Trinity goes cold in loss to Woodland Hills
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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Guarded by Woodland Hills’ Kayla Walter (3), Trinity’s Eden Williamson (20) looks to put back a rebound as the Hillers struggled in the second half of a WPIAL 5A quarterfinal game Friday at Mt. Lebanon.
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Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Battling to the end, Trinity’s Eden Williamson drives against Woodland Hills’ Cierra Guest in an effort to erase the Hillers’ fourth-quarter deficit in the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal game.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Sam Horne (12) is met by Woodland Hills’ Jhalynn Wilson (4).
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity's Aggie Niccolai (22) pushes a baseline pass past Woodland Hills' Cierra Guest.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity's Eden Williamson drives to the hoop past Woodland Hills defender Hope Hawkins.
MT. LEBANON – Basketball teams can live and die by the three-point shot.
Trinity and its WPIAL championship hopes died by the three Friday night against Woodland Hills.
The fourth-seeded Hillers unofficially ended their Class 5A quarterfinal matchup with Woodland Hills 4-for-21 from beyond the arc, and that was a big reason the 12th seeded Wolverines pulled a 51-40 upset.
“Sometimes,” Trinity senior Eden Williamson, who led the Hillers with 19 points, said, “you just have a day where they just don’t fall, and, unfortunately, that happened to us.”
“Once we missed a couple,” Trinity coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said, “we just lost confidence in our three and just tightened up.”
So what led to Trinity’s shooting struggles? Part of it was simple; shots just weren’t falling. But part of it had to do with a tactical change Woodland Hills coach Von Pitts made.
Woodland Hills (13-11) started the game in a 1-3-1, but switched to a 2-3 zone inb the second quarter.
Two of Woodland Hills’ starters – Hope Hawkins (6-1) and Cierra Guest (6-2) are taller than six feet.
Trinity’s tallest player, the 6-1 Sam Horne, got into foul trouble, which made Williamson (5-10) Trinity’s go-to post presence.
Usually, the shots fall for Trinity (16-7). But when they weren’t falling Friday, the Hillers had a hard time adjusting.
“They didn’t have an inside presence to actually do that,” Pitts said, “to actually make the adjustment. Once we got into their bench with the shooters and everything, we were able to have success.”
The evening didn’t start well for the Wolverines. Woodland Hills went roughly almost four minutes before making its first field goal. Although Woodland Hills eventually scored a field goal, it didn’t take control of the game in the first quarter. Trinity led 12-7 at the end of one and started the second half on a 5-0 run to open a double-digit lead. Woodland Hills stuck with Trinity for the rest of the half, and at the break the Hillers led 25-21.
“I thought, the first half we were getting easier transition buckets,” McConnell-Miller said. “Hitting a couple shots that kind of kept us in it.”
Macie Justice led Trinity with eight points. Justice ended the game with an even 10 points to join Williamson in double figures, and Guest finished with 12.
Trinity’s first basket of the second half didn’t come for almost seven minutes. A three-point play by Williamson with 1:12 left in the third quarter finally broke the ice. That ended up being the only basket Trinity scored in the period. Woodland Hills outscored the Hillers 10-3 in the quarter to take a 31-28 lead into the last eight minutes.
In the fourth quarter, Trinity didn’t score for well over three minutes, and Woodland Hills built a 37-28 lead. Baskets by Williamson and Macie Justice cut the deficit to five, and a three-point play by Williamson made it 37-35 with 3:55 left.
Now, the Cinderella Wolverines, who upset fifth-seeded Armstrong Tuesday night, were in crunch time, and Pitts had been preparing his team for it.
“The last week and a half, two weeks, all we’ve done is condition. Recondition. So we have legs for the fourth quarter, the last eight minutes, is paramount. That’s being in shape, being conditioned.”
Woodland Hills outscored Trinity 14-5 in the final 3:55 to finish the job. Hawkins led the team in scoring with 14 points, Jhalynn Wilson added 12 and Carmen Vasquez 10.
McConnell-Miller felt her team “relied on the three ball” in the second half.
“They weren’t falling,” she said. “They sat in the zone, gave us good looks and (we) just couldn’t shoot the ball. Just didn’t shoot the ball well. At times we tried to go inside, but they sit at 6-2, 6-foot, and our big girl was in foul trouble and Eden did her best to score on the blocks.”
Now, Trinity plays Monday and will have to win a consolation game against Penn-Trafford, which lost in the quarterfinals, to clinch a spot in the PIAA tournament. Trinity only has two seniors, and McConnell-Miller feels her young team can benefit from the Woodland Hills experience despite the disappointing result.
“That was a really good challenge for us tonight,” McConnell-Miller said. “I completely respect the players on Woodland Hills and the way they came out and how they guarded us. They can defend the three, I just wish that we could have hit a couple shots. … It would have allowed us to relax a little bit more.”
Williamson – almost certainly unintentionally – quoted singer Bob Seger when she said the Trinity needed to “turn the page.”
“We’re going to get better,” she said. “We are a good team. One loss doesn’t define us. It doesn’t make us a bad team. So we definitely just have to move on and do what we know how to do. Just play our game and get back to being us. I think we’re going to be just fine.”