close

North Catholic wears down Jefferson-Morgan

4 min read

McMURRAY – Want a scouting report on most of the best high school girls basketball teams in the Class A playoffs?

Give Chris Niemiec a call.

The head coach of the Jefferson-Morgan Rockets has played just about all of them. He probably has the scouting reports in his pocket or at least close at hand. Even a phone call from other coaches might be beneficial if he has the time to talk.

The latest opponent for the Rockets was North Catholic, the No. 2 seed in the WPIAL playoffs and a traditional powerhouse in the sport.

The result was what one might have thought. North Catholic used its abundance of talent to wear Jefferson-Morgan down and come away with a 67-27 victory in the quarterfinals at Peters Township High School on a cold Monday evening.

“We’ve played some good teams,” said Niemiec. “But it doesn’t make me feel any better that we lost to them.”

The Rockets have only three losses on the season, to go with 20 wins. Two of those losses came against California, the No. 3 seed in this tournament and the third, of course, to North Catholic (19-5).

North Catholic advances to the semifinals, where it will face Riverview, a 41-38 overtime winner against California.

Jefferson-Morgan will enter a four-team, two-round bracket to play for the fifth and final berth into the PIAA playoffs. The Rockets’ opponent? If you guessed California, pick your prize. The two teams come back to Peters Township tonight for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off. Serra and Imani Christian are in the other bracket. The winners will play for fifth place.

“I like the format better than follow-the-leader,” said Niemiec.

Jefferson-Morgan managed to stay close to North Catholic early in the game, trailing 16-15 with 4:21 remaining in the first half. But North Catholic shut down the Rockets’ offense, holding them without a point the rest of the quarter to take a 30-15 halftime lead.

“We needed to keep the game low-scoring, but just not low-scoring on one side,” Niemiec said. “They have so many good ball-handlers that they eventually wore us down.”

Mary Cassamassa opened the third quarter with a three-point field goal and North Catholic went 3-for-4 at the free throw line to push the run from the second quarter to 19-0, producing a 35-15 lead.

Jefferson-Morgan turned the ball over 27 times and was held without a point in the fourth quarter. To be fair, Niemiec emptied his bench about midway through the quarter and North Catholic head coach Molly Rottman did not pull her starters until just under two minutes remained to play.

“Obviously, we had a scouting report on them,” said Rottman. “We ran their sets with our second team in practice. Once we settled down, we transitioned into easy baskets.”

North Catholic’s motion offense produced 16 layups in the game. Cassamassa, a 5-10 freshman forward, and Abby Goetz, a 5-7 junior forward, each scored 14 points for the Trojanettes. Samantha Breen, a 6-2 sophomore center had 13, but also missed some easy put-backs under the basket.

“Cassamassa has missed four or five weeks of the season,” said Rottman. “She missed three days last week with the flu so the snow-out on Saturday helped get us healthier. She’s a tough kid and she had a good game.”

Erin Confortini paced the Rockets’ offense with 13 points.

“I’m proud of these girls.” Niemiec said. “I think we put J-M on the (basketball map).”

There will be little time to dissect this loss. A spot in the state playoffs is still two wins away and there is little time to prepare. California has won the last two meetings, 39-32, and 50-24.

“We just have to work harder,” Niemiec said.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today