The Bishop Blanchet girls varsity went into overtime against Rainier Beach High School on January 4th ending up winning 58-52 in overtime.

The Braves start off with the 10 and 0 lead, it wasn’t until halfway through the first quarter that Rainier Beach began to kick it into high gear coming back to make it a three point game. Through the rest of the first half the Braves seemed to have fallen back and struggled to get the ball up the court. Rainier Beach played a full court and fell back to a man to man defense. With senior Taylor Chambers point guard still being out with a torn ACL,  junior Ella Dipietro steps in to take the new position.

In the second half Rainier Beach came out playing an aggressive man to man press and falling back into a 2-1-2 trapping the guards. Rainier Beach caught up and by the end of the fourth quarter they came back and tied the game 45-45 taking the game into four minute overtime.

“Trapping the top of our offense really seemed to some damage,” said junior Jillese Bush post ” we kept turning the ball over which gave Beach many of the baskets that they had.”

In the final four minutes the game had changed. Both teams played aggressive and battled hard. Rainier Beach began to foul the Braves sending them into double bonus. Junior Ella Dipietro point guard came in with the clutch  6  free throws, gaining them the lead in overtime, and senior Annie Maher post getting both defensive and offensive boards gaining 4 points in the final minutes. Maher was the leading scorer with 19 points.

“The game really came down to rebounds and patience,” said Maher, “it was a tough game and there’s still much we need to work on.”

The Braves winning the nail biter 58-52, the girls still maintain their 11-0 streak and are still ranked as #1 in state.