Mount St. Joseph’s defense smothers West Chester Henderson

SPRINGFIELD >> Mount St. Joseph Academy guard Lauren Vesey forced a five-second violation on the first possession against West Chester Henderson Monday night.

That was a sign of things to come.

The Magic held the Warriors scoreless until halfway through the second quarter and forced 24 turnovers in a 63-36 win at Mount St. Joseph Academy High School.

The Mount improved to 6-1 with the win, but the team wasn’t happy with its defense after allowing 52 or more points in four of the first six games.

“We talked before this game,” Vesey said. “So far this season we’ve been scoring more than we did last season. Since we’ve been scoring so much more than we’re used to we haven’t really been locking down on defense. Even though we’re scoring a lot we’re letting other team’s score a lot. Today we set a goal to keep them under 38 and we kept them at 36. I think that’s going to stay the same and it’ll be like a pregame ritual to decide what we’re going to try to keep them under just to have a commitment to stick to.”

“We challenged the girls pregame and said we want to be a defensive team, let’s try it tonight,” coach Matt Feeney added. “They responded. I give them a lot of credit. They came out and did what we asked them to do.”

After Vesey’s five-second call, the Magic forced seven more turnovers in the first quarter. Taylor Sistrunk was active beyond the perimeter, deflecting passes and forcing turnovers by blocking passing lanes. In the paint, Kelly Rothenberg, Grace Niekelski and Audrey Bryce made it difficult for the Warriors to get any easy baskets.

“More of a focus on (defense),” Feeney said was the difference between this game and earlier ones. “The effort is usually pretty good, but sometimes we have a tendency to lose our kids in the flow of the game. Tonight we asked them to really focus in on what they were doing and we also for the first time all season gave them a goal on points-allowed tonight. I think that helped them.”

The Magic won the first quarter, 23-0, and subbed out some of their starters. The opening run ballooned to 30-0 before Henderson got on the board with 5:21 left in the second.

The starters returned after halftime with a 32-16 lead. They forced 19 turnovers between the first and third quarters and didn’t allow a point until halfway through the third. They dominated the third, winning it 22-8 to extend their lead back to 30, 54-24.

MSJ maintained a comfortable lead through the fourth before celebrating a 63-36 win.
Bryce led the Magic starters with 10 points, Niekelski had eight and Rothenberg seven. Vesey and Sistrunk each had six.

Maura Scanlon led the reserves with nine points, including a pair of three-pointers, and Kiersten Pumilia and Georgia Pickett each added six.

The Magic have a week off for the holidays before facing Notre Dame on Dec. 30. After that, they’ll get a break for the New Year and get back on the floor Jan. 4 against Nazareth.

Molly Manion led WC Henderson with a game-high 15 points and Molly Nanni joined her in double figures with 10.