 0 0-0 0, Abigail West 0 0-0 0, Gabriella Falla 1 0-0 2, Courtney Maury 0 0-0 0. Field Goals: 8 Free Throws: 10-20, Total Points 27.
BW 14 13 14 7 - 48
SH 10 8 4 5 - 27
3-Pointers – BW 5 (Anderson 3, Ragin, Hayes), SH 1 (Gilbertson). Total Fouls: BW 18, SH 18. Fouled Out: Mercier, Hill.
