Canon-Mac’s historic season ends with loss in PIAA second round
McMURRAY – There were a few tears, but also a few smiles as the Canon-McMillan girls basketball team left the locker room after their historic season came to an end with a 46-32 loss to WPIAL champion Upper St. Clair.
A trip to the second round of the PIAA Class 6A tournament probably felt like a pipe dream a few years ago, but now it seems more like the beginning.
The Big Macs return their top eight players next year and were provided plenty of lessons in Tuesday’s loss.
“This has been such a fabulous run,” Canon-Mac coach John Fontana said. “When I first got to Canon-Mac, I think we had won two section games out of 40 and now we’re winning 16 games. We’re going to be loaded next year with seven juniors and finally we will be the hunted.”
Upper St. Clair advanced to play Haverford in the state quarterfinals on Friday.
For a half it looked like there was a shot of the dream season continuing for the Big Macs, who had never been in a WPIAL semifinals before this season, let alone a second-round state playoff game.
Canon-McMillan (16-10) trailed 15-12 after a defensive slugfest in the first half, but Upper St. Clair (22-5) found its three-point stroke in the third quarter.
Olivia Terlecki canned a pair of three-pointers and Meredith Huzjak hit one to give the Panthers a 26-16 lead.
“Those (three-pointers) were a momentum builder,” Panthers coach Pete Serio said. “You make two in a row to start the second half and you could just see the jump in their step after that.”
Rylee Kalocay, a Kent State recruit, added a couple of tough baskets and the Panthers pulled out to a 32-21 lead at the end of the third quarter. Kalocay finished with a game-high 18 points.
“Riley’s a Division I player for a reason,” Fontana said. “She made some great plays. She could go in the lane and muscle it in and use the boards. She’s one of the best players in the state.”
Upper St. Clair and Canon-McMillan are both in WPIAL Class 6A Section 2 and split the regular-season series, but the Panthers continued to pull away in the fourth quarter to take the rubber match.
Serio has been impressed with the growth the Big Macs showed this season and expects them to be a major contender next season.
“I’m just so happy for Johnny, because he’s really turned that program around,” Serio said. “The community is behind them. They’ve been coming out in droves for the playoff games. They are going to be very good next year.”
Faye Saunders led the way for Canon-McMillan with 14 points. She made all seven of her baskets from the paint.
“The first time I met Faye, she was a cheerleader for us and then she came out for the team,” Fontana said. “She’s still on the cheerleading squad, but she also plays basketball. She goes after basketballs like a maniac. She’s really improved offensively and she works harder than anyone in the WPIAL.”
Outside of that though, the Big Macs couldn’t find much consistency on offense. Fontana said the team is banged up.
“We’ve struggled offensively for the last four games,” Fontana said. “We’re hurt. Sam Miller has been through a lot of injuries. She’s an outstanding shooter that shoots 45-percent, but she hasn’t been healthy for a while. Lauren Borella played hurt too. Neither of them practiced yesterday.”
Both teams struggled to find any consistency offensively in the first half, mainly because the other team was playing in-your-face defense.
In total, the two teams combined for nine baskets through the first two quarters.
Canon-McMillan led 11-10 midway through the second quarter after Izzy Bobitski made a driving layup, but the Panthers finished the half on a 5-1 run.
Kalocay made two layups and a free throw to give Upper St. Clair a three-point advantage at halftime.