DES MOINES -- A dream season for the Bishop Heelan High School girls' basketball team was upended by a nightmare of the second quarter.
It didn't help that Cedar Rapids Xavier got an all-time performance from Libby Fandel.
The senior University of Kansas recruit scored 37 points and grabbed 25 rebounds and had four assists in the Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal to lead the No. 8-seeded Saints to a 71-57 win over top-seeded Bishop Heelan on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
"I just wanted to get it done," Fandel said. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates, they hit a bunch of big shots for us, too.
"I think we've played Heelan every time we've made it here. At least it seems like it. They have a great program, but we wanted to win one against them and had a team that believed we could do it."
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Fandel knows all too well how dangerous a hungry No. 8 seed can be as she led Xavier to a No. 1 seed in volleyball this past fall only to be upset in the quarterfinals by No. 8 Sergeant Bluff-Luton.
"I know what being a No. 1 seed is like from volleyball," said Fandel, whose points total and rebounds set single-game 4A state tournament records. "I think it's easier being the No. 8 seed because you don't feel any pressure.
"Being the 8-seed, you feel like you have nothing to lose and that lets you play free. But being the 1-seed, you feel the pressure."
Heelan (21-3) led by as many as eight in the first quarter, but the Saints marched back to take a 22-21 lead into the seconds.
Then disaster struck for the Crusaders.
Heelan went over seven scoreless minutes to start the second, and managed five points for the quarter on a driving layup by junior Trishelle Miller with under 40 seconds left in the period and a 3-pointer by sophomore Melina Snoozy before the buzzer.
With a 40-26 led in hand, Xavier leaned on Fandel and a stable of shooters.
Outside of Fandel, Saints (20-4) shooters knocked down seven 3-pointers on 16 attempts. Fandel was 2-of-13 from range and 13-of-31 overall from the field.
"We wanted (Xavier's) role players to beat us, and they knocked down shots all game," Bishop Heelan head coach Darron Koolstra said. "They rebounded really well, they're a well-coached team. Any time Xavier makes it here to the state tournament, they're going to do something. They could be .500 but get here and win games at state.
"Our kids kept battling. But that second quarter, they made shots and we didn't."
Snoozy finished with a Heelan-high 30 points to go with six rebounds. Senior Abby Lee, a Briar Cliff University commit, had 13 points and eight rebounds while Miller ended with eight points, six rebounds and six assists.
Senior Addison Kleis made both of her 3-point tries for the game.
Heelan was able to cut the Xavier lead to 13 on a couple of occassions in the second half, but that was as close as the Crusaders could get.
"We'd make a run, but (Xavier) always had an answer," said Koolstra. "We couldn't get anything to compile. We didn't get turnovers (on defense), but that was expected, they have good guards and Fandel, who had a monster game. But their contributing cast played really well."
It was back and forth in the early going. The game was tied five times and saw four lead changes, all of which came in the first.
"I'm super proud of this team, it's a great group of kids," Koolstra said. "As coaches, when you can enjoy going to practice every day like we have and win as many games as we did, it's a good year.
"It's going to sting for a while. We didn't expect to lose. But we have great kids who are going to go on and do great things in life. There's a lot of teams, coaches and kids out there that want to get the opportunity to play (at state) that don't get that opportunity like we did."
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