RACINE - St. Catherine's High School girls basketball coach Abby Jaramillo admitted it was an unusual situation, almost a surreal one.
While coaching her team against Park High School in the Park Thanksgiving Classic Friday night at Park High School, Jaramillo had her focus periodically interrupted by a gentleman yelling about 30 feet from her.
"It was a little weird to hear his voice on the other bench," Jaramillo said.
Jaramillo was referring to Park coach Jeff Tarkowski, who had been St. Catherine's girls head coach for 10 years and who had Jaramillo as one of his assistant coaches during the 2007-08 season.
"We worked well together," Jaramillo said. "We had a good relationship."
That friendship was put on hold in this game, which saw Jaramillo's Angels pull away down the stretch for a 54-34 victory in both teams' regular-season opener.
The victory puts St. Catherine's in tonight's championship game against Madison Edgewood, which easily beat Milwaukee School of Languages 62-37 in Friday night's first game.
Park and Milwaukee School of Languages will play in the consolation game at 5 p.m., with the title game set to start at 7.
St. Catherine's had to weather a valiant, fourth-quarter comeback by Park after having held a 12-point lead at halftime. The Angels were still in front by eight points going into the fourth quarter before Treviana
Martin put her Panther teammates on her back.
Martin, a junior center, opened the final period with an off-balance fallaway shot from beyond the arc to pull Park within 33-28. Martin scored two more baskets in the next three minutes to keep the Panthers within striking range at 37-32.
"She played hard and was really a spark for us," Tarkowski said of Martin.
But then the Panthers ran into a roadblock. More specifically, they ran into Angels junior forward Libby Zimmerman. She blocked a shot in the lane that led to a fastbreak lay-in by junior guard Katie Dickert.
"That was a big block," Tarkowski said. "That was a good defensive play on their part. That was the turning point."
Zimmerman's block was definitely a momentum changer. Zimmerman, who scored 11 points, followed with a layin and freshman forward Allison Olley added two of her team-high 12 points.
Suddenly, in just a two-minute span, a five-point lead transformed into a nine-point advantage as the Angels went ahead 41-32. After Park senior Heather Kautzmann scored, the Angels finished with a flurry, outscoring Park 11-0 in the last 3 minutes of the game.
"For the first game, we rushed some things," said Tarkowski, who insisted he didn't have any strong emotions about playing his former team. "We were in a hurry with our shots; we were in a hurry with our passes. But give them credit. They hit some nice shots down the stretch."
While Jaramillo was pleased by her team's impressive stretch run, she wasn't overly pleased by her team's effort prior to that.
"We didn't play very well," Jaramillo said. "The final score was very deceptive. They (the Panthers) were right in the game until late in the game.
"Then we started being more aggressive and not being so passive. We have to work on being more aggressive."
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