Youthful St. Martin’s edges St. Edmund to advance to state girls basketball quarterfinals

Youth was served Monday afternoon in Metairie.

St. Martin’s won consecutive state titles in 1993 and 1994, led by Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame inductee Barbara Farris.

While that was a veteran, proven team, the 2019-2020 Saints are anything but, playing a host of sophomores and a freshman with just one senior seeing any action.

When it mattered most, the kiddie corps came through in the Division IV regional playoffs.

Sophomore Jayden Coleman scored on a driving layup with 6.5 seconds left to lift No. 6 St. Martin’s Episcopal to a thrilling 56-55 victory over No. 11 St. Edmund at Adkerson Gymnasium.

“I knew we had to score so I just took it to the basket,” Coleman said. “I knew my teammates would be there. It felt amazing. I was just happy to come through for my team.”

St. Martin’s coach Courtney Ward was ecstatic about the play of Coleman.

“Jayden Coleman came through and made some plays when we really needed them,” Ward said. “She’s been like that for us all season. She gut checks herself every game. She doesn’t want to come out. If I can help it, I don’t take her out. She’s just been all-everything for us all season. She just has the mentality of ‘coach, give me the ball’ and she just takes it and goes.”

Ward knew the outcome would come down to the final seconds.

“We had the opportunities down the stretch,” Ward said. “We got the stops we needed, it went back and forth and we were able to come out on top. It felt good. They played hard. They made plays as well. We just made one more play. That’s all we needed.”

The Saints forced a turnover on the ensuing possession to ensure the victory as freshman Hannah Benoit came up with a steal to seal the win.

Kinsley Marcantel banked in a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to give the Blue Jays a 55-54 lead, setting the stage for Coleman’s heroics.

Coleman scored 11 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, handling the ball most of the way. At one point, she left the game with under two minutes remaining with a shoulder injury and fatigue but she was able to return and decided the outcome. Coleman added six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“It’s all in your mind, you’ve just got to push through it,” Coleman said. “We’ve only got one senior. We get in the lift gym every day and work hard and go out there and play.”

The first quarter saw St. Martin’s go on an 8-0 run to take an 8-3 lead but St. Edmund answered with a 7-0 run to take a 12-11 lead. The Blue Jays led 15-14 at the end of the quarter, which featured five lead changes. Sophomore Kylar Coleman had 10 points for the Saints. The two teams combined for 18 turnovers in the quarter.

St. Edmund expanded its lead to 23-16 with an 8-0 run early in the second quarter but the Saints went on an 8-0 run of their own and closed the quarter on a 15-4 run to take a 33-30 lead by halftime. Kylar Coleman had 16 points in the half while Jayden Coleman had 11 points. Kinsley Marcantel had eight points, all in the second quarter for St. Edmund.

The Blue Jays had 17 turnovers in the half while the Saints committed 13.

The third quarter saw more players get into foul trouble as Kylar Coleman went to the bench with four fouls. St. Martin’s emerged with a 42-38 lead heading to the final quarter.

The fourth quarter saw six more lead changes, including the final one to produce the victory.

Kylar Coleman, the cousin of Jayden, finished with 19 points, four rebounds and four steals and Benoit had eight points, five rebounds and two steals.

Mary Beth Lafleur led St. Edmund (13-13) with 18 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals while Marcantel finished with 16 points, including four 3-pointers. Rebecca Benoit had eight points for the Blue Jays who were plagued by 30 turnovers. St. Martin’s committed 25 turnovers.

The Saints were 20-for-29 from the free throw line while the Blue Jays were just 11-of-23.

St. Martin’s (19-10) advances to the quarterfinals for a second straight year to face District 9-1A rival and third seed Country Day Thursday evening at Country Day. The two rivals split a pair of regular season matchups with the Cajuns winning 49-39 at home and the Saints winning 52-42 at home.

“It is a very familiar opponent,” Ward said. “It’s going to be exciting. We beat them and they beat us. We’ll see how it all turns out after this tiebreaker.”

“They’ve got a good team,” Coleman said. “We come to work. We’ve just got to do our job. We are looking forward to it.”

FINAL

St. Martin’s 14 19 9 14 56

St. Edmund 15 15 8 17 55

Scoring:

St. Martins: Jayden Coleman 23, Kylar Coleman 19, Hannah Benoit 8, Sydni Wiltz 5

St. Edmund: Mary Beth Lafleur 18, Kinsley Marcantel 16, Rebecca Benoit 8, Tanzy Miller 6, Anna Belle Fontenot 4, Greta Miller 3