Focused South Fayette at its best, beats Baldwin
By Joe Smeltzer
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
MT. LEBANON – At one point early in the third quarter, South Fayette’s Haylie Lamonde had 20 points on the night and Baldwin had scored 18.
That pretty much sums up how Wednesday night’s WPIAL Class 5A girls basketball quarterfinal went at Mt. Lebanon High School.
South Fayette started the first quarter on a 12-2 run and the second quarter on a 7-0 run.
As a result, the three-time defending champs built a quick 21-point lead, and the drama that everybody loves about playoff basketball just wasn’t there in this 67-31 romp.
South Fayette (23-1) coach Bryan Bennett wasn’t pleased with the overall effort in his team’s 57-30 first-round win over Greensburg Salem.
The quarterfinal told a different tale.
“I’m feeling a lot better about tonight’s performance,” Bennett said with a laugh. “Obviously, we’re not going to rest. We’ll celebrate tonight and be refocus.”
Bennett said that the team recognized within 12 hours after the Greensburg Salem game that things had to improve.
“We went in Saturday morning and watched it and the kids knew,” he said. “They took (Greensburg) lightly, didn’t come out and play disciplined. There was a different level of focus for Baldwin. I’m just so proud of the way we played tonight. A great team win.”
“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” Lamonde said. “Ten times better.”
Lamonde was a big reason it was better, ending with a game-high 22 points.
“She played so well,” Bennett said. “She’s known for her 3-point shot but she knew when we talked about it that we could drive it on them, that we thought we had the side advantage to get to the rim. She took what was given to her. I’m just so pleased with the way she played tonight.”
For Bennett, Lamonde’s offense wasn’t even the most impressive part.
“You’re going to say the 22 points on the offensive end,” Bennett said. “I’m going to look at the defense she played tonight, which was outstanding.”
South Fayette got off to a hot start, leading 12-2 early. That kept up for the rest of the first quarter, and South Fayette led 24-10.
Lamonde scored the first five points of the second quarter, stretching the lead to 19. Eventually, it got up to 21, and it was smooth sailing from there.
Lamonde ended up scoring a game-high 22 points. Juliette Leroux and Ryan Oladaker each had 15.
Now, South Fayette is one win away from a return trip to the Petersen Events Center and a shot at a fourth straight championship.
All that’s standing in the way is Mars.
So is this South Fayette team championship caliber?
“Yeah, definitely,” Lamonde said. “But we still have a lot of things to work on.”
“We’re still looking to improve every day,” Bennett said. “I don’t think we’ve peaked yet. There’s just a lot of things that we still can do a little bit better, and the kids work every day to improve on that. I like the way we’re playing right now. If we continue to build off tonight’s performance, obviously in 5A, (there’s) not going to be a night of. There’s talented teams. We’ll have to make sure we’re prepared.”