St. Joseph girls score impressive win over Highlands in season opener

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 8, 2017 | 11:21 PM

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It was a quick start to begin the new season for St. Joseph.

The Spartans scored the game's first 11 points and rolled to a 71-30 victory over Highlands in the opening night for the St. Joseph tip-off tournament.

Alex Jones scored 24 points and Chloe Kurpakus 22 to lead the Spartans, who will play Shady Side Academy in the finals at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

“Yes, they played pretty well tonight,” St. Joseph coach Sally Ackerman said. “We had our legs with us, and if we can play our fast-paced game, we're pretty good.”

Highlands, after seeing two 1,000-point scorers graduate, knows it has plenty of work to do.

“We're young, we lost 2,000 points from last year,” Golden Rams coach Drew Jonczak said. “We're building. We've got a lot of young ones. The program's moving forward, we have 20 girls coming out. Last few years, sometimes the most we would have would be eight. Strides are being made, but it's going to take some time.”

Kurpakus tallied nine of her team's first 11 points.

“She started out hot,” Ackerman said. “The one thing we've been talking about in practice is ones, two and threes. One is a layup, two is 2-point shots and threes are 3s and Chloe made a one, two and three early.”

Friday also marked the debut of promising freshman Nevaeh Ewing, which is heaven spelled backward. Nevaeh had a heavenly performance, scoring 12 points, including a basket on a steal to end the first quarter and give the Spartans a 17-3 advantage.

Renee Cebula's 3-pointer finally got Highlands on the scoreboard with 3 minutes, 19 seconds left in the opening quarter.

St. Joseph is coming off its first WPIAL semifinals appearance and its first PIAA appearance last season, and the Spartans appear ready for more.

Jones, who was first off the bench last year, scored just two points in the first quarter Friday, but heated up like she often did last season, finishing with 22.

“I told people last year that Alex is the player coaches love to have,” Ackerman said. “She can play all the spots. Sometimes she's a guard shooting 3s, sometimes she's an inside player. She has great moves and finishes well.”

After trailing 31-7 at the half, Highlands started to make some headway, scoring 15 points in the third quarter as Sarah Sawhook found the range, scoring eight points. The sophomore finished with 16.

“We're not going to get down on ourselves, we're going to keep going 'til the end,” Jonczak said. “This will probably be my most rewarding season, without a doubt. I'm just having a great time. The distractions are gone, and this is fantastic.”

“We showed some resilience tonight,” said Cebula, the team's only returning starter. “That's what we need. We need heart from our girls. We don't have the most talented group, but in the second half, I think we played pretty well.”

Cebula finished with seven points and Jaharee Hurt had 15 rebounds.

Gia Angelo has eight steals for the Spartans.

Highlands will play section rival Burrell in the consolation game at 3 p.m.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Highlands, St. Joseph