HIRAM, Ohio – The Walsh Jesuit girls basketball team looked like it could suffer a loss in its season opener after leading big early, but Kami DiGennaro made sure that wouldn’t be the case.

The sophomore took a pass from another sophomore, Kara Esterak, and buried a 3-pointer from the right wing with a minute left to give Walsh the lead and eventually a 39-36 win over Ursuline on Sunday afternoon at the second annual Ohio Tip-Off Classic at Hiram College’s Price Gymnasium.

Ursuline (0-1) led 33-32 with 1:10 left before turning the ball over out of bounds on the offensive end. Esterak took the inbounds pass and raced up the floor before dishing to DiGennaro for the open 3 to make it 35-33. It was the only points of the game for DiGennaro.

After a pair of missed free throws for Ursuline, Esterak stepped to the line and knocked down a pair of free throws of her own with 47.3 left to make it 37-33. Ursuline airballed a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession and Leah Sobolewski went to the line and made two free throws for Walsh (1-0) to extend the lead to 39-33.

Sophomore Kennedy Carpenter hit a 3-pointer with just 3.8 seconds left for Ursuline and led all scorers with 15 points in being named the Player of the Game for the Fighting Irish.

The Warriors opened the game on a 7-2 run and led 9-3 after one quarter and led 15-3 in the second before Ursuline went on an 11-4 run to close the gap to 19-14 at the half. Ursuline then outscored Walsh by one in the third quarter and started the fourth on a 5-0 run to take its first lead of the game at 29-28.

With Walsh up 31-30, Carpenter hit a 3-pointer to make it 33-31 before Walsh’s Josi Webb hit a free throw to cut the deficit to one and DiGennaro hit the 3-pointer to give the Warriors the lead for good.

Maddie Kapferer was the Player of the Game for Walsh and was the co-leading scorer with eight points along with Esterak. Sobolewski scored seven and Webb and Maddie Parker had five each. Peyton Kiesling and Grace Hering rounded out the scoring with two and one, respectively.