Photo taken and used with permission by Casey Michel
The St Mary Cardinal girls secured three more games in their season by earning a spot in the 2025 South Dakota State B Tournament. St Mary held on against the Northwestern Wildcats, 34-29, in the SoDak 16 in Watertown on Thursday, March 6th.
In a game where neither team could find their offensive rhythm, St Mary got a big basket in the lane from Madala Hanson with :20 to go to put the Cardinals ahead by four points and hold off a rally by the Wildcats.
Northwestern scored the first two points of the game, but not until the 5:20 mark of the opening quarter. St Mary scored the next six for a 6-2 lead. The Wildcats answered with four straight to tie the game 6-6. Madala Hanson got a steal and layup with :25 to play in the quarter to give St Mary an 8-6 lead. That’s where the first quarter ended. The Wildcats got the first basket of the second quarter to tie the game again 8-8. Addison Libis made a left-wing three-point shot with 7:10 remaining in the second quarter to put St Mary back in front 11-8. The score remained 11-8 until 2:45 to go. Northwestern got within a point, 11-10, but St Mary would end the first half with a 14-11 lead.
The offenses needed almost two minutes of game time to get going again in the second half. Maddyn LeBrun made a tough right-block layup with 6:15 in the third to extend the St Mary lead to 16-11. That basket gave a spark to the Cardinals. St Mary scored the next six points to give them a 22-11 lead with 4:45 left in the third. They also led 26-15 with 1:30, but the Wildcats would not go away. The third quarter ended with the Cardinals leading 28-19. Northwestern would mount a rally in the fourth.
The Wildcat defense would hold the Cardinals to just two points on two made free throws for almost six minutes while slowly chipping away at the lead. Adriana Ratigan grabbed an offensive rebound and made a put-back layup to pull the Wildcats within a point, 30-29, with 2:15 to go in the game. Brianna Griffin made one of two free throws with 1:04 remaining to make the score 31-29. The St Mary defense would force a turnover on the next Wildcat possession. That turnover led to the game-sealing basket by Hanson with :20 to play.
St Mary finished the game shooting 23% (13-57) overall, 11% (3-28) on three-point attempts, and 36% (5-14) from the free-throw line. Northwestern shot 34% (14-41) overall, 0-20 on three-point shots, and just 1-6 from the free-throw line.
Hanson finished with 13 points, six rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Libis added six points and four rebounds. Griffin also had six points with three rebounds. LeBrun ended with five points, eight rebounds, and two steals. Jenna Miller had four points and three rebounds.
