Westminster, MICDS, St. Joseph’s set for basketball action Thursday

Two girls games will highlight the American Cancer Society Coaches vs. Cancer Shootout.

The action gets started at 9:30 a.m. with the MICDS Rams (13-3) playing the Westminster Christian Academy Wildcats (13-2). At 5:30 p.m., the St. Joseph’s Academy Angels will face the powerful Bolingbrook (Ill.) Raiders.

The games will be played Thursday (Jan. 26) at the Scottrade Center. The games were originally scheduled to be played at St. Louis University’s Chaifetz Arena. The main reason for the venue change is concerns surrounding recent NCAA rulings regarding similar events being hosted on college campuses by non-scholastic groups.

The other games are high school boys: Belleville West vs. Belleville East, 12:30 p.m.; Alton Marquette vs. Glenbard East, 2:15 p.m.; Webster Groves vs. McCluer, 3:45 p.m.; Vianney vs. Cardinal Ritter, 7 p.m.; and Soldan vs. Riverside Academy (Calif.), 8:30 p.m.

Westminster Christian Academy coach Steve Stipanovich said the Wildcats were “invited because the organizers thought that we would be a good matchup with MICDS.”

The MICDS boys played in the event last year. That helped get the girls invited to play this year, Rams coach Scott Small said.

“Our boys played in this event last year and our student body took the morning off from classes to support the cause,” Small said. “I think that that school support resonated with the organizers and this year both of our squads are competing in it.”

Both squads are looking forward to playing at Scottrade. Getting the chance to play in a big venue like that will be fun for the girls.

“They have never played there so I do not think they have any idea what to expect,” Stipanovich  said. “They will all be amazed at the atmosphere.”

Small agreed.

“This is a great cause, neat atmosphere, unique experience and opportunity,” Small said. “I think it will be fun for them, but not too overwhelming. Now, if there were 20,000 people in attendance, it might be a challenge. But they are used to playing in front of big high school crowds, so I don’t think that aspect will be an issue.”

Playing in the big building will present some problems for the girls.

“We have a very hard game to play so I hope that they can relax and play as if they were in a normal high school gym,” Stipanovich said. “They may be a little excited at first.”

Small said “sight lines and depth perception when shooting are difficult to adjust too in an arena, not to mention length of floor.”

The two schools met for the championship of the MICDS Tournament over the Christmas break. Westminster Christian Academy won 48-35.

“We know that MICDS will be ready for us,” Stipanovich said. “We have beaten them the last three times we have played and I know they will be motivated to win the game. We are both in the same district this year and anytime we play them it is very competitive.”

Small wants his girls to be ready to play.

“We struggled in the first quarter of that first game and are hopeful to compete from the start,” Small said. “We beat them in the district title game the year before last and they beat us for the district title last year.  We see a lot of each other, but I don’t think it is necessarily a rivalry beyond familiarity.”

Westminster will be back in action Friday with a 6 p.m. against visiting Principia (14-3).

“Our focus is to be playing our best basketball at the start of the postseason,” Stipanovich said. “We learn from all our games and continue to work on our weaknesses. This is a great group of girls and they all get along very well. We are having a lot of fun this year. They play very, very hard.”

MICDS lost 53-19 to Principia on Monday night. The Rams jump back into action Saturday at Ursuline (15-3) in a 2:30 p.m. game.

“We shot 14 percent at Prin, not a fun experience,” Small said. “We are using it as another step in our progress towards postseason play. We’re sitting on 13-3 with a young squad is always nice, but we are not content with where we are.  We know we have to prove we compete with schools bigger than us and are continuing to grow as a team.”

The other girls game looks to be a good one, too. It features the St. Joseph’s Academy Angels (17-2) meeting the  15-1 Bolingbrook Raiders, the defending Class 4 champions of Illinois. The Raiders are ranked No. 5 according to ESPN Rise while the Angels are No. 23.

Angels coach Julie Matheny does not mind the tough game.

“It’s an honored to be invited as one of the St. Louis girls teams to play,” Matheny said. “The girls are thrilled and excited to play at Scottrade. We also have a huge opponent to worry about but we don’t get to go into many games as the underdog so this will be a little different.”

She has a personal connection to the disease that is trying to be defeated.

“It hits close to home as my brother, Jim Goessling, is fighting stage 4 cancer,” Matheny said. “Unfortunately, many of our players families and friends have or continue to fight the ugly disease.”

It will be St. Joe’s first game with Bolingbrook, who have won the Class 4 crown in each of the last three years. Bolingbrook is led by Morgan Tuck, who averages 23 points and eight rebounds a game. She has signed to play at Connecticut.

Matheny said the Angels need to do several things to emerge with a victory.

“We need to limit our turnovers, take care of the boards and hope they get in foul trouble,” Matheny said.

She is happy with how season is going for her squad.

“The harder we work, the better we will get,” Matheny said. “It will all be about how hard we want to play defense.”

The Angels will be back in action at 2 p.m. Saturday with a game against their rival — Incarnate Word Academy. The Red Knights (13-6) handed St. Joseph’s one of its losses this season, a 46-41 decision in the championship game of the Visitation Christmas Tournament.

“I’m still disappointed about the loss to IWA,” Matheny said. “But, we play them Saturday.”