St. Bede wins defensive battle over Henry-Senachwine

HENRY - St. Bede did not have its best offensive night Thursday.

The Bruins had one of their lowest offensive outputs of the season (13 points below their season average), but played well enough on the defensive end to pull out a 31-25 victory over Henry-Senachwine in a Tri-County Conference game.

“I thought we could have played a lot better,” St. Bede junior Lili McClain said. “It was an off night offensively, but I think our defense was pretty solid.”

The Bruins focused their defensive efforts on slowing down Henry senior Kaitlyn Anderson, who was honored with a commemorative ball before the game for surpassing 1,000 career points.

St. Bede’s Savannah Bray defended Anderson most of the night, helping limit her to nine points.

“We know she likes to drive,” St. Bede coach Tom Ptak said. “She likes to catch it at the elbow, face up and drive, and she’s very strong. We talked about when she catches it, drop off, give her a cushion and that way they have room to cut off her lane. Savannah did that very well tonight and Ava (Balestri) also did that very well.”

With Anderson limited, the rest of the Henry offense struggled as well.

The Mallards did not make a field goal in the first half, shooting 0 of 16 from the floor, and trailed 5-1 at the end of the first quarter and 14-5 at halftime.

“We wanted to go hard man-to-man,” Ptak said. “We were in denial man-to-man and we tried not to switch. We were big on dead balls. We walled up on them and denied. We got some steals off that.”

The Bruins swiped six steals, including two by Lili McClain in the fourth quarter that she converted into transition layups to extend St. Bede’s lead to 29-14 with 5:16 left.

“I felt like we did pretty good predicting where the ball was going to go, just reading their offense,” Lili McClain said.

After McClain’s fast break layup gave the Bruins a 15-point lead, the Mallards came to life.

Henry turned up its defense, forcing six turnovers in the final five minutes, while managing to score five baskets in the final 3:13 after putting in just two in the first three quarters.

Freshman Bella Williams scored on a fast break layup to make it 29-21 with 2:12 left, and Lauren Harbison got a steal and transition bucket with 42.5 seconds left to cut it to 29-23.

The Bruins ended their 5:05 scoring drought when Bray scored off an assist from Ashlyn Ehm with 11.8 seconds left.

“We started to space the floor a little better,” Henry coach Clinton Schlosser said. “Bella Williams came in and made a few good plays.

“Offensively, you’re not going to win too many games scoring 25 points, but I was happy with our defense. We ran our game plan pretty much to perfection. It’s just offensively we struggled.”

While neither offense lit it up, Lili and Quinn McClain managed to make enough shots to give the Bruins some separation.

Quinn McClain drained a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter and Lili McClain sank one behind the arc in the period as well as the Bruins built a 25-12 lead going to the fourth quarter.

Lili McClain scored a game-high 14 points for St. Bede (17-10, 8-4 TCC), while Quinn McClain knocked down three 3s and finished with nine points.

Anderson and Harbison had nine points each for Henry (12-15, 3-9).

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St. Bede's Savannah Bray eyes the hoop while scoring on a layup over Henry-Senachwine's Kaitlyn Anderson and teammate Rachael Eckert on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 at Henry-Senachwine High School. (Scott Anderson)