Impellizeri, Maurer spur St. Anthony's

During the first step of St. Anthony's journey through the CHSAA state girls basketball playoffs, Micki Impellizeri stood tall.

At 6-2 without shoes, she said, Impellizeri can be an imposing presence and nearly unstoppable under the rim, and her work Friday night at home helped seal a 59-33 victory over St. Peter's in the state quarterfinals. The Friars take on the winner of Nazareth and Mary Louis at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals Saturday at St. Dominic.

"Basketball's pretty simple: The closer you are to that rim, as far as heightwise, the easier the game is," coach Ken Parham said.

Impellizeri made it look easy enough, with 14 points, six blocks and three steals. Kerrin Maurer had 11 points and Symone Kelly six points and seven rebounds.

Jaime O'Hare had 21 points for the Eagles (21-8), who were largely shut down inside.

St. Anthony's (25-2) dished the ball inside repeatedly.

"One of our strategies was definitely pounding it to the post," Impellizeri said. "We had a definite height advantage and we took advantage of it really early. We talked with the guards about getting it inside to Simone and me. We got strong points in the paint early and that helped us out toward the end."

SEE PHOTOSSt. Anthony's 59, St. Peter's 33

After ending the first quarter on an 18-6 run, St. Anthony's came back to earth in the second and the Friars went into the half with a 29-20 lead and some deficiencies to straighten out.

"We talked about getting back on transition," Impellizeri said. "In the middle of the second quarter, we had a couple points where we really didn't get back on defense as well as we should have, so we talked about that, crashing the boards, getting good rebounds and running the floor on offense."

The Friars stormed the court in a 19-6 third quarter, allowing St. Peter's to land only one non-free throw shot. Impellizeri led the way with six points, as St. Anthony's took a comfortable 20-plus points lead for the remainder of the game.

With less than four minutes left, Parham started taking his starters out of the game. Impellizeri and Maurer were the first to leave to cheers from the crowd. Afterward, Impellizeri seemed nonchalant about her role. "An extra couple inches here and there makes it easier for the team to see me," she said.