Dec 7, 2019 3 min read

Kathy McConnell-Miller stressed to her team from Day 1 that tight games are won on the free-throw line.

None of the should-be freebies came free for the Trinity girls basketball team Saturday night.

Failing to have consistent success on free throws from the start, the Hillers lost a choppy, back-and-forth game to Blackhawk, 64-58, in the Trinity Tip-Off Tournament championship at Hiller Hall.

“We got there,” McConnell-Miller said. “We just didn’t make the ones that we needed to. We didn’t take care of our business.”

Neither team could find lasting momentum in the foul-laden game until Blackhawk pulled away with 13 of the final 21 points as Trinity standout Riley DeRubbo was relegated to the bench after fouling out.

The teams combined to shoot 73 free throws. Trinity made 23 of 37 and Blackhawk went 24-for-36 at the line.

“It was such a choppy game,” said Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico. “Our style is to get up and press. I know we foul a lot. I’ll be the first one to admit it.”

Lodovico also revealed how heavily his team relied on four-year starting point guard Mackenzie Amalia, whose lack of foul trouble was a godsend to the Cougars.

Amalia wasn’t only key in breaking the tenacious Trinity press, which she did with ease on most occasions, but she scored a game-high 26 points. Amalia, a Robert Morris recruit, made six of her seven free throws in the fourth quarter, including sinking a pair with 1:08 left in regulation that gave Blackhawk (1-1) a six-point lead, 58-52.

“We (put) everything on her,” Lodovico said with conviction. “She is a Division I athlete and one of the best point guards in the WPIAL. We want the ball in her hands. Their press worried me. She is so clutch. She can’t come out of the game.”

Trinity (1-1) couldn’t cut its deficit to fewer than four points in the final 68 seconds.

“It’s just about being confident when the ball is in my hands,” Amalia said. “I don’t get flustered. We work on breaking the press in practice. When I first came into the game, I knew it was going to be a good one (for me). I started off by making two big threes and that gave me even more confidence the rest of the way.”

Amalia scored eight points in the first and fourth quarters. She had 15 at halftime, despite the Cougars trailing by three points, 29-26, after DeRubbo made a three-pointer with 29 seconds left in the second quarter.

DeRubbo led Trinity with 21 points before fouling out with 4:05 left in regulation.

Amalia’s ability to protect the basketball prevented the Hillers from easy transition baskets off turnovers. The Cougars then forced Trinity to make mistakes in its half-court offense.

The only other player for Trinity in double figures was freshman Eden Williamson, who scored 10 of her 15 points in the first half. Marlaina Bozek added nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

“I think it was a learning experience of taking care of the basketball and knowing when to push,” McConnell-Miller said. “It was a difficult game, an extremely physical game. It was a struggle to get any momentum and a struggle to execute anything because there were so many stoppages of play. We have to get back in the gym and get better.”