Charleroi rights ship to knock off Seton-La Salle
McMURRAY – When the pairings were announced for the WPIAL girls basketball playoffs, the sixth-seeded Charleroi Cougars might have felt fortunate to be matched up against a five-win Seton-La Salle team.
On Wednesday night, the Cougars found out in a hurry that the Rebels were a lot better than their 5-15 record indicated.
Charleroi overcame 25 turnovers and a late charge by the Rebels, escaping with a 51-50 victory in a WPIAL Class AAA first-round victory at Peters Township High School.
With the win, Charleroi (19-4) will advance to take on third-seeded Neshannock Saturday at a site to be determined.
The Cougars, who led by as much as 45-37 in the fourth quarter, let the Rebels back in the game with nine turnovers.
Down 49-44 late, Rebels guard Bailey Canavan knocked down a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to make it a 49-47 game.
Charleroi’s Maria Claybaugh answered with a layup to put the Cougars up 51-47 before Seton-La Salle’s Deanna Bennett made a three-pointer with four seconds remaining to close the gap to 51-50.
The Cougars were able to inbound the ball and hold it until the clock ran out to escape with the win.
“We persevered,” Charleroi head coach Kevin Lee said. “We battled and we found a way to win, but we made it hard on ourselves. The turnovers are killing us. I don’t know what to do. I stressed it before the game, but it is in our heads. We have to do better from the free-throw line also. Going 7 of 13 isn’t going to cut it. We have to be able to close games out better.”
The Cougars committed seven first-quarter turnovers. That helped the Rebels put together a 13-4 run to take a 17-13 lead after the first eight minutes. Most of the damage was done by Layni Ziegler, who had nine of her game-high 24 points.
“I’m so proud of the effort,” said Seton-La Salle head coach Whitney Jones, the wife of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Landry Jones. “I couldn’t be prouder of how these girls fought. They weren’t scared and they just fought and fought. My kids work hard and I think Layni proved she is going to be a force next season. I am proud of her and proud of the whole team.”
Charleroi cleaned up their act in the second quarter, took better care of the basketball and made a run of their own. With Kaitlyn Riley on the bench for the entire second quarter after picking up two early fouls, Claybaugh took over. Trailing 20-16, Claybaugh scored the next nine Charleroi points to tie the game, 25-25.
Claybaugh scored 11 of her 15 points in the first half.
On the Cougars next possession Adrianna Gottheld knocked down a three-point shot to give Charleroi their first lead since early in the first quarter. That, along with Seton-La Salle cooling from the outside saw Charleroi take a slim 28-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
A big adjustment paid off for the Cougars when they switched from a 3-2 zone to a 2-3 matchup zone.
Charleroi found the Seton-La Salle shooters better and the Rebels didn’t get as many open looks from the outside.
Primarily a perimeter team, the Rebels went a span of 10:01 without connecting from three-point range. During that time, they went 0 for 11 from there and only scored four total points.
“We switched up into a 2-3 and we did a better job of locating their shooters,” Lee said. “We were just too slow to the corners in the 3-2.”
The Cougars also did a solid job rebounding the ball where they had an advantage with Sierra Short.
She pulled down 13 rebounds to go along with six points.
“She did a great job rebounding the ball,” said Lee. “I would like her to score more, but that will come.”
The third quarter and early parts of the fourth belonged to Ziegler and Riley.
Ziegler scored the first 10 Seton-La Salle points of the second half and Riley scored 11 of Charleroi’s first 15.
Battling foul trouble, Riley still led the Cougars with 17 points.
As the Cougars advance in the playoffs, Lee knows his team is going to have to be much better with a quick turnaround if they are to have a chance to take down a Neshannock team that went 21-1 in the regular season.
“I’m so proud of our heart and our fight,” said Lee. “We are onto the next round. It’s going to be a tough turnaround for us, but we are familiar with them from last year. We can’t turn the ball over. We used a lot of energy today but we will work on it the next couple of days.”