LORAIN — The finish was what Admiral King was looking for. The problem was it came too late.
Down by 15 with a little more than two minutes in the fourth quarter, the Admirals flipped the switch. With its trademark pressure defense, the Admirals almost came all the way back. They closed the gap down to three, but they couldn’t force another turnover and lost to St. Joseph Academy in non-conference action Saturday night, 47-43.
“The intensity the kids showed in the last couple of minutes is what we need to start the game,” Admiral King coach Cheryl Bansek said. “If they come out with like that at the beginning of the game, the end of the game is much easier.”
St. Joseph (8-10) took a 46-31 lead over Admiral King (7-10) after Maggie Berry hit a layup before the Admirals mounted its comeback.
Led by sophomore guard Maddie Stoyka and its defense, Admiral King mounted its comeback.
Stoyka, who had a game-high 20 points, got things going with a driving layup. Playing full-court man-to-man defense, Admiral King forced five straight turnovers. Stoyka turned one of the turnovers into an easy layup.
After the other two, she found her long-range shooting touch. She hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close the gap to 46-41 with 22 seconds left in regulation.
Unable to break the Admiral’s pressure, the Jaguars committed its seventh turnover of the quarter with Kelsey Drwal making the steal. Drwal found Stoyka, who attempted her third three. Stoyka was fouled and trimmed the deficit down to 46-43 with seven seconds left.
“The first shot I hit got my confidence going,” Stoyka said. “We needed to get everyone back together and did so in the fourth quarter.”
Stoyka also was pivotal on defense. She had four steals in the fourth quarter. With a small adjustment on the full-court press, Stoyka, who also guarded Berry, was able to take advantage of her speed and quickness.
“One girl was taken off the ball and it happened to me,” Stoyka said. “I was there to help out and set the trap. Coach telling us we needed the ball, so we were able to get some steals.”
St. Joseph sealed the win after they broke the pressure Berry splitting a pair of free throws for the outcome.
The intensity to start the game wasn’t there for Admiral King with St. Joseph jumping out to a 10-1 lead.
Berry, who had a team-high 15 points, hit a 3-pointer and a short jumper. St. Joseph saw Admiral King close the gap down to 10-7 before closing out the quarter with a layup by Genna Capasso and a three by Gabby Kruez.
Struggling to get into a consistent flow, Admiral King found themselves down 22-13 midway through the second quarter before coming back again.
With its defense coming through, Admiral King closed the gap down to five at 24-19 after back-to-back steals led to layups by Stoyka and Alex Harris. Sheral Robinson (nine points) closed the run with a layup.
Finding some consistency on defense, Admiral King stayed within striking range before the start of the fourth quarter.
A four minute scoring drought for the first part of the fourth quarter allowed St. Joseph to build its lead to 15. Ashley Serrano, who came off the bench to score 12 points, hit a three pointer during the run for St. Joseph.
The lead was the biggest of the game before Admiral King mounted its frantic comeback. Though the comeback fell short, Stoyka believe this will help Admiral King down the road.
“This shows we can do it,” she said. “We need to be more mentally tough in the first half. We seem to always wait until the last quarter. We will learn from this and get better.”
With the regular season winding down and the tournament on the horizon, Bansek feels her team is hitting its stride.
“The last three games we have played are so much different than the ones we played at the beginning of the season,” Bansek said. “We are peaking at the right time, which is now. I am happy with the girls played, especially at the end. They never gave up.”
Admiral King will continue Lake Erie League play, traveling to Shaw next Wednesday.
