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Chartiers-Houston falls short against Greensburg C.C.

4 min read

CANONSBURG – With a spot in the PIAA playoffs on the line, the Chartiers-Houston girls basketball team learned a valuable lesson.

Don’t fall behind.

The Buccaneers fell behind early and made a furious late comeback before eventually falling short in a 48-44 loss to Greensburg Central Catholic in a WPIAL Class AA consolation bracket game at Canon-McMillan High School.

Greensburg Central Catholic guards and Nicole Adisey (19) and Carolyn Appleby (16) combined to score 35 points as the Centurions locked up at least the sixth seed in the PIAA tournament.

The Bucs will face Neshannock Thursday in a game that will decide the seventh, and final, PIAA Class AA playoff qualifier from the WPIAL.

C-H (16-9) dug itself an early hole, but despite trailing by 10 with just over three minutes remaining the Buccaneers cut the deficit to 44-42 on a three-point shot from Jules Vulcano with 25.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

GCC (20-3) guard Brittany Stawovy stepped to the free-throw line and made two shots before C-H senior Jalynn Myers made a layup to pull the Buccaneers back within two at 46-44 with 12.8 seconds remaining. But Adisey knocked down two free throws to ice game.

“I’m really proud of the way we didn’t quit,” said Chartiers-Houston head coach Laura Montecalvo. “Our effort was outstanding. We had moments where we made some mistakes that young teams make. I won’t use that as an excuse, but we could have beat that team. I have been trying to get us to make comebacks and play well from behind all year and we did that. That is a sign that we are growing.”

GCC made six of its eight three-pointers in the first half , building a 30-22 halftime lead.

“We have seen a lot of zone all season,” said Greensburg Central Catholic head coach Joe Eisaman. “So we are ready for that and we typically shoot the ball well against it, so I wasn’t worried about that. We knocked down some shots tonight.”

The Centurions had a lot of success with their press early on and they forced the much younger Buccaneers into plenty of turnovers.

When not hitting three-point shots, GCC forced turnovers that were converted into easy layups.

“We emphasized that we needed to relax with the ball and start doing the things that we practiced against their press,” said Montecalvo. “At first we struggled and I think once we calmed down a little bit things went a little better.”

GCC went on a 10-2 run early in the game to take a 16-6 lead before Chartiers made the first of many comebacks.

The Buccaneers started to get the ball down low to Alexa Williamson and the freshman, who finished the game with 15 points and 13 rebounds, helped get C-H back within three at 16-13 before the Centurions went on another run fueled by the three-point shot to take a 25-16 second quarter lead.

GCC got into foul trouble early in the third quarter, forcing the Centurians out of their pressure defense.

That allowed Chartiers-Houston to cut the lead to 34-29 before GCC guard Abbey Mirigliano came off the bench to knock down back-to-back three pointers and help extend the lead to 42-33 after three quarters.

Appleby made a layup early in the fourth quarter to give GCC a 44-34 lead before Chartiers-Houston made its late charge. GCC didn’t score again in the fourth quarter until converting some late free-throws.

Chartiers-Houston, which held a 24-14 edge in free-throws attempted, converted just 12 shots at the foul line, an important statistic in a four-point game.

“Free throws killed us,” said Montecalvo. “They have all year. We spend so much time practicing them. It didn’t show tonight.”

Myers also finished in double figures for C-H with 10 points.

“I told the team to remember this feeling and let it sink in,” said Montecalvo. “Remember how much this stings and how much it hurts. We don’t want to have this feeling again after Thursday.”

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