Higgins key as Sacred Heart defeats OLV

Taylor Higgins is an unselfish player and sometimes she becomes a little too passive on offense. She's one of the primary players on Sacred Heart, but you won't find her forcing shots.

It was evident in the first half Wednesday night as she scored just four points. After a little prodding from the coaching staff at halftime, she became more aggressive in the second half.

Higgins scored 13 of her 17 points in the half and Becky Conto scored 13 points for Sacred Heart in a 45-25 win over Our Lady of Victory in the first round of the CHSAA Class A state girls basketball tournament at Our Lady of Mercy.

Sacred Heart (15-10) will play the winner of Kellenberg-Cardinal Spellman in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Cardinal Spellman.

"I knew I had to look for my shot and not force anything," Higgins said. "When I started to make plays, it opened things up for everyone else."

Said Sacred Heart coach Dennis O'Brien: "Our offense wasn't getting her a lot of looks in the first half. She's unselfish by nature. We told her she needed to start looking for her shot."

It was actually a close game most of the way. Our Lady of Victory (15-11) used a 6-0 run to pull within 21-20 with 3:38 left in the third quarter. Higgins then hit a long jumper and Conto hit a jumper to close the quarter with a 25-20 lead.

SEE PHOTOSHoly Trinity 60, Preston 28

Nina Corcoran hit a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and Higgins capped an 11-0 run with a three-pointer to give Sacred Heart a 32-20 lead with 4:57 left in the game. The spurt grew to 21-2, capped on a Higgins basket with 2:44 left for a 42-22 lead.

"It was really our defense that triggered our offense," O'Brien said. "They're a good shooting team and we held them to one shot."

Sacred Heart outscored Our Lady of Victory 20-5 in the fourth quarter and allowed just one field goal. Corcoran and Kaitlin Lacasse did a god job limiting the penetration of point guard Alyssa Pechin, who scored all of her eight points in the first half.

Sacred Heart never trailed, but led only 15-12 at halftime and were on the verge of falling behind in the third quarter.

SEE PHOTOSSacred Heart 45, Our Lady of Victory 25

"We knew we had to slow it down," Conto said. "We were rushing shots. We just needed to play our game."

Poppe gets 1,000. Holy Trinity junior guard Katie Poppe scored her 1,000th career point on a layup with 5:27 left in the third quarter in a 60-28 win over Preston in a CHSAA Class A state first-round tournament game. She scored 12 points and has 1,000. Kristen Korzevinski and Kelly Carey each scored 10 for Holy Trinity (19-8), which will play Notre Dame Academy in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. tomorrow at St. John Villa.