Thomas, Williams, Thompson lead SJB girls

Brianna Thomas plays hurt, but doesn't mention it.

An injured knee, a healing set of fractured ribs, aches and pains of all sorts - but when you ask her the difference between the St. John the Baptist squad that dropped a five-point game to Holy Trinity in mid-January and the one that defeated the Titans on Friday, 63-43, in a CHSAA girls basketball semifinal, she says "chemistry."

Press her, and she'll say "intensity" and then, vaguely, "injuries."

Like Thomas, SJB - a squad that suffered a spate of early-season injuries but now hasn't dropped a game since Feb. 3 - is very much on the mend. Like Thomas, SJB isn't flashy about it, just effective.

Employing a half-court man-to-man and flat outrunning the overmatched Titans, the Cougars held No. 3 Holy Trinity scoreless for the first three minutes of the second quarter, turning a one-point lead into a 25-16 advantage. Thomas, whom coach Ted Oberg said is "at 90 percent" had 13 points, and Kamala Thompson and Anastasia Williams chipped in 15 and 14 points, respectively.

"We're peaking at the right time," Oberg said. "Any coach wants his team to peak now . . . [not] in December."

The injuries, he said, have encouraged teamwide contribution and greater focus on conditioning. It showed in the third; the Cougars (19-5) started it with a 7-0 run composed of a Thompson steal and breakaway layup, a Thomas layup and Alexis Smith's steal for a 45-27 lead. The Titans (18-8) shot 3-for-14 in the third and trailed 58-35 after three. The No 2 Cougars dominated on the boards; Williams had 22.

SEE PHOTOSSt. John the Baptist 63, Holy Trinity 43

"They ran with us in the first half," Oberg said. "But they were gassed out in the third . . . conditioning [helped]."

Williams, like Thomas, called it intensity. She said the adversity to start the season, when SJB went 4-2 in league, proved to be defining. "It helped us come together," she said.

SJB faces No. 1 St. Anthony's in the final at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hofstra. Oberg thinks Thomas could be 100 percent after that game for the state Federation Tournament. With Williams, Thompson and a cadre of supporting players peaking at the "right time," he hopes SJB's best days are yet to come. Thomas, in her understated way, agreed.

"We had some bumps in the road," she said. "But this is when it counts."

SEE PHOTOSSt. Anthony's 52, Sacred Heart 37

St. Anthony's denies SH. No. 4 Sacred Heart (15-10) drew to within 36-34 with 7:15 left, but the top-seeded Friars (23-2) scored the next eight en route to a 52-37 win in a CHSAA semifinal. Rebecca Musgrove led St. Anthony's with 14. Sacred Heart's Taylor Higgins had 16.