SJA gets second shot at St. Agnes

The Lady Bloodhounds are no strangers to Belton or taking to the hardwood against Houston St. Agnes.

In fact, St. Joseph has the rare opportunity at a second shot at the Tigers who ended their season last year in the same town, same gym and the same round of the playoffs. While St. Agnes went on to the TAPPS 6A State Championship game (where they lost), the Lady Bloodhounds had all season to dwell on what might have been.

St. Joseph (24-8) gets its shot at retribution today at Belton High School at 5 p.m. with some experience under its belt and the belief that their time is now.

“I think that last year helped us a lot,” Bloodhounds coach Cynthia Martinez said. “They don’t feel like they are going into something new. It’s like you don’t need a GPS anymore.”

Experience is great but now St. Joseph must stop the one-two scoring punch of six-foot-two post Jenni Nwokedi and 5’11” guard Chelsea Bass as well as the rest of the TAPPS No. 5 St. Agnes squad. Nwokedi, who has already signed with Tulane University, is a beast in the paint and according to Martinez, pres-ents a big target for the Tigers to feed the ball to.

“She’s smart, she’s pretty mobile and she’s pretty good at getting the ball where she wants to,” Martinez said. “We’re used to playing bigger teams than us though, especially in our district.”

Beth Dawson gets the job of trying to corral Nwokedi while giving up four inches but Dawson has shown that she can go toe-to-toe with bigger players down low and has steadily improved over the last month of the season.

The Lady Bloodhounds do not depend on her for scoring though. The trio of April Phillip (11.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 7.5 steals per game), Marrissa Shinsky (13.6 PPG, 5 SPG, 3.7 APG) and Paulina Martinez (10.4 PPG, 7 RPG) is expected to carry the load offensively and must play well if St. Joseph is going to advance today.

The luxury of three players producing at such an high level is a big reason why they have made it to the TAPPS postseason in consecutive years for the first time in school history.

“A lot of these girls have been running this (Triangle) offense for four years now and they have learned to be patient,” Martinez said. “One of the strengths of our team is that you have to shut down three scor-ers and that’s a difficult thing to do.”

If the Bloodhounds are able to pull off the upset then they will play the winner of the San Antonio In-carnate Word/ Dallas John Paul II game in the TAPPS 6A state semifinals on Feb. 29.