St. Edward downs Fenton to improve to 7-0

Fresh off winning the Dakota Thanksgiving Tournament last week the St. Edward girls basketball team didn't miss a beat in its Metro Suburban West opener on Tuesday night.

Senior Cece Rapp narrowly missed a triple double with 20 points, 10 blocks, and 7 rebounds to lead the Green Wave to a 54-35 win over visiting Fenton. St. Edward improved to 7-0 overall with the victory.

"The girls are playing with a lot of confidence coming out of that Dakota tournament," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "There were some tough teams up there and we handled it real well. They have really gelled and are playing above and beyond what I expected at this point."

St. Edward, ranked No. 10 in Class 3A in the first statewide Associated Press poll released Tuesday, jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, but Fenton battled back to tie the score at 14-14 in the opening minute of the second quarter. The game was still knotted at 20-20 before the Green Wave started to take control. A 12-2 run to close out the first half gave St. Edward 32-22 advantage.

"They were a scrappy team," Dawson said. "We had a difficult time shaking them at first. but the girls did a good job of keeping their composure. We just started making better decisions with the basketball. We got it into Cece when we needed to."

Rapp had 3 baskets during the 12-2 run at the end of the first half and converted one those into a 3-point play.

"We just had to start playing our game and running our plays," Rapp said. "We have great team chemistry. Everyone has a real positive attitude and it's great to see everyone contributing."

The 6-foot-3 Rapp wreaked havoc on the defensive end especially in the second half when she had 7 of her blocked shots. Fenton (2-3, 0-1) shot just 3-of-22 (14 percent) from the field the final two quarters.

"She is a great defender," Fenton coach Tim Anderson said of Rapp. "But the thing about our division is there is a tall girl like that on every team. So, we need to talk about our shot discipline because it wasn't very good tonight. We just get too impatient and want to drive to the basket all the time and we can't do that all the time with someone like (Rapp) waiting in there."

The Bison never got closer than 8 points in the second half.

Ryann Scully had a couple 3-pointers in the second half to help seal the win for the Wave. She finished with 13 points.

Senior Dana Fritz led Fenton with 10 points.