Jan 16, 2017 4 min read

CANONSBURG – With both the Canon-McMillan and Peters Township girls basketball teams coming off losses, the Class 6-A Section 3 game Monday night was important for both teams.

Thanks to a big effort from sophomore Makenna Marisa and a couple coaching decisions from the Indians’ Bert Kendall, Peters Township got back on the right track with a 54-38 win.

Marisa led all scorers with 22 points on a night when neither team shot the basketball with much success.

“It was a team effort,” Kendall said. “We moved the ball very well, and it seemed like we got a lot of people involved tonight. We were patient and it paid off. We just kept passing the ball until we broke their zone down.”

It was also Kendall’s decision to start sophomore Isabella Mills that paid huge dividends.

Mills, who came off the bench to score 16 points during a loss Thursday to Mt. Lebanon, responded with a 12-point effort against the Big Macs.

PT’s Lillian Young also finished in double figures with 11 as the Indians improved to 4-1 in the section and 9-4 overall.

Kendall’s decision-making wasn’t just limited to the offensive side of the floor. Primarily a man-to-man defensive team, the Indians started in a zone, which impacted Canon-McMillan (2-3, 6-7), especially leading scorer Cheyenne Trest as she didn’t get many open looks at the basket.

The Big Macs eventually adjusted and the Indians went back to man-to-man, but the strategy had paid off.

“That is the first time we played zone all season,” Kendall said. “Just looking at the film, we wanted to give it a try. The idea was to get someone with some length on Trest when she was on the wing. It was pretty successful tonight.”

Trest, who was honored prior to the game for becoming the seventh C-M player to reach the 1,000-point plateau, finished with 10 points and made just one first-half field goal. The Big Macs made only 6 of 25 first-half shots on their way to making shooting 26 percent for the game.

Add all of that up and C-M should have been down quite a bit, but the Big Macs found themselves down by only two points at halftime.

The Indians extended the lead to eight midway through the third quarter, but C-M fought back. A four-point play by Izzy Allen brought the Big Macs to within 27-25, but that is as close as they would get.

Allen led the Big Macs with 13 points.

Peters Township outscored Canon-McMillan 27-13 the rest of the way.

“We struggled,” C-M head coach Lou Waller said. “It’s understandable that sometimes you have your outside shot and sometimes you don’t, but we were getting to the rim and not finishing, and we had opportunities for second chances and didn’t finish those either.”

Canon-McMillan was without senior Kierra King, who is out with a torn ACL.

“Losing a senior leader and someone who started for three years is a big blow,” said Waller. “It’s huge. But you can’t make any excuses. You have to play with the players you have, but it is a big loss.”

After scoring the first five points of the game, C-M went cold as PT scored the next 12 behind three consecutive jumpers by Marisa.

Peters Township led 14-8 after one quarter, but an 8-2 Big Macs run in the second quarter got Canon-Mac back into the game as they closed the gap to 19-17 at the half.

“I told them that from a section standpoint we are halfway through,” Waller said. “Fortunate for us we have four section home games still. We need to turn it around and win our section games at home and see what happens on the road.”