Bishop Watterson downs St. Francis DeSales behind big night from senior Sophie Ziel

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It didn’t take long before Sophie Ziel realized that she was on the verge of having a big game on Thursday night when Bishop Watterson hosted St. Francis DeSales in a key Central Catholic League contest.

The Watterson junior point guard quickly felt like she was in a zone after she made back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening two minutes.

“After I made those first two threes, I knew it was going to be a good night,” Ziel said. “Making my first two shots right away gave me a lot of confidence, and it got me and our whole team going. I knew if I continued to shoot like that, that we had a great shot at winning.”

But instead of forcing up shots every time she touched the ball, Ziel patiently continued to distribute the ball to her teammates and shoot only when she was had a good look.

Fortunately, that strategy paid dividends, as Ziel scored a game-high 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting to lead the Eagles to a 46-36 victory over the Stallions.

“Sophie’s not only a great basketball player, she’s also a great kid,” said Watterson coach Sam Davis, whose squad improved to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in the CCL. “She knows there are going to be times where our team needs her to score, and she came through for us when we needed her to make shots. She probably could have scored more, but she’s very unselfish, and she also distributed the ball well to get all of her teammates involved, too. She had an all-around great performance.”

Ziel – who made a game-best four 3-pointers – continued to demonstrate how deadly accurate she is from behind the arc while making two more 3-pointers and scoring a total of eight points in the third quarter, to help the Eagles take a 30-27 advantage into the final eight minutes of the game.

One of Ziel’s 3-pointers was launched from three feet behind the arc, and her other field goal was from just one foot within the 3-point line.

“She’s got a really deep range, so she stretches defenses and makes it difficult to play zone against her,” Davis said. “But she’s also worked hard on her midrange game, and she has a good stop-and-pop.”

Ziel showed off her defensive skills early in the fourth quarter, when she stole the ball from a Stallion at midcourt and then raced in all alone for a layup to give the Eagles some breathing room by extending their lead to 34-29.

After Watterson continued to break the game open in the fourth quarter, Ziel used some fancy dribbling skills against intense defensive pressure to wither valuable time off the clock.

When the Stallions pulled within three late in the game, Ziel sank two free throws to put Watterson up 41-36 with just 2 minutes, 3 seconds remaining.

With Ziel distributing the ball, a total of five Eagles scored in the fourth quarter, when Watterson outscored DeSales 16-9 to knock off the defending CCL champion.

“Sophie has a special handle, and our entire team was able to move the ball well and get some good shots, which is difficult to do against DeSales because they rotate well and do a great job with their zone,” Davis said.

Post player Cameron Sparks was Watterson’s most valuable defender, as she helped limit 6-1 senior post Bridget Womber to just five points. The 6-foot junior also scored six points on her own before fouling out of the game with 1:21 remaining.

“Cam did an amazing job on Womber, who is a force inside,” Davis said. “Coach (Mike) Lanza is our defensive guy, and we were able to change our defenses up, using a deny package and a gap package. At times, we put a lot of pressure on them, and we kept them from using their ball screen to drive on us.”

After missing her first five field goal attempts, Alexandria Mosholder scored seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter alone. The senior forward made a 3-pointer to put Watterson ahead 39-35 with three minutes remaining and then went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 56 seconds to ice the game.

“Alex’s three and free throws were huge for us,” Ziel said.

Rounding out the Eagles’ scoring were Lilly Mulligan (6 points), Mia Gill (3) and Meghan Goehring (2).

Jordyn Miller scored six of her team-high 13 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Stallions in the game until the final minute. The junior guard scored the game-winning basket to lead the Stallions to a 33-32 victory at Watterson last year, en route to DeSales winning its first CCL title in six seasons.

Senior guard Jessica Salyer and senior forward Kenyetietta Quinn also both scored nine points for DeSales, which dropped to 9-4 and 1-1 in the CCL. Quinn made a 3-pointer to give the Stallions their only lead of the game, 14-13, with six minutes remaining in the second quarter, and made a field goal to the tie the game at 27 late in the third quarter.

Salyer scored on a short jump shot to pull the Stallions within 36-35 with 4:09 remaining, and made a foul shot to cut DeSales’ deficit to 39-36 with 2:13 left.

But the Stallions went 7-for-17 at the foul line, while Watterson made 11 of its 14 free throws.

(Feature image of Sophie Ziel by Gabe Haferman, SBLive Sports)