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St. Anthony’s Isabella Turner scored eight of her 10 points...

St. Anthony’s Isabella Turner scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter. Turner drives as Francesca Forgione defends on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Credit: Jonathan Singh

The final two minutes of the first half embodied how the St. Anthony’s girls basketball team wanted to play. After struggling the majority of the first two quarters and trailing nearly the entire opening 16 minutes, the Friars scored the final seven points of the first half to cut Sacred Heart’s lead to two points at halftime. That two-minute span completely changed the Friars’ morale heading into the locker room.

“We really started to pick it up on our press, which really brought the energy and got us back,” junior Sophia Novelli said. “So at halftime, we were hyping ourselves up saying, ‘We got this.’ We just had to play our game and then we came out with energy. Especially our press, our defense really helped us out tonight.”

St. Anthony’s used a dominant third quarter in a 47-35 home victory over Sacred Heart in CHSAA girls basketball action on Tuesday. The Friars outscored Sacred Heart 14-4 in the third quarter, starting with a three-pointer by Isabella Turner 23 seconds out of halftime.

“We knew we could pick it up, especially on our defense,” Turner said. “Our defense was definitely lacking a little bit but we came out more alive in the second half. That really hyped everyone up.”

Novelli had 12 points, Emma Toner had 11 points and Turner scored 10 points to lead a balanced scoring effort for St. Anthony’s (12-4, 5-1). Maggie Miller had 13 points for Sacred Heart (4-5, 3-2).

Sacred Heart opened a 24-15 lead following Miller’s three-pointer with 2:31 left in the second quarter before St. Anthony’s closed the half on its 7-0 run. The Friars forced multiple backcourt turnovers to lead to easy baskets with Alissa Zephirin, Amelia Moore and Toner all making a field goal in the final two minutes.

The Friars continued with defensive pressure and slowed down their offense out of halftime to go on a 14-0 run for five minutes from the end of the second quarter into the second half. Turner scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter.

St. Anthony’s led 36-28 entering the fourth quarter and Sacred Heart couldn’t bring the score closer than six points during the final period.

“That’s who we want to be,” coach Hugh Flaherty said. “We want to slow down our offense because we are pretty good in the half-court. We have some pretty good shooters so we slowed it down and set things up during that time.”

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