No Beef: St. Joe Tees Up a District Championship Over Nerinx Hall

Alright coach, where’s the beef? It’s one thing that St. Joseph’s Academy (20-5) beat nemesis Nerinx Hall (17-11) at Ladue last night 58-44 for the Class 5, District 2 basketball title.

But almost as important--where is that Lion’s Choice Star of the game t-shirt?

This may be the mystery of the universe.

More game photos on the Ladue-Frontenac Facebook page.

At the end of the game, Angels’ coach Julie Matheny was presented the Lions Choice gray shirt in recognition of Sydney Stipanovich’s 16-point performance.

Matheny had this to say: “This is spectacular. She (Sydney) will love it. I Imagine we will never be able to take it off of her.”

When asked about receiving this award from the Prepcasts Broadcast Network, Stipanovich was like a deer caught in the headlights. She didn’t know a thing about such a prestigious award. Seems coach Matheny was still clutching the shirt along with the game scorebook, her keys and phone and forgot to give the gift to her prized center.

So much for the beefy t-shirt.

The Angels scored the first nine points of the game; went on a 13-0 run and Nerinx was in too deep a hole to recover.

Erin Nelson and Stipanovich, the two steady seniors combined for 33 points. “That was too much, we were hoping to keep them in the low 20s combined,” said Nerinx coach Mike Slater.

Even better, guards Mary Barton and Natalie Sims combined for 20 points. Matheny was in the mood to hand out praise to the third guard: senior Emmie Haring. “Emmie does so much that you won’t find in the scorebook.” Haring runs the offense, dishes out assists and gets the outlet pass to break the press.

Notable quotes:

Julie Matheny: “Obviously (33) points from our top two was more than enough, but better yet were the points we got from our other kids.

Quote two:

Natalie Sims gave us such a spark off the bench. She is just an athlete.

Quote three:

Our execution on defense was very important.

Sydney Stipanovich: “I think our defense played really well. Nerinx is a great team, but I thought we worked together very well to pull out the win.

We know its do or die this time of the year, so we’re going to leave everything on the court.”

Erin Nelson: “I thought our defense did very well, especially on the help side. We’ve been focusing a lot more on defense.”

Top scorers:

St. Joe, Erin Nelson 17 points; Sydney Stipanovich 16 points; Mary Barton 12 points.

Nerinx Hall: Kenzie Yess 13 points; Maddie Simmons 10 points; Jo Ingram, 10 points.

What’s next: St. Joe advances to the regionals at Northwest House Springs in Cedar Hill Wednesday. Tipoff is 7:45 p.m. They face either Poplar Bluff, Jackson, Oakville or Fox.