Experienced Chartiers-Houston holds off Leechburg comeback
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Chartiers-Houston’s Alexa Williamson drives to the basket for a second-quarter layup during the Bucs’ WPIAL Class 2A playoff game Thursday night against Leechburg.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Chartiers-Houston’s Keaira Walker attempts to drive past Leechburg’s Mackenzie Fello during Thursday night’s WPIAL Class 2A playoff game.
Chartiers-Houston’s fans celebrate after the Buccaneers defeated Leechburg Thursday night in a WPIAL Class 2A playoff game.
Leechburg’s Deasha Knight (10) and Chartiers-Houston’s Jules Vulcano battle for a rebound Thursday night during a WPIAL Class 2A playoff game.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Chartiers-Houston guard Jules Vulcano has scored in double figures seven times this season for the Bucs. She is averaging eight points per game.
Observer-Reporter
Chartiers-Houston head coach Laura Montecalvo will be recognized as a state coach of the year.
IMPERIAL – To win a WPIAL girls basketball championship, sometimes you must find ways to win games when you don’t play your best.
That was the case Thursday night for defending WPIAL champion Chartiers-Houston.
The third-seeded Bucs built a 17-point second-half lead despite not shooting well and then withstood a furious charge from Leechburg in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils cut the C-H lead to three points.
Despite turning the ball over 12 times in the fourth quarter alone, Chartiers-Houston, which starts five seniors, showed just enough composure down the stretch to escape with a 52-45 victory in a Class 2A quarterfinal game at West Allegheny High School.
“I told them there’s nothing to be nervous about,” said Chartiers-Houston head coach Laura Montecalvo. “We’ve been here before. Despite how things were going, I saw on their faces that they were going to stay calm. We made some free-throws late and Kierra Walker grabbed a couple huge rebounds late when we needed them. That’s just a senior battling her hardest.”
The win moves the third-seeded Bucs (18-5) onto the semifinals Monday against seventh-seeded Brentwood. The Spartans upset second-seeded OLSH, 51-31, Thursday night.
“We’ve played them in section before,” Montecalvo said of Brentwood. “They are tough and will present a challenge. Time to start getting ready for them.”
The game against Leechnburg (19-5) featured two very talented players in C-H’s Alexa Williamson, a Temple recruit, and Leechburg’s Mikayla Lovelace, an IUP recruit.
While it took a while for both players to get going, neither disappointed as Williamson led the Bucs with 24 points and 14 rebounds while Lovelace sparked the Blue Devils with 22 points.
Williamson scored C-H’s first 12 points of the second half as the Bucs built a 39-22 lead. Lovelace, however, wasn’t going to be outdone as she scored 16 of her 22 points in the second half and led the Blue Devils’ comeback. She scored nine points late in the fourth quarter as part of a 12-3 Leechburg run to cut the Chartiers-Houston lead to 48-45. Leechburg outscored Chartiers-Houston 31-23 in the second half.
That was close as Leechburg would get because Madison Simpson made a couple late free throws to secure the win for Chartiers-Houston. Simpson finished with 11 points.
“I’m very proud of my team,” said Leechburg head coach Joel Ceraso. “They responded. We tried a few different things in the second half and they played really well. They never gave up.”
It’s was 10 days in between games for Chartiers-Houston and the rust showed early in the game. The Bucs made only one of their first 12 shots and shot 35 percent from the floor in the first half.
“The same thing happened to us last year,” Montecalvo said. “It’s hard going 10 days in between games. We try to simulate it in practice, but you can’t always duplicate the speed of a game. This game will help us moving forward.”
But when you aren’t playing well offensively, you can always lean on your defense to win games. Great team defense has been a Chartiers-Houston staple all season and that was on display in the first half.
The Bucs rebounded well, blocked shots, got in passing lanes to generate steals and swarmed potential shooters as Leechburg had a difficult time getting open looks at the basket. The Blue Devils made only 5 of 25 shots in the first half as the Bucs built a 29-14 lead.
“We preach defense,” Montecalvo said. “We know sometimes the shots aren’t going to fall. Sometimes things aren’t going to go your way on offense, but you can choose to have things go your way on defense, so we spend a lot of time working on being great defensively.”
After struggling out of the gate, C-H made four consecutive shots, by four different players, late in the first quarter to take a 11-5 lead. Chartiers-Houston showed balance offensively as everyone got involved in a 12-2 run to stretch the lead to 23-7 in the second quarter.
Williamson started to get the offense going in the third quarter as the Bucs stretched their lead to 17 and it looked like it was going to be a blowout.
“She did a real nice job in the second half,” Montecalvo said. “She had to work hard every possession for the points she had.”