South Fayette girls roll into quarterfinals
Ava Leroux
Ava Leroux (2) scored a game-high 21 points in South Fayette’s rout of Mechanicsburg.
ALTOONA – The South Fayette girls basketball team kept on rolling Wednesday evening and the Lions, again, got everybody involved.
Senior Ava Leroux led four South Fayette players in double figures with a game-high 21 points as the Lions rolled to an easy 69-29 victory over Mechanicsburg in a PIAA Class 5A second-round playoff game at Altoona High School.
The win was the 20th in a row for South Fayette (26-2), which has not lost since December. Mechanicsburg, the third-place finisher from District 3, had its season end with a 20-8 record.
The Warriors, who started three freshmen, were no match for the fast-breaking Lions, who forced an uptempo pace. South Fayette jumped out to an 18-7 lead after one quarter.
Maddie Webber, the Lions’ leading scorer this season, was called for her second personal foul less than a minute into the second quarter and went to the bench for the rest of the half. Her absence didn’t hurt South Fayette. Webber exited with the Lions leading 20-9 and South Fayette was able to stretch the advantage to 40-14 at halftime.
The Lions led 58-21 at the end of three quarters. South Fayette fell a point shy of hitting the 70-point mark for the ninth time.
Point guard Lainey Yater finished with 12 points, six coming in each half. Erica Hall scored 10 points and Webber finished with 10.
Freshman Lauren Lebo, with 10 points, was the only player in double figures for Mechianicsburg.
The road to Hershey, the site of the state finals, should get more difficult for South Fayette. The Lions next will face District 10 champion Erie Cathedral Prep (23-1) in the quarterfinals Saturday at a site and time to be determined. Prep defeated Mars 51-24 in the second round after knocking out Trinity in the first round.