Last weekend was a rollercoaster for Nazareth senior Bianca Cuevas and her teammates.
Just a day after an emotional win over Christ the King in the Catholic Class AA state semifinals that saw the All-American guard score a career-high 50 points, the Lady Kingsmen suffered a wrenching 60–47 loss to St. Anthony’s in the title game last Sunday at Holy Trinity.
Cuevas scored just 16 points, shooting 4 of 16 from three-point range as St. Anthony’s packed in its zone defense to keep her out of the paint. Part of the reason was a knee injury from the semifinal game the day before.
“I couldn’t really do much because my body was hurting today,” Cuevas said. “My knee is hurting from yesterday.”
Nazareth’s Jen Fay tallied 10 points and Yazmine Belk added nine, but it wasn’t enough to keep their last season going.
The Friars (25–4) took control of the game in the third with Cuevas and Fay out of the game with foul trouble. They went on a 14–2 run to close the frame and take a 47–36 lead into the fourth quarter. Nazareth coach Ron Kelley said he never considered putting Cuevas back in during the third quarter.
“I knew I wasn’t going to put her back in until the fourth quarter,” Kelley said. “She wasn’t really playing to well. Not just the shooting part, but everything else.”
He felt the Friars dominated them on the boards. Forwards Jayla Jones-Pack, Kalifa Davy and Coulter Bowlen limited Nazareth’s second chance points, challenged shots, and scored inside. Charise Wilson led the St. Anthony’s with 20 points, Chastity Taylor had 17 points and Davy added 13.
St. Anthony’s coach Ken Parham said he wouldn’t let himself enjoy the win until the buzzer, because he watched Nazareth (20–7) break his team’s heart in the closing seconds of the semifinals in 2011.
“I refused to show any happiness until the clock went off because I thought a couple of years back we had the game and we gave it away in the last few seconds,” Parham said.
Nazareth got within 51–39 with 6:13 left in the game, but scored just a Fay layup until Wilson sealed it with a three-pointer with 2:30 remaining.
Fay said her team just didn’t have the same fire it brought against Christ the King.
“I think we were motivated, but it wasn’t the same,” she said. “It wasn’t the same energy.”
The loss marks the end of the careers of Cuevas, Belk, Fay and Sofia Roma, who will all be attending Division I schools next fall. They help the Lady Kingsmen regroup after a diocesan semifinal loss to Archbishop Molloy, but fell one game shy of heading to the Federation tournament.
“It’s disappointing because we came up with so much momentum from last night’s game,” Fay said. “To have it all taken away like that stinks.”
