‘Press Greene’ is back and winning games
ROGERSVILLE – The more things change in the western end of Greene County, the more they stay the same. Take, for example, the West Greene girls basketball team.
The Pioneers have lost their longtime stranglehold on the Class A Section 2 championship this winter, but today West Greene is right where it has been for nearly a decade – the WPIAL quarterfinals.
West Greene got there Monday night by stomping Leechburg, 51-23, in the first round.
It marks the seventh consecutive year the Pioneers have advanced to at least the quarterfinals.
And West Greene got there with what has been a staple of the program for years, the full-court press. Remember when the Pioneers called themselves “Press Greene” a few years ago?
The press was back, in the 2-2-1 variety, and it flattened Leechburg (7-12). The Blue Devils had more than 30 turnovers, many leading to easy baskets for West Greene.
“I don’t know if they used a 2-2-1 press in recent years. They might have been more of a man-to-man press. We try to press accordingly to our opponent,” said West Greene’s first-year head coach Austin Crouse. “Because of Leechburg having bigger girls, we felt the 2-2-1 was the way to go because it would let us drop back and have people underneath to guard them under the basket.”
What the press did was confuse and frustrate Leechburg, and it turned what should have been a close matchup – West Greene is the 8th seed and Leechburg was seeded 9th – into a one-sided rout.
The Blue Devils committed 10 turnovers in the opening quarter and trailed 13-4. At halftime, it was 23-7 and the Pioneers stretched the gap to 39-14 after three quarters.
It was a good performance for many West Greene players who, despite the program’s recent run of success, have little playoff experience. One reason for that is the Pioneers lost their opening playoff game a year ago, in the quarterfinals.
“It was harder for the girls this year,” Crouse said. “When we played at Monessen, we didn’t handle playing a big game in front of a large crowd very well. We struggled. Hopefully, they got that our of their system.”
The win gets West Greene a quarterfinal game at top-seeded Union (15-6) on Thursday (7 p.m.).
Senior guard Lexi Six led a balanced West Greene attack with 14 points, nine coming in the third quarter. Taylor Karvan, another senior guard, also had 14, which included three three-point field goals, and freshman Kendra Tharp had 11.
According to Six, that’s the way it is supposed to be for the Pioneers.
“What this team has that we haven’t had in recent seasons is a more spread-out offense,” Six said. “We have more scoring options on our team. … We don’t have the playoff experience that we’ve had int he past. We even have a freshman starter.
“But we’ve always pressed, and we’re trying to keep that going. We have speed, which helps us press.”
Leechburg was held to two field goals in the first half. Much of the Blue Devils’ scoring came from Olivia Vigna (8 points) and Maddie Mastalorz (7), their two lost-post players.