St. Albert GBB Defeats Bishop Garrigan to Reach 1A Final, 59-51

St. Albert's Ellie Monahan (3-7-25)

St. Albert's Maura Ryan (3-7-25)

St. Albert's Eleanor Coughlin (3-7-25)

St. Albert's Avah Underwood (3-7-25)

St. Albert GBB Defeats Bishop Garrigan to Reach 1A Final, 59-51 -

(3-7-25) – Surfs up and the Saintes have one more wave to catch.

“We are able to like ride a wave throughout the whole tournament and our whole season,” said St. Albert sophomore guard Eleanor Coughlin. “We've had highs and lows and we just came together and became even stronger as one.”

St. Albert used a 9-0 start then held on for a 59-51 win over Bishop Garrigan in the Class 1A State Semifinals Friday.

Maura Ryan, who led the way with 16 pts, including 3-ptr to end the 1st half, said this was magical moment for her team.

“It means everything. My team and I worked so hard. Coaches have put in a lot of hours and we’re super excited to be able to play here, so whatever it took, I was going to go out there and do.”

Senior leader Ellie Monahan had 13 points, including a pair of free throws with :26 seconds left to ice the game. She said her and her team were confident they would get to this point.

“We know we can do it. Just a matter of taking each game one at a time. We did not go into this game thinking about tomorrow. We knew we had to get past Garrigan. They’re a great team.”

Despite each team committing 14 turnovers, the Saintes capitalized on their opportunities, scoring 21 pts to just 11 for the Golden Bears.

Another double-double for Avah Underwood with 12 pts and 15 rebounds. She knew she was going to be in a battle with Bishop Garrigan’s Gracelyn Eastman, who averaged 16.6 pts a game coming into the contest.

“She’s a great player and she's gonna improve much more than she did from last year to this year and it's been really awesome just to kind of play against different players than I'm used to and we kind of stuck to our game plan and it got a little rocky for a second, but we ended up OK.”

Eastman led Bishop Garrigan with 14 pts and 18 rebounds, 12 pts in 2nd half, while Emmi Bartolo and Sacha Alesch had 10 pts a piece. The Golden Bears finish their season 22-4, getting knocked out of the state tournament by the Saintes for a 2nd season in a row.

St. Albert will play in the State Championship game for the first time since 2000 and look for their first girls’ basketball state title against Newell-Fonda on Saturday.

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