Monday, Jun. 29, 2009

Red Knights claim another summer title

Incarnate Word gets past Althoff in title contest

BELLEVILLE -- The (St. Louis) Incarnate Word Red Knights continued to make the Family Sportsplex their summer home away from home Sunday at the Southwestern Illinois College Blue Storm Girls Basketball Tournament.

Brittany Carter connected on four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 16 points as the Red Knights nipped Althoff 46-43 in the title game of the 11th annual summer basketball hoopsfest.

Briana Puni added 10 points for the Red Knights who used a 9-2 run to start the second half to take control and earn the tournament title for the sixth time in seven years.

"This is an event we always look forward to playing in because it's not far for us to travel and it gives us an opportunity to play teams we don't get to see during the regular season,'' Red Knights coach Dan Rolfes said. "We always seem to play pretty well when we come over here as well, and we feel fortunate in that we were able to beat a very good team in Althoff.''

Getting 10 points from Jordyne Crunk and nine from Jazmin Hill, Althoff fought back from an eight-point deficit to pull within 44-43 with under 15 seconds remaining after Hill's third 3-pointer of the game.

Incarnate Word scored to push its lead back to three and when Hill missed a potential game-tying shot with under 10 seconds left, the Red Knights had won yet another championship in Belleville.

"I thought we played well against a very good team,'' Althoff coach Lori Crunk said. "I think maybe our legs got a little tired late in the game.

"We played a lot of minutes the last couple of days, but overall, I was pleased. It was a good couple of days.''

Led by the 6-foot-1 Puni and the shooting of Carter, the Red Knights jumped out to an early 18-10 lead.

"Puni, when she gets the ball down low can be tough to defend,'' Rolfes said. "And Carter has really worked hard on her outside shot. It was good to see her knock down a few of those this weekend.''

Althoff rallied to forge a 20-20 tie at halftime as Alece Shumpert scored twice inside and Hill nailed a 3.

But the Red Knights took command early in the second half.

A total of 24 teams competed in the two-day tournament. Cahokia won the other tournament bracket, beating Central 39-38 in the championship game. Contact reporter Dean Criddle at 239-2661 or dcriddle@bnd.com.