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Trinity gets defensive but Hillers’ shots don’t fall

5 min read
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Members of the Trinity team react as their basketball season ticks down to the final seconds. The Hillers lost to No. 1 seed Chartiers Valley in the WPIAL Class 5A girls' quarterfinals.

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Eleanor Bailey/Observer-Reporter

Riley DeRubbo (15) chases down a loose ball against Chartiers Valley’s Gabby Legister, far left, and Alexandra Ferrella during Trinity’s playoff game.

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Kaylin Venick (2) gets a step on Aislin Malcolm (24) as she drives to the basket.

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Kaylin Venick confronts roadblocks by Gabby Legister (55) and Aislin Malcolm (24) in front and behind as she attempts to make her way to the basket during Trinity's playoff game against Chartiers Valley

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Nailbiting time it was for the Trinity bench, including Emily Venick, right, as Chartiers Valley outlasted the Hillers in a WPIAL Class A girls quarterfinal basketball playoff game.

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Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac

Emily Venick (1) watches as the seconds tick down during Trinity’s loss to Chartiers Valley.

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Alyssa Clutter looks for an outlet to dish off the ball because she is heavily defended.

CANONSBURG – Defensive efforts like the one turned in by the Trinity High School girls basketball team Saturday afternoon are supposed to win games.

The Hillers held undefeated and top-seeded Chartiers Valley without a field goal over the final 12:46, to just eight baskets in the game and didn’t give up more than 10 points in any quarter of the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal contest.

Nobody wearing royal blue could have asked for more on the defensive end of the court from the young Hillers, who played only one senior.

The only problem for Trinity was it was up against an older, more experienced opponent that also knows a little about the importance of playing good defense and even more about how to win playoff games.

Chartiers Valley held Trinity to only seven field goals and used 10 fourth-quarter free throws to beat the Hillers 32-22 at Canon-McMillan High School.

The win sends Chartiers Valley (23-0) into the semifinals Wednesday against Penn Hills, a 55-43 winner over Franklin Regional in another quarterfinal game. And the Colts aren’t looking back on their third win of the season over Trinity (12-12).

“Not even going to look at the tape,” Chartiers Valley coach Tim McConnell said. “We’re moving on to Penn Hills.”

Trinity will have interest in Chartiers Valley’s fortunes. If the Colts win the WPIAL title, then Trinity will advance to the state tournament as the fifth-place team from the district and play the WPIAL runner-up in the opening round.

After Saturday’s result, you can be sure there will be teams in the state tournament that consider the idea of playing Trinity to be an uncomfortable proposition.

“I’m the biggest Chartiers Valley fan now,” said Trinity coach Bob Miles, whose team cannot make the PIAA playoffs if the Colts do not win the WPIAL championship.

The third meeting between Trinity and Chartiers Valley was much different than the first two, both played in January and each won by the Colts, 72-46 and 67-55. Those were offensive shootouts compared to this one.

Trinity scored the first point of the game on a free throw by Kaylin Venick, but that was the only point for the Hillers until the second quarter.

Chartiers Valley led 8-1 after one quarter but made only 3 of 15 three-pointers in the first half. The Colts led 13-9 at halftime and were disrupting the Hillers’ offense with a sticky man-to-man defense. Trinity had 10 turnovers in the first quarter and 16 at halftime. The Hillers did much better in the second half, turning it over only four times, but all those empty possessions in the opening 16 minutes were too much to overcome.

“We were careless with the basketball in the first quarter. It was things we had discussed and worked on,” Miles explained. “Our decision-making was poor.”

In its previous game against CV, Trinity played a zone defense. This time, the Hillers played man-to-man and it seemed to unsettle the Colts.

“I thought we could drive on them but Trinity did a good job of clamping the lanes,” McConnell said.

The key stretch in the game was the first 3½ minutes of the second half. That’s when CV center Gabby Legister worked inside for her only basket of the game, and freshman guard Aislin Malcolm drove for a basket and made a three-pointer from the right wing that gave Chartiers Valley a 20-9 lead.

“That was the key part of the game, to get out to that big lead,” McConnell said. “Trinity was feeling good at halftime and they had Riley (DeRubbo) back. She’s a good player, a Division I-caliber player, so they had a different mindset. Opening the third quarter with those baskets were big because we struggled offensively.”

Malcolm’s three-pointer forced Trinity to call a timeout with 4:46 left in the third quarter. It also was the final field goal by Chartiers Valley.

Trinity closed to within 22-13 at the end of three quarters. DeRubbo, who missed almost all of the regular season while recovering from offseason knee surgery, drove for a basket to open the fourth quarter. DeRubbo led Trinity in scoring with seven points.

The Hillers’ Alyssa Clutter then stepped in front of a CV pass and drove the length of the court for a layup that pulled the Hillers to within 22-17 with 5:49 remaining, bringing the Trinity fans to their feet.

Neither team scored over the next two minutes, and Chartiers Valley went into a delay with 3½ minutes left. The Colts forced Trinity to foul and CV converted 10 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We were not intimidated. Sometimes our youthful exuberance can cover up some of our mistakes, but you can’t rely on that against a good team,” Miles said. “We played good defense all year. That is our M.O. We didn’t have the firepower without Riley so we had the mindset that we had to grind out games. … If we hold teams under 35 points, then we have a good chance to win. We just had trouble scoring today.”

Megan McConnell led Chartiers Valley in scoring with 12 points. Mackenzie Wagner had nine and Malcolm eight.

Sophomore Courtney Dahlquist scored six points for Trinity. Venick, a sophomore, and Clutter, a freshman, each had six rebounds.

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