St. Joe Angels Dismantle Cor Jesu In Vistation Tournament Quarterfinals

So just how do you keep the girls down on the farm when they’ve seen the glittering lights of gay Paree (Paris)?

The St. Joe Angels are a traveling national team. They’ve had their time in the barrel in Naples, Fla and Phoenix, Az.

So does that make playing in good old St. Louis rather pedestrian?

“We’re always ready to play hard, wherever we are,” reasoned veteran coach Julie Matheny. “People are always playing their best game against us,” she said.

Monday night, St. Joe set the fourth-quarter running clock into motion for the fifth time this year, picking apart Cor Jesu Academy, 66-31 to reach the semifinals of the 37th annual Visitation Academy Christmas tournament.

They earned a semifinal game against Fort Zumwalt North, winners by one over host Viz, 50-49. They meet up at 7 p.m. tonight. The other game matches Incarnate Word Academy with Lafayette.

Last year, St. Joe beat Zumwalt West, only to lose to IWA in the finals by one point.

The date is December 27 and the Angels already have 10 wins on the season. “Isn’t that something,” said Matheny.

Scoring wise, Morgan Stock had 16 points, Maddie Stock and Sydney Stipanovich each had 13. All sat out the fourth quarters while the reserves got some playing time.

The Angels roared out the gate and held a comfortable 39-13 lead. Maddie Stock had the hot hand in the first 16 minutes, nailing four-three pointers in the second quarter while having 13 points at the break.

“These were kind of like the games we played in Phoenix,” said Morgan Stock. “We figured Cor Jesu had a pretty good team. We scored a lot on them early,” said the senior guard.

The Angels can ill afford to look ahead. “Oh no, like we always do, we just think about one game at a time,” said Morgan Stock.

Junior Chaley Poth led Cor Jesu with 10 points.

The championship will be played at Viz at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Plan on getting there early.