It must not have been enough for St. Mary’s-Colgan senior Lisa Elmer to be the Homecoming queen on Friday night.
She also had to dominate the game as well as her 14 points led the Panthers to a 47-41 win over St. Paul at the St. Mary’s-Colgan Fieldhouse.
Elmer utilized her height to take over inside, while also knocking down a pair of three-point goals.
“A lot of people told me that I could not let it (Homecoming) get to my head,” Elmer said. “I had to hold it in until halftime of the boys game.”
She didn’t have much help either as her teammates ribbed her for most of the week, doing things like decorating a basketball and naming it “Queen Lisa.”
“We have had ‘Queen Lisa’ put up everywhere,” Colgan head coach Megan Simmons said. “I am sure that she was sick of it coming into tonight.”
The Homecoming festivities were not a distraction as she kept her basketball shoes on underneath her Homecoming dress during the coronation.
Elmer set the tone by starting the game with 3-pointer and added her second trey on her next field goal.
“I don’t know what got into me,” Elmer said. “I’ve been working on those when I have some free time in the gym.”
Then, throughout the game, Elmer also found a way to return to her inside game.
“They (St. Paul) were a shorter and faster team so I could muscle my way inside more,” Elmer said.
Colgan held a halftime lead despite picking up 10 team fouls to St. Paul’s two.
“We had a lot of dumb fouls like reaching when we shouldn’t have,” Elmer said.
Even with Elmer’s presence, the Indians did not go away quietly.
After trailing 21-15 at intermission, St. Paul cut the Colgan lead to two, 30-28, by the end of the third quarter behind a pair of 3-point goals from leading scorer Morgan Westhoff and Hillary Beachner.
“We had a stretch where we were running our offense and we were hitting our shots,” St. Paul head coach Doug Tuck said. “But we just could not maintain that intensity.”
Colgan was able to pull away in the fourth quarter behind a 6-of-8 free throw shooting quarter from Ashley Werner.
Werner wound up with 11 points, seven of which coming from the foul line.
“You could see that Colgan had some good experience on the floor, especially in the fourth quarter,” Tuck said.
Colgan boys 61-38
Both Colgan and St. Paul had to overcome a very slow-moving first half due to 27 combined fouls.
It was the Panthers, behind 17 points from Stu Jeck, that rebounded to a 61-38 win over the Indians.
Both teams combined to shoot 36 free throws in the first half alone.
“It was a difficult game for the kids to play in,” Colgan head coach Wayne Cichon said. “When there are that many whistles, it is hard to get into a flow.”
The Panthers were 17 of 31 from the foul line while St. Paul shot 14 of 27 for the game.
But it was Jeck’s 10 points in the second quarter that propelled the Panthers to a 30-19 halftime lead and the Colgan press held the Indians to just 19 second-half points.
Despite combining for 47 fouls on the night, neither team had a player foul out.
“It was a good test for us because we have to learn to adjust to the referees, especially when we get into sub-state and state play,” Cichon said.
Kyle Leistikow led the Indians with 11 points and Kolby Carter dropped in 10.
Kelly Thompson contributed 11 points for the Panthers.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
St. Mary’s-Colgan girls 47, St. Paul 41
COLGAN (47) — Lisa Elmer 5 1-2 14, Ashley Werner 2 7-10 11, Annie Dellasega 3 3-4 9, Breezie Trytek 3 1-2 7, Katie Hayes 1 0-2 2, Katie Sloan 1 0-0 2, Allison McCormick 0 2-2 2. Totals: 15 14-22 47.
ST. PAUL (41) — Morgan Westhoff 7 2-2 19, Madi Borum 4 0-0 8, Bethany Beachner 3 0-2 6, Hillary Beachner 1 0-0 3, Kylie Harmon 0 1-2 1, Kennedee Borum 0 0-2 0. Totals: 15 7-13 41.
St. Paul 10 5 13 13 — 41
Colgan 11 10 9 17 — 47
3-point goals — Colgan 3 (Elmer 3), St. Paul 4 (Westhoff 3, H. Beachner 1). Turnovers — Colgan 17, St. Paul 16. Total fouls — Colgan 16, St. Paul 14. Fouled out — Dellasega. Technical fouls — none.
St. Mary’s-Colgan boys 61, St. Paul 38
COLGAN (61) — Stu Jeck 5 7-9 17, Kelly Thompson 4 3-4 11, Tyler Jeck 4 0-0 8, Jordan Smith 2 3-4 7, Chas Smith 2 0-2 5, Charlie Sloan 2 0-0 5, Jesse Watt 1 2-6 4, Zach Smith 1 1-2 3, Chris Smith 0 1-2 1, Reagan Kays 0 0-2 0. Totals: 21 17-31 61.
ST. PAUL (38) — Kyle Leistikow 2 7-11 11, Kolby Carter 5 0-1 10, Luke Schibi 3 0-0 6, Logan Giefer 1 2-4 4, Dallas Smith 0 0-2 2, Joey Alexander 1 0-0 2, Kendall Winter 0 1-2 1, Dylan Treiber 0 1-2 1, Nathan Meins 0 1-2 1, Tyler Coomes 0 0-3 0. Totals: 12 14-27 38.
St. Paul 7 12 10 9 — 38
Colgan 10 20 15 16 — 61
3-point goals — Colgan 2 (Chas Smith, Sloan 1), St. Paul 0. Turnovers — Colgan 14, St. Paul 24. Total fouls — Colgan 27, St. Paul 20. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — none.
PITTSBURG —
