The opening round of the 2024 state tournament wrapped up with Remsen St. Mary’s cashing in the final ticket to the semifinals.
Third-seeded St. Mary’s, reaching the Class 1A semis for the second straight year, showed balance on offense and aggressiveness on defense in defeating Martensdale-St. Marys 52-33 to remain unbeaten and earn a berth against second-seeded Newell-Fonda at 3:15 p.m. Friday.
Carmindee Ricke led the Hawks with 13 points, Claire Schroeder scored 11 on 5-for-7 shooting and Whitney Jensen had 10. Ricke also had seven rebounds and six steals, while Jensen picked off three steals and grabbed five rebounds. Mya Bunkers also had a solid effort for the winners, finishing with seven points, four assists, three steals and three rebounds.
Ricke, Jensen and Bunkers all have scored more than 1,000 points in their careers.
The Hawks finished with 13 steals in all, which helped produce 23 points off turnovers, and had a 12-2 edge on second-chance points, thanks to nine offensive rebounds.
Brynnly German led Martensdale-St. Marys with 19 points and seven rebounds.
St. Mary’s needed most of the first quarter to get its bearings despite returning all five starters from last year’s club. With less than 2 minutes remaining in the opening quarter, the Hawks trailed 6-2.
But they got the final points of the quarter on Ricke’s putback, then opened the second period with nine straight points that included Ricke’s 3-pointer and her slick move for a layup. That made it 13-6 and the Hawks stayed ahead the rest of the game.
They were up 22-16 at halftime and led by as many as 11 before the Blue Devils closed to 35-27 on German’s bucket in the opening minute for the fourth quarter. But there would be no comeback.
St. Mary’s went 8-for-8 on free throws in running off the next 12 points to nail it down.
St. Mary’s moves on with a 24-0 record. Martensdale-St. Marys, the 2011 state champion, finished 18-7 after a tough regular-season schedule that included four losses to state tournament teams in larger classes and another loss to 5A Southeast Polk.