Benilde-St. Margaret’s stops Marshall, takes third consecutive Class 3A girls basketball title

Leaning on its trademark defense — steady, relentless and oh-so-irritating — Benilde-St. Margaret’s became just the sixth team in MSHSL girls basketball history to win three straight state championships Saturday, breaking open a close game in the second half to defeat Marshall 73-57 in the Class 3A championship at Williams Arena.

The Red Knights (26-6) had four players score in double figures: Senior Kendall McGee scored a team-high 17 points and fellow senior forward Zahara Bishop added 16 points, 14 after halftime. Two sophomores, Pressley Watkins and Sydney Friedly, each scored 13 points, combining for make six of nine three-point attempts.

The victory was the culmination of a season of renewal, coming together after the graduation of superstar guard Olivia Olson, now playing at Michigan.

“It was all about getting here,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Tim Ellefson said. “There were some details that we needed to fix. The last six weeks, our practices were intense, almost too intense at times. We rode that wave all the way through.”

Marshall (29-2) played the deep Red Knights tightly in the first half, never letting the champs go one of their familiar runs and keeping them in their sights. Marshall scored nine of the last 12 points in the first half, cutting into Benilde-St. Margaret’s lead, which was 35-29 at halftime.

Things changed drastically right away in the second half. Benilde-St. Margaret’s started with back-to-back three-pointers from Watkins and McGee, loudly announcing that the Red Knights were ready to take control.

“They came out and hit those two threes, and that took the wind out of our sails a little bit,” Marshall coach Dan Westby said. “We made a nice push right before the half to get it down to six. All of a sudden they push it up to 12 right away. That was tough to overcome.”

Marshall tried to answer, but Benilde-St. Margaret’s never let the Tigers have a whiff of momentum. With McGee and Watkins controlling tempo, and Bishop and Friedly asserting themselves offensively, the Red Knights managed an answer for every Marshall surge.

Ellefson gave credit to the Red Knights' defense for the outcome. And that defense translated into exceptional offensive efficiency as Benilde-St. Margaret’s shot 61.5% from the floor after halftime.

“We put our chips in on defense. We said, ‘Let’s make that our identity,‘ ” he said. “ ‘We can score off of that.’ That’s kind of what we did.”

Taleigha Bigler scored 19 points and Avery Fahl 15 for Marshall.