McGuffey fades and falls to CV
HEIDELBERG – The one thing the McGuffey High School girls’ basketball team hasn’t figured out this season is how to beat Section 5-AAA leader Chartiers Valley.
McGuffey almost had it figured out Friday, but the Highlanders’ fortunes changed in a blink of an eye as they saw a double-digit second-half lead evaporate in seconds as Chartiers Valley rallied for a 54-46 victory.
McGuffey lost to CV (61-48) at home Jan. 5, but since that game the Highlanders had reeled off seven consecutive victories. The winning streak set the stage for a big rematch in which McGuffey could have pulled even with CV in the loss column of the standings.
Chartiers Valley senior Karley O’Keefe made sure that didn’t happen.
With the Colts trailing 33-23 midway through the third quarter, O’Keefe drained three consecutive three-pointers to pull CV within one point and completely change the momentum of a game that was largely in McGuffey’s favor to that point.
“We had to change the tempo,” said Chartiers Valley head coach Ashley Battle. “The tempo wasn’t in our favor through most of the game, and even at the beginning of the third quarter we were a bit slow. We went with some energy players and that got us going immediately.”
McGuffey’s Rachel Czulewicz, who led McGuffey with 17 points, made her fifth three-pointer of the game late in the third quarter to give the Highlanders a 38-37 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
It didn’t last as the Highlanders were plagued by turnovers and missed opportunities.
It wasn’t until Katie Demi scored on a layup with just 3:15 remaining in the game that McGuffey scored its first points of the fourth quarter. Demi finished with 11 points.
Demi’s basket brought McGuffey back to within two points of CV, and the Highlanders had opportunities to tie or take the lead but couldn’t convert down the stretch.
“We had a lot of opportunities,” McGuffey head coach Amanda Burchett said. “We got outhustled in the fourth quarter. We got beat to a couple of loose balls. We got beat on rebounds. We missed layups. We just didn’t execute.”
The first quarter was a tight one. The Highlanders didn’t take their first lead until Sammie Weiss drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to give McGuffey a 13-12 advantage after one quarter.
Weiss opened the second quarter with another three, and then Czulewicz put on a shooting display. Czulewicz made three consecutive three-pointers to extend the McGuffey lead to 27-16 as the Highlanders went on a 14-4 run.
McGuffey took a 29-20 lead at halftime, outscoring the Colts 16-8 in the second quarter.
The Colts started making shots in the second half and were able to get their full-court press going, which forced McGuffey into too many turnovers. Chartiers Valley outscored McGuffey 17-8 in the final quarter.
The Colts were led by Alexa Golden and Melissa Rickens, who scored 15 points apiece. O’Keefe finished the game with 14 points, including the momentum-changing three-point barrage.
Chartiers Valley also did a solid job defending Weiss, who entered the game third in the WPIAL in scoring, averaging 26.1 points per game. The Colts limited her to only 13 points, half her average.
“That’s what we do – we buckle down and play great defense,” Battle said. “We all know that defense wins championships, so if that’s what we have to do then that’s what we are going to do.”
While the loss all but eliminates the Highlanders from winning the section, they can still finish second if they bounce back next week against South Fayette and Trinity.
“We weren’t even supposed to be here,” Burchett said. “This loss doesn’t kill us. Most people thought that we would be fighting to finish fourth in the section, not competing for first. We might have lost, but this has been good for our program.”