Catholic tops St. Timothy’s for Championship Sunday berth

A 22-point performance from Brittany Winborne and a key fourth-quarter run helped spur Catholic High to a 48-35 IAAM C Conference semifinal win over St. Timothy’s on Thursday on Edison Highway. With the win, the Cubs advance to face defending champ St. John’s Catholic in the title game on Sunday 3 p.m. at Goucher College.

When Catholic (20-3 overall) and St. Timothy’s met earlier in the season, Catholic posted a convincing 32-point win. In the rematch Thursday the team from Stevenson gave the Cubs all they could handle for three quarters.

St. Timothy’s (17-4) held a slim 11-10 lead after the opening period, and then another hard-fought quarter ended with Catholic holding a 21-20 lead at the break. St. Tim’s went on a 9-2 run in the third quarter and opened up a 29-23 lead.

The Cubs went on a run to pull even at 33 going into the final stanza. The final eight minutes was all Catholic which outscored St. Timothy’s 15-2 run to clinched a title game berth.

Winborne was a force inside, as the junior forward finished with 10 rebounds to go along with game-high 22 points. Freshman guard Chelsea Buynum was in double figures with 10 points and senior guard Lindsay Torbeck added seven.

For St. Timothy’s, senior forward Tori Schuler led the way with 13 points and a whopping 22 rebounds. Sophomore guard Kelsie Bacon scored 12 points and freshman Aryonna Hutchinson added eight.

“I’m proud of our effort and intensity,” said St. Timothy’s coach Mike Buchanan. “We knew the earlier game was an aberration, our worst game of the season; we wanted to erase that, and we did. We played them dead even for three quarters, but we just ran out of gas in the fourth.”