By Ernie W. Webb III
OLPE – As the buzzer sounded ending the third quarter, Jeff Slater yelled, “One quarter! One more quarter!” as his team jogged to the bench. One more quarter to history, which became reality eight minutes later when the Burlingame girls knocked off St. Paul 44-39 in a Class 1A Division I sub-state championship game.
After decades of struggling to win any game, the Bearcats are going to the state tournament for the first time. Burlingame’s opponent will be announced Sunday after the Little River-St. John matchup.
“It feels amazing,” said point guard Daelyn Winters, who had 20 points to lead all scorers. “We’ve been to state in every sport except basketball, so we wanted this. All the girls worked for this.”
With the exception of a couple of seasons, Burlingame struggled mightily for decades. That began to change a few years ago when a dedicated core bought in to building a strong sports program. The Bearcats made it a sub-state title game in 2021 before losing to eventual state champion Olpe, then made it all the way to the state finals in softball two months later. This year, Burlingame advanced to the state volleyball tourney for the first time in 38 years and now state in basketball for the first time.
“I’m happy for the girls because they worked so hard to achieve this,” Slater said. “Going into the season, it felt like anything less than getting to state was going to be a failure. That was the goal the girls set for themselves, and they would have felt like not getting there was a failure. They earned this.”
For the second straight night, Burlingame had to earn it by rallying. The Bearcats trailed until the middle of the third quarter, in large part due to a flurry of missed layups and free throws. They were 1 of 11 from the field in the first period, 5 for 22 at the half and went 7 of 15 at the foul line in the opening two frames.
“I think the girls were getting frustrated, but I really wasn’t,” Slater said. “We were getting good looks, looks we wanted. We just didn’t make them early.”
That began to change early in the second half when Winters scored seven straight points. She hit a layup to tie the score at 22-22, followed with a short jumper for Burlingame’s first lead, then drilled a 3-pointer from the key for a 27-22 edge. The Bearcats led by as many as seven, at 31-24, on Emma Tyson’s layup with a minute left in the quarter.
“All the girls played hard and kept fighting,” Slater said. “We got great minutes from the girls off the bench, too. I thought Emma Tyson brought us some energy and made a big shot in the third quarter.”
Burlingame began to pull away early in the final frame. Kaylin Noonan, who had 12 points and 13 rebounds, shook off early struggles to score on back-to-back possessions, then Winters buried a trey from the corner for a 38-27 edge at the 5:40 mark.
“I always want to take the big shot; anything to help the team,” Winters said. “My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball.”
Top-seeded St. Paul answered with back-to-back threes from Elise Doherty and Emerald Struthers-O’Brien, trimming the deficit to five with 3:48 remaining. The Indians (18-3) pulled within 39-35 with 1:15 left, but Burlingame’s Kenna Masters hit two free throws to push the lead back to six.
Claire Bradshaw canned a 3-pointer with 11 seconds remaining to cut the gap in half, but Noonan hit two at the foul line three seconds later to send the Bearcats to the state tournament.
“This is great for the girls and the community,” Slater said. “They all deserve this.”
St. Paul took advantage of an ice-cold start by Burlingame, leading 11-4 after the first quarter. The Indians had a 20-15 edge late in the first half, but Winters hit four three throws in the closing 23 seconds, including three after being fouled on a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Bearcats extended the run to 16-4 when they heated up in the third period.
Masters had five points and Gracie Simmons three points and nine rebounds for Burlingame. Struthers-O’Brien led St. Paul with 14 points, and Doherty added 11.
BURLINGAME 44, ST. PAUL 39
Burlingame 4 15 12 13 — 44
St. Paul 11 9 5 14 — 39
Burlingame (20-2): Daelyn Winters 6-17 5-8 20, Kaylin Noonan 3-14 6-12 12, Kenna Masters 1-3 3-5 5, Gracie Simmons 1-8 0-1 3, Emma Tyson 1-2 0-0 2, Alexandra Crook 1-1 0-0 2, Isabella Tyson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-45 14-26 44.
St. Paul (18-3): Emerald Struthers-O’Brien 5-13 1-1 14, Elise Doherty 5-15 0-1 11, Claire Bradshaw 2-7 1-4 6, Josey Harris 1-8 2-2 4, Chloe Seme 1-2 1-2 4, Sophia Albertini 0-4 0-0 0, Kenna Doherty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 14-50 5-10 39.
3-point goals – Burlingame 4-15 (Winters 3-9, Simmons 1-5, Masters 0-1); St. Paul 6-21 (Struthers-O’Brien 3-7, E. Doherty 1-6, Bradshaw 1-3, Seme 1-2, Harris 0-2, Albertini 0-1). Rebounds – Burlingame 33 (Noonan 13, Simmons 9); St. Paul 27 (Albertini 7, K. Doherty 6). Turnovers – Burlingame 12, St. Paul 11. Fouled out – Struthers-O’Brien, Harris.
