‘One of the best teams in the state’
PT girls have right mix, beat Canon-Mac
By Jerin Steele
Staff Writer
jsteele@observer-reporter.com
McMURRAY – There’s a long way to go, but the Peters Township girls basketball team looks like it has the pieces to be a favorite in WPIAL Class 5A this season.
The Indians have a senior standout in Natalie Wetzel, a post presence in Daniela Radulovich, an experienced sharpshooting guard in Bri Morreale and a pair of freshmen, Taylor McCullough and Jordyn Welsh, who are ready to step in right away.
All five made contributions to help the Indians fend off Canon-McMillan, 60-42, Tuesday night in a nonsection game at AHN Arena.
“I think we have a nice balance in our differentiation of players,” Peters Township coach Steve Limberiou said. “We have two 6-foot-3 girls (Wetzel and Radulovich), which is very uncommon for high school girls basketball and I think we surround that with good shooting. Taylor is a dynamic freshman point guard prospect. There’s no doubt about that. It’s a nice mix.”
Wetzel, a Miami (Fla.) recruit, led the way with 25 points, including eight in a third quarter where the Indians pulled away.
They outscored the Big Macs, 10-2, in the frame to expand their halftime lead from seven points to 15.
Limberiou joked that Wetzel had a “quiet” 25 points, but he doesn’t take for granted what she brings to the court every night.
“You almost come to expect it, but I still appreciate it,” Limberiou said. “The level of player she is, she’s capable of doing that nightly. At the same time, where she’s grown a lot is when those double teams come, passing the ball and letting someone else beat them. I thought she did a good job of that tonight.”
Welsh scored 10 and Radulovich had nine and a half dozen blocks. Morreale finished with eight points and McCullough hit a 3-pointer that helped spark a 10-0 run to begin the second quarter.
Welsh and McCullough have NCAA Division I offers as freshmen.
Canon-McMillan (1-1) was the lone team to beat Peters Township (1-0) in the regular season last year, but the difficult start to the third quarter dampened any hopes of repeating the feat on Tuesday.
“They’re one of the best teams in the state,” Canon-McMillan coach John Fontana said. “Our girls lost to one of the best teams in the state tonight.”
The game was tied 18-18 at the end of the first quarter, but Peters Township used a 10-0 run to begin the second frame.
McCullough and Wetzel hit 3-pointers, Danielle Radoluvich converted a put back and Bri Morrealle hit a 3-pointer during the run.
Lauren Borella led the Big Macs with 11 points.
“Lauren was first-team All-Section last year and she plays hard,” Fontana said. “She always works hard. She had a good game.”
Peters Township, 66-54
The Indians’ boys basketball team finished off a sweep of the night with a 66-54 win over the Big Macs.
Dylan Donovan led Peters Township (1-0) with 15 points and Jayden Greco scored 14, for what overall was a productive season opener.
“There were a lot of things that we can celebrate tonight and there’s also some mistakes that we need to clean up,” Indians coach Joe Urmann said. “We gave up some points on sideline out of bounds situations that hurt us at key times and gave up six points of fouling three-point shooters, which you always want to avoid. I didn’t think we won the ends of quarters on offense and defense, which we pride ourselves on but overall, you have to be happy with a win the first night out.”
Peters Township (1-0) led 35-26 at halftime, but the Big Macs (0-2) got back to within six in the third quarter by going six for six from the foul line to go along with 3-pointers by Roman Koenemund and Michael Detrich.
Dietrich led the Big Macs with 15 points.
Donovan, Greco, Sean Thelk connected on 3’s in the fourth quarter, helping Peters Township rebuild its lead.
Big Macs coach Charles Murphy was happy with how his team battled back and will look to use it as a building block beside the loss to Trinity in overtime in the season opener.
“We fought back and as we were closing the gap we took a couple bad shots, which is something we’re working on, but we took care of the basketball tonight,” Murphy said. “(Peters Township) just forces you to make the right decision and if you don’t, it’s going to be a bad result. We’re working and we’re getting better. That’s a really good team we just played.”