Tough shooting nights doom FC and C-H girls
MCDONALD – In a rubber match between the Class 2A Section 2 girls basketball champions, an uncharacteristically tough shooting night and turnovers plagued Fort Cherry.
The fifth-seeded Rangers turned the ball over 25 times against a South Side team that likes to trap defenders near the timeline and fell, 45-32 Friday night at South Fayette high school.
In the second game of the doubleheader, No. 6 Chartiers-Houston had a similar fate in a 40-27 loss to No. 3 Winchester Thurston.
“They’re an aggressive team that likes to trap you up top and in those corner zones,” Rangers coach Clarence Edwards said. “The thing is you have to be patient against a defense like that, because they’re trying to protect the gaps. We did do that great of a job with that today compared to the way we know we can. We saw them twice this year and both games were tight. It’s just one of those things where sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
The Rams (19-5) knocked the Rangers (19-4) out of the WPIAL playoffs for the second consecutive year. They beat them 50-42 in the quarterfinals.
Fort Cherry and South Side split the section crown with Fort Cherry winning the first meeting 50-45 and South Side took the rematch 45-44.
Despite a bunch of turnovers, Fort Cherry only trailed by five at halftime.
Brooke Cornali had a steal and score to cut South Side’s lead to 19-18 early in the third quarter, but it was all Rams after that.
South Side finished the quarter with a 15-3 run, highlighted by six points from Ariel Poelcher.
Fort Cherry never got within eight points again.
South Side opened the game with a 13-6 lead, but Olivia Kemp nailed a three-pointer late in the first quarter to cut the Rams’ lead to four.
Both teams had a player in foul trouble early in the second. South Side’s Eden Schrier picked up her third foul less than a minute into the second. Fort Cherry’s Brooke Cornali picked up her third foul at the 6:15 mark.
“It was tough, because she’s long and athletic and you want her to be that on the court,” Edwards said. “With the fouls it’s hard to get into your flow as a player, because you start thinking a lot more out there.”
Fort Cherry trailed by seven late in the second quarter, but Poelcher was called for a technical foul with three seconds remaining.
Gianna Bianchini nailed both free throws to cut the deficit to 19-14 heading into the break.
Winchester Thurston, 40-27
In a battle of the top two defensive teams in Cass 2A, Chartiers-Houston struggled to find any offensive consistency and fell 40-27.
The Bucs (19-5) made only nine shots on the night and even though they were able to keep it close with tight defense, eventually Winchester Thurston (21-3) pulled away.
“They are very strong defensively and I thought we could’ve executed maybe a little bit better,” Bucs coach Laura Montecalvo said. “We made some silly mistakes at times, but I thought the game was allowed to be played very aggressively. It wasn’t until the middle of the third quarter that we shot a foul shot. I think they shot 12 in the first half and we shot zero.”
It was a rematch of a regular season meeting in January, which the Bears won 48-43. In that game the Bucs led in the second half, before the Bears rallied in the fourth to win.
On Friday, Winchester Thurston led from beginning to end.
“It was a much different game,” Montecalvo said. “We had control for most of that game. They controlled the game a little bit more tonight. They’re big and long. We actually had several leads in the first game, but made a couple mistakes at the end that cost it for us.”
Winchester led 16-11 at halftime and expanded the lead to 11 by the end of the third quarter.
Chartiers-Houston did not hit a shot in the frame until the final minute when Ali Wingard hit a jumper.
The Bears continued to hold a double-digit lead for the duration of the game.
Ella Richey led the Bucs with nine points.
Sky Still and Dashae Cochrane scored 12 apiece for the Bears.
Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston will go into the consolation bracket beginning Monday. Seven of the eight teams remaining in the WPIAL Class 2A tournament entering Friday advance to the state playoffs.
Both will have a chance to bounce back from what was a difficult Friday night.
“As much as I can understand how upset they were with how this went tonight, I told them the most important thing you can do in life is respond. That’s what sports are supposed to teach you is how to respond from adversity. I have faith in this group that they’ll do that.”