No seniors. No matter.

The Saint Thomas Aquinas Saints girls basketball team continued their fantastic season with a 27-24 victory over Gardner Edgerton at Edgerton, giving Aquinas the substate championship for the 15th year in a row.

That is kind of impressive.

From Melanie Siscos winning the opening tip to the 4th quarter emptying of the bench, the Saint Thomas Aquinas Saints girls basketball team controlled their opening round matchup with the Raiders of Pembroke Hill from start to finish, winning 65-28 in the SMS Tournament.

The Saints grabbed the momentum at the very start, reducing the Raiders to sacrificial lambs. At the end of the 1st quarter Aquinas led 18-2. And that was the ball game. Pem Hill actually scored 15 points to Aquinas' 13 in the second quarter, but they were still down by 14, and still had no momentum. Aquinas proceeded to outscore the Raiders 20-6 in the third quarter.

The Saints had a balanced attack in all areas of the game. Sophomore Nelly Weledji paced the Saints with a game high 17 points. Also, to all media outlets, it is spelled W-E-L-E-D-J-I. And it is pronounced Well-Ed-Gee. While we are on the subject, it is Sarah K-W-A-P-I-S-Z-E-S-K-I. Pronounced Kwap-is-zess-key. Pay attention, because there will be a quiz.

The Saint Thomas Aquinas Saints hosted the Lady Saints Classic December 11-13, and came away with a second place finish.

The girls defeated Sumner and Junction City before falling to Bellevue West in the final. Even though they did not capture the championship, they can still come away from the tournament with confidence.

The Saints are an extremely young team. There are no seniors on the team, and so far only four juniors are suiting up. But two of those juniors, Melanie Siscos and Abby Willis, who both start, played on varsity last year. The other two juniors are Beth DeMars (another starter) and Sarah Kwapiszeski. The other two starters are sophomores Nelly Weledji and Dashawn Harden, who both started last year. Sophomore forward Katie Brown also gets significant playing time.