St. Pius Comet Girls Basketball finishes second Undefeated season:This team has won 67 games in a-row

There was an incredible finish to the St. Pius Varsity Girls basketball season….

The girls won PECSAA, the local Catholic schools tournament, and headed to Charlotte on Friday afternoon with a record of 29-0 for the season, or 62 consecutive wins over 2 seasons. The Shamrock Tournament has been played since 1962 and catholic schools and churches from several states participate. This year, more than 80 teams came, including 35 girls teams. There is also a Cheerleader Exhibition. We need to mention that St. Pius lost two starters in the second half of the season to a broken wrist and a broken thumb. Both missed several games during the season but played at Shamrock

The teams are seeded in 4 brackets and the SPX girls were a one-seed and Friday night played a church team that had just won a play-in game. The mercy rule was invoked before half-time. The next game, on Saturday morning, was against a team from Georgia and once again the mercy rule was invoked.

There was a lot of hype around Game 3. The opponent was Holy Trinity Middle School, the best team in Charlotte. Many opinions were expressed that Saint Pius was no match for Holy Trinity, which had some very tall guards as well as experienced post players. After the first quarter, the score was 14-2, and Saint Pius went on to win.

On Sunday morning, things got tougher. St. Pius faced St. Michael’s from Cary. St. Michael’s has a talented team that shot well, pressed well, and played solid defense. However, SPX enjoyed a double digit lead over St. Michael’s most of the game.

The Championship Game was against The Franciscan School from Raleigh. The teams met in January and St. Pius won by 20+ points. For this game, TFS made some adjustments. At the end of Q1 St. Pius was down by one point. At halftime, St. Pius was up by 1. At the end of the Q3, St. Pius was down by 1 point.

With 26.3 seconds left, TFS hit a 3 pointer and made an accompanying free throw and the game was tied. SPX made a lay-up with 1.7 seconds left, but no, the player traveled.

The score at the beginning and the end of the first overtime was 40 all. At the end of the second overtime the score was 42 all. At the beginning of the third overtime, St. Pius still had only 5 team fouls and TFS was in the double bonus and this difference came into play as TFS fouled, St. Pius made key free throws, and TFS had a key shooter foul out.

Final score at the end of three overtimes, St. Pius 49, The Franciscan School 42. Final record 34 wins no losses for the season and 67 consecutive wins. This was Coach Shelton’s second consecutive Shamrock victory and 4th in 13 years.

Here are some takeaways:

1. Defense wins championships. In three overtimes, TFS scored only 2 points.
2. Throughout the season, Coach Shelton never tolerated mistakes, lapses of judgment, or laziness, no matter how well things were going. Parents would chuckle a little when she’d pull their daughter out of the game and say “you got beat,” or “you let that girl take a shot in the paint,” or “you didn’t box-out-twice.” Holding the girls to a high standard paid off.
3. Girls that play a team sport, such as basketball, in high school are happier and more successful in every way they can think to measure happiness and success. Two seventh grade girls on the SPX team who decided to give basketball a try have decided to stick with it. That is huge.