Members of the St. John’s Lutheran girls basketball team are from left, front row, Alyssa Ball, Adalyn Jenkins-Castle, Avery Gallmeyer, Sara Lynch, Hannah Boehm, Cara Leng and Cami McGinley; back row, Julie Zink, coach Bob Boehm, Addison Womeldorff, Hailey Crabtree, Clara Andrews, Marybeth Grimm, Ava Wirick, Jade Kover and head coach Austin Clarridge. Not pictured, Laney Kieffer.
(Photo submitted)
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The St. John’s Lady Jaguars captured the Central Ohio Athletic League basketball tournament championship this week.
The Lady Jags defeated Genoa Christian, 24-13, to secure the title after beating ONE School of Gahanna in the semifinals, 43-25.
The semifinal game against ONE School was the team’s best offensive performance of the season.
The Lady Jaguars tallied 13 points in each of the first three quarters.
St. John’s led 26-10 at halftime and never looked back.
Hannah Boehm led with 20 points, while Adalyn Jenkins-Castle tossed in 14. Sara Lynch added five.
During the championship game, the Lady Jags jumped out with an intense, full-court defense.
That frustrated the Lions of Genoa and held them to only four points in the first quarter.
The Lions, though, continued to battle and made it difficult for St. John’s to score as well.
St. John’s held a 13-6 margin at halftime.
The Jaguars’ defense prevailed in the third quarter, leaving Genoa scoreless and expanding the lead to 22-6 heading into the last quarter.
After a little bit of foul trouble for several of the starters, Ava Wirick proved to be very valuable coming off the bench. She knocked down a trio of shots in the middle of the game for St. John’s.
Boehm led the balanced scoring attack with nine points. She was followed by Wirick with six and Lynch with three.
St. John’s, with a record of 15-0, has now qualified for the All-Ohio Lutheran State Tournament, which will be held at Lutheran High School West in Cleveland at the beginning of March.