HUNTINGTON -- Villa Maria Academy's girls basketball team was upset about losing to Oak Hill Academy (Va.) on Friday.

That meant bad things for Huntington St. Joe on Saturday.

The Victors from Erie, Pa., forced 22 St. Joe turnovers and allowed just five field goals in the first half to jump out to a lead and cruise to a 58-46 win over the Irish in an afternoon game at Veterans Memorial Field House.

"We knew matchups were going to be tough today," Huntington St. Joe coach Shannon Lewis said. "We just never found good matchups on the floor and we didn't take care of it really well."

Coming in, much of the talk was about Villa Maria's Kayla McBride, who is committed to Notre Dame, but the Victors proved they are much more than just the 5-foot-11 guard/forward.

While McBride finished with 16 points to lead all scorers her freshman sister, Karlee McBride, added nine points and did a good job of containing Huntington St. Joe's Sara Sang. Guard Kaylyn Maruca also finished with 10 points while displaying basketball savvy as the floor general for the Victors.

"A lot of people emphasize Kayla, Kayla, Kayla. The nice thing is Kaylyn Maruca is really what makes us go," Villa Maria coach Scott Dibble said. "She's a point guard really. It's like having two point guards on the floor. She creates so many things off the dribble, she can shoot it, and she makes good decisions with the basketball. That really helps us out."

A 3-pointer by Maruca pushed the lead to 20 in the third quarter before Huntington St. Joe pulled within 12 after six straight points to end the third quarter.

However, Kayla McBride took a nice entry pass from Maruca and scored to cap a 12-3 run to start the fourth quarter and increase the lead to 51-30.

"When you start five seniors that have played together for a long time, they are going to know where to be and what to do," Lewis said. "We hit a stretch where we gave them some problems with our defense, but they started hitting some shots."

The Irish possessed a notable size advantage, but the Victors countered that by hounding the guards and not allowing easy entry passes into the post.

Maruca and backcourt mate Ashley Prischak constantly hounded St. Joe's Kiki Smith and Dusti Chapman while also not giving them open looks at the basket. Smith and Chapman combined for just 10 points total in the loss.

Huntington St. Joe got 11 points each from Sang and Brooke Keeton with nine of Sang's 11 coming in the second half.

The Irish scored just six points in each of the first two quarters as Villa Maria's physical defense produced turnovers which turned into transition points.

Eight of St. Joe's 22 turnovers came in the first quarter as Villa Maria settled into a double-digit lead that would never be threatened.

The Victors stepped into the passing lanes on repeated occasions and never let the Irish get into an offensive rhythm. Huntington St. Joe went the last 6:50 of the first half without a field goal as Villa Maria took a 26-12 lead into the locker room.

VILLA MARIA 16 10 13 19 -- 58: Kay. McBride 16, Kar. McBride 9, Maruca 10, Prischak 8, Mifsud 7, Wyant 2, Webber 6

HUNTINGTON ST. JOE 6 6 15 19 -- 46: Keeton 11, Sang 11, Dorsey 5, Smith 6, Adkins 4, Chapman 4, Chadwick 5

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