The Blessed Sacrament girl’s basketball team continued their early season struggles in the opening round game of the Covenant Christmas Classic invitational tournament last Friday evening. The Lady Knights, still trying to define their offensive personality and nail down a go-to scorer, fell to the Lady Eagles 42-31.

Junior center Ellen Smethurst proved to be the major contributor to the Covenant win, scoring a game-high 15 points. The six- footer was also responsible for exposing BSH’s questionable interior defense and was primarily responsible for three of the Knight’s starters fouling out of the contest.

“We played a good first half. No we played a great first half and at all positions,” said head coach Christy Henderson. “We just went dry in the second,” was her very accurate analysis.

Smethurst set the offensive tone for the Eagles with a quick curl to the rim for the first points of the game and then went downcourt to set up in a surprising, but very tenacious, man-to-man defense. Devon Batterson, who is struggling to find her game, missed a curl move on Blessed Sacrament’s first offensive attempt. Ashley Chaney misfired on a short jump shot and Covenant’s Addi Bolin retaliated with a top-of-the circle jumper. Batterson got the Knights on the board with a post move for her only field goal of the game. She would foul out in the final stanza. Kaitlyn Leboff’s full-court scamper and score also earned her a free throw which she knocked down to put BSH up 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Leboff kicked off the second quarter with another scoring drive and it appeared the Knights were waking up. Olivia Bowles wheeled to the rim against Smethurst to score and then scored again on a nice feed from Leboff.

Senior Nicole McGrady powered along the baseline for another bucket and the Lady Knights led 15 to 10.

With 5:08 left, Smethurst made one free throw and the Knights left Bolin absolutely alone under the basket for an easy score. Bolin took advantage of BSH’s rebounding problems and put back Gabby Mirabelli’s miss to tie the score at 15. Batterson missed from in close but an aggressive follow by Chelsea Rudd put the Knights back in front.

Kelly Crispin’s turn around jumper tied it up at 17. Austin Taylor sliced through the Covenant defense to score at the rim before another slick curl move by Smethurst tied it yet again. The two squads kicked the ball around for the next two minutes before Batterson and Smethhurst traded free throws to bring the score to 20 all. With less than ten seconds left, tiny Leboff got in among the trees to steal the ball and head down court. She found not much bigger Taylor flying down the center of the court. Kaitlyn’s lead pass was perfectly placed and Taylor put the ball in the basket just as the buzzer sounded. BSH 22, Covenant 20.

The Lady Knights scored a total of nine points in the entire second half. The Lady Eagles scored 22.

Bolin scored on a long jump shot before McGrady got the lead back on two free throws. Leboff’s one made free throw gave the Knights their final lead at 25-24. Mirabelli scored on an inbounds play under the Knights’ basket but Ashley Thornton’s three from the left corner with 3:10 left in the third quarter was the dagger at 29-25.

With less than two minutes left in the third, Grace Boatwright dropped in a soft jumper from the top of the circle. It was the first and last outside shot the Lady Knights made that night. Smethurst powered over the BSH defense and ran the lead back to four to end the quarter.

Covenant’s domination on their offensive boards was so overwhelming that BSH did not even get a shot off.

Smethurst pulled down seven offensive rebounds during that one stretch.

Her free throws and a baseline drive by Thornton put the Eagles safely ahead 27-36.

Smethurst made two more free throws and missed two more. Bolin also missed two but fouled out McGrady in the process.

BSH had still not made a shot in the quarter.

Thornton dropped in two free throws. Smethurst followed with another smooth scoring post move before Leboff drove the lane to score the Knights’ first points of the quarter, her team-high 12. The clock read 1:33.

Covenant cleared the bench and the two teams played keep-away until Taylor’s steal produced the final points of the game.