After a season full of mostly dominating the competition, the Bishop Garrigan Golden Bear girls basketball team found themselves in a position they’d never been in…with a big second half deficit and limited time to make it up against their nemesis Newell-Fonda Mustangs on Saturday night in the class 1A state championship game at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines.
Newell-Fonda’s lead ballooned to as many as 22 points during the third quarter, and was still at 14 headed into the fourth, before the Golden Bears began to make up some serious ground. Trailing 54-40 with 6:48 to go in the fourth after a Quinn Sievers three for the Mustangs, Bishop Garrigan went on a 16-6 scoring run, cutting the Newell-Fonda lead to just four points with 49 seconds left to go.
Emmi Bartolo hit a three, and Sacha Alesch knocked down two key three pointers during the run. By the time Madelyn Tigges barreled into the lane for two points, leading to a sixty second timeout by Bishop Garrigan, the score was 60-56.
Bartolo says the Golden Bears kept pushing when things got tough.
After a split of free throws by Mareni Brabec provided Newell-Fonda with a 61-56 lead, the Golden Bears faced a possession where they desperately needed a bucket. With time winding down from 45 seconds to 25, Bishop Garrigan couldn’t find a good look against the swarming Mustangs defense, settling for a contested three point shot that didn’t fall, and having to resort to fouling Newell-Fonda after that, as the rally fell short.
Bartolo says Bishop Garrigan never gave up when they fell behind.
The point of Newell-Fonda’s largest lead was at the 7:13 mark of the third quarter, as a Jocee Walsh layup made the score 43-21. After a hot shooting start to the game, Newell-Fonda finally cooled off, missing all six of their three point attempts in the third, while Bishop Garrigan focused on working the ball into the paint and winning the rebounding battle. Graclyn Eastman and Madelyn Tigges both recorded a pair of layups in the third, and the Golden Bears closed the margin to 12, before Quinn Sievers got a rubber rim shot to bounce in from the right side of the key with 15 seconds left in the third to put Newell-Fonda back up 14 going to the fourth quarter.
Eastman talked about using offensive rebounding to steal possessions in the second half.
After falling behind 12-0 to St. Albert right off the bat in their state semifinal game on Friday, the game could not have started any differently on Saturday for Newell-Fonda. The Mustangs made of 8/13 shot attempts from the field in the first, as well as all three of their three points attempts, with Ellie Sievers connecting twice and Rylee Hogrefe also hitting from range in the opening period, helping position Newell-Fonda with a 22-12 lead.
Alesch felt Bishop Garrigan struggled to find their matchups defensively in the first half.
Bishop Garrgian was also outscored 17-7 in the second to make the score 39-19 at halftime, as Newell-Fonda ended the half on a 9-2 run, capped off by a Quinn Sievers three with seven seconds left. The Mustangs shot a sizzling 55.2% for the opening 16 minutes, while Bishop Garrigan was just 8/27 from the field in the opening half, with 11 turnovers.
Bishop Garrigan Head Coach Brandon Schwab didn’t feel like the Golden Bears played like themselves in the opening 16 minutes.
Alesch credited Newell-Fonda with getting Bishop Garrigan too sped up early in the game.
Quinn and Ellie Sievers both scored 16 points, with Quinn making 6/12 shots from the field and Ellie 6/13. Hogrefe added 15 on 7/9 shooting while Walsh posted 11 with 4 of 7 shots connecting. Eastman picked up her 12th double double of the season for Bishop Garrigan before fouling out with under two minutes left, scoring 16 points and grabbing 16 boards, also blocking five shots.
Early in the game, the Golden Bear junior knew she had more to give.
Alesch also scored 16, Bartolo had 12, and Tigges recorded a double double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
According to Tigges, Bishop Garrigan showed their mental toughness in the second half in spite of the loss.
Newell-Fonda cooled off considerably in the second half, making just 8/24 shots and 1/8 3s after halftime, but still finished the game at 45.3% (24/53) on FGs and 33.3% (5/15) on 3s. Bishop Garrigan shot 38.2% from the field (21/55) and 26.9% on 3s (7/26). Missed free throws were a hinderance for the Golden Bears, who ranked second in class 1A in free throw percentage heading into the game, but hit just 7/16 at the charity stripe.
Newell-Fonda finished the game with an 18-10 turnover advantage, while Bishop Garrigan controlled the rebounding 43-31, including outrebounding the Mustangs 29-14 after halftime.
Schwab felt Bishop Garrigan responded to being challenged at halftime.
The title marks the first since 2021 for Newell-Fonda, and fifth in program history, coming after three straight years of finishing as the class 1A runner up. It is the third time in four state championship game meetings between these two schools that Newell-Fonda has come out on top. Newell-Fonda ends their season 25-2, while Bishop Garrigan closes their campaign at 24-3.
Schwab feels the seniors, who were freshmen when Bishop Garrigan won the 2023 state title, kept the standards high for the program.
