Cor Jesu Starts Fast, Pulls Away Late Against Parkway West

WEBSTER GROVES—Still unbeaten on the season, and potentially on the verge of landing a spot in the local top 10 girls basketball rankings, the Cor Jesu Academy Chargers earned themselves a big win Tuesday night, defeating Parkway West 67-54, in the semifinals of the always difficult Nerinx Hall Invitational Tournament at Nerinx Hall High School.

The Chargers led 24-9 after the first quarter, but were outscored 36-27 in the middle two quarters, allowing the Longhorns to pull to within six points, heading into the final period.

Fortunately, Cor Jesu got its bearings back just when it needed to, and pulled away for an impressive win over their opponents from West County.

“I thought we started well, and then we just got lazy,” Cor Jesu coach John Neff said. “Everybody on our team seemed to get a brain cramp together, all at the same time.”

Parkway West had a lot to do with that, as it turned up its pressure defense in the second and third quarters and forced a number of turnovers by the usually calm and steady Cor Jesue squad.

“Turnovers cost us tonight, I thought,” Neff said. “We had a lot of unforced errors, just bad passes that cost us.

“We had kids doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, and I credit Parkway a bit with not letting it bother them that they were down like that. They still played hard, and we didn’t, and that was the difference.”

In the fourth quarter though, Cor Jesu began to look like a team deserving of a top 10 ranking again, as it calmly handled West’s full-court press and sank some easy shots and all its free throws to build back up to a 13-point edge.

Senior forward Monica Simon led the Chargers in scoring Tuesday night, with 14 points, including a 3-pointer early in the third quarter, that gave Cor Jesu its biggest lead of the night at 43-28.

Teammates Chaley Poth (13 points), Sam Bersett (11 points), and Laura Miles (10 points) also had double-digit scoring nights, as Cor Jesu’s balanced scoring proved to be too much for Parkway West.

“These kids all get along,” Neff said. “And we do a lot of things in practice just to encourage them to make that extra pass. And when we do that, I think we’re pretty tough.”

The Longhorns were led by senior Rayna Smith, who had a game-high 15 points, and sophomore teammate Emily Goldenstein, who added 14 points and four steals.

Both teams will be in action again on Thursday’s final night of the tournament.

Parkway West will be taking on Visitation Academy in the tournament’s third-place game at 5:30 p.m., while Cor Jesu will face tournament host Nerinx Hall, in the championship game, at 7 p.m.

Nerinx earned its trip to the finals by defeating previously unbeaten Viz, 60-37, in the Tuesday’s other semifinal.

“Nerinx is probably going to be a little bigger than us at every position,” Neff said. “And I thought their defense against Viz was just excellent. They play kind of a fast-paced, up-and-down game like we do. So hopefully, we can give them a good game.”

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. Thursday.