Good Knight: BSM's Wins Second Title

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn—The Benilde St. Margaret’s Red Knights and Hill-Murray Pioneers stole the show in their class AAA title game. In an unbelievable comeback, the Red Knights won its second championship with a 41-38 win.

Hill-Murray’s Tessa Cichy did everything she could to put her Pioneers in a position to win the class AAA championship. The sophomore scored 24 of her teams 38 points, the hauled in 7 rebounds and dished four assists. Her team had a four point lead with 50 seconds left in the game when the unthinkable happened. Following a Bethany Doolittle basket with one minute on the clock that put the Pioneers up four, senior point guard Itisha Alexander found Josie Dillon who promptly knocked down a cold blooded three pointer to pull to within one. On the inbound play, Alexander stepped in front of the pass, and then found a streaking Dillon for the open layup. Just like that the Red Knights had the lead and the Pioneers dream of a state title celebration was gone.

”I don’t even remember what happened,” said Alexander.

After holding the Red Knights to 17 points in the first half, it was the Pioneers who struggled to get their offense going in the second half. Cichy scored 14 points in the half, but the two teams combined for more turnovers (19) than field goals (17).

It appeared early that the Pioneers were going to have their way. They jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and led by as many as nine points in the first half. The Red Knights stuck around. They finally took the lead with 12:39 remaining in the 2nd half and didn’t relinquish it until Cichy tied the game with 4:47 remaining. Their lead volleyed between one and four points before the unthinkable happened in the last minute.

Only four Pioneers scored during the game. Khadijah Shumpert led the way for the Red Knights with 12 points.