BLADENSBURG – Through four quarters of St. John’s 61-48 victory over Elizabeth Seton on Tuesday night, diminutive guard Lindsay Allen just couldn’t be stopped.
She helped the Lady Cadets build a comfortable first half lead; nailed a buzzer beater off glass just before halftime to extend the cushion to 12; and when the Roadrunners narrowed an 18-point deficit to single digits late in the final period, Allen was there, once again, to cease the fire and get things back on track.
The junior guard tallied 14 points in a heated Washington Catholic Athletic Conference game, helping the Cadets to a 4-0 conference record in a rowdy, college-like atmosphere at Bladensburg’s Seton High School.
“It’s a good sign when you can face a difficult situation, crowd and all that kind of stuff, and face a run and an attack at you, withstand it and push the lead back to double digits and win a road conference game,” St. Johns coach Jonathan Scribner said. “I don’t care what the score is, you get a win, at Seton, great game by our girls and I’m very proud of them.”
With Elizabeth Seton (10-4, 0-3) off to a slow start in conference play, Tuesday night’s game had “must-win” written all over it. But a quick-starting Cadets team, guided by Allen and senior guard Mooriah Rowser (16 points), never flinched in the eye of yet another huge test.
The Lady Cadets (11-3, 4-0) are just two games removed from a two-point win over national power Mater Dei, a 56-54 slugfest in which both Rowser and Allen led the team in scoring with 16 points apiece. The win over Mater Dei has the District’s second-ranked team looking every bit their ranking.
“I told my kids that they’re (St. Johns) a good team and what makes them so good is that they play hard and bring it every night,” said Seton head coach Jonathan Scruggs.
After a pre-Christmas swoon that saw the Cadets drop three straight, the team has righted the ship, evidenced by four straight wins. The schedule has been brutal so far and when the Cadets finally step foot back on their own home court again on Jan. 17 against Paul VI, over a month will have passed since their last home tilt, a 79-55 blowout of St. Mary’s Ryken on Dec. 16. But the Cadets aren’t complaining, they just continue to keep playing.
The grueling schedule has yet to affect Allen, who’s currently being recruited by Notre Dame, Duke, Stanford, Georgetown and Syracuse.
“We just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” Allen said after Tuesday’s win. “Keep hustling on offense, hustling on defense and playing our style of basketball.”
