Prior to pregame warmups on Thursday, Kymora Johnson beat St. Anne’s-Belfield athletic director Seth Kushkin in a friendly game of P.I.G by making five of six shots from the floor.
The senior guard kept on sinking shots the rest of the night, scoring 19 of her game-high 33 points in the first half to lead the Saints to an 89-61 victory over Saint Gertrude in the League of Independent Schools championship game.
The win gave STAB its 18th LIS title in program history and its eighth in a row. Johnson has been a part of four LIS championships during that stretch, with the lone exception when the Saints’ season was canceled due to COVID-19.
“It feels really good,” Johnson said. “I’ve had a conference championship ever since I’ve been here, so just keeping it under our belt is really good and I know Coach [Phil] Stinnie is really proud of us. We started the season off a little slow, but once we finally meshed, we got it together and we’ve been rolling, so we’re excited.”
People are also reading…
STAB (24-1), the No. 2-ranked team in the final VISAA Division I state poll, had won the two regular season matchups with Saint Gertrude by double-digits, but the Saints knew anything could happen come tournament time and took nothing for granted.
Stinnie’s squad opened the game on fire offensively, scoring on each of its first five possessions to build a 12-3 lead with 5:30 left in the first quarter. Johnson, a Virginia signee, was the catalyst with seven points during the early run.
“We know they’re a really good team and it’s hard to beat a team three times,” Johnson said, “so our mindset coming into the game was, from the jump, we had to go at them early.”
Saint Gertrude (24-7), which is ranked fifth in the state poll, rebounded from the slow start and outscored STAB 15-10 for the remainder of the quarter to get back in the game. Sam Smith led the charge with six points and Erin Woodson chipped in five more to trim the Saints’ lead to 23-18 after one quarter.
STAB went back to work in the second quarter as it pushed the pace every chance it could. The Saints put up 23 points in the quarter, including eight from Johnson, the conference player of the year, and five more inside from Sophie Gangemi, to extend the lead to 46-33 at intermission.
The Saints blew the game wide open in the third quarter behind some big performances from its bench. Ary Branch scored six points and Zoe Burruss added six more, including a triple at the buzzer to end the quarter to give STAB a commanding 71-48 advantage heading into the final stanza.
Johnson couldn’t be prouder of the execution from everyone Thursday night, especially their reserves.
“We couldn’t ask for a better time for them to step up,” Johnson said. “We’ve been really pushing them in practice, getting everyone involved and I’m really proud of them all for stepping up.”
The fourth quarter was more of the same as even more players got involved for STAB. Lee Kestner tallied all six points in the final frame and Olivia Kushkin added five more as the Saints secured another conference tournament championship.
Woodson tallied 32 points to lead Saint Gertrude, while Sam Smith chipped in 11 points and Ava Fulkerson finished with 10 points.
Buruss scored 15 points off the bench for STAB in the win. Sabrina Lewis added nine more as the Saints extended their winning streak to 21 in a row.
Both teams will return to action next week in the VISAA Division I state tournament. The brackets will be released Sunday, but STAB is expected to host a state quarterfinal game on Wednesday.
For Johnson and her teammates, they are hoping for another trip to Richmond and a chance to bring home the state crown.
“We’re keeping our head down, but we’re going to keep working,” Johnson said. “We’re really excited for next week.”
