West Greene girls basketball too much for Carmichaels, 50-18
Carmichaels' Kaitlyn Wilson (5) breaks away and head down the court with the ball during their non-section game against the Lady Pioneers Thursday at West Greene High School.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
West Greene’s Kaitlyn Rizor (10) drives past Carmichaels’ Shelby McCann and goes to the hoop in a game earlier this season at West Greene High School.
West Greene's McKenna Lampe (14) takes a shot at the hoop over Carmichaels' Kristina Aeschbacher (22) during Thursday's non-section game at West Greene High School.
West Greene's Savannah Pettit (22) shoots the ball over the top of Carmichaels' Kaitlyn Wilson (5) during their non-section game Thursday at West Greene High School.
John F. Brothers
Carmichaels’ Jessica Phillips (32) and Kristina Aeschbacher (22) battle for a rebound against West Greene during a game last year.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
John F. Brothers Carmichaels’ Shelby McCann (11) tries to gain control of the basketball against West Greene.
ROGERSVILLE — The West Greene girls basketball squad pressed its way to 19 first quarter points en route to a lopsided 50-18 win over Carmichaels and its fourth straight non-section triumph on Thursday night.
With their press in full force to open up the contest, the Lady Pioneers (4-0) scored the opening six points and played their style of up-tempo, aggressive game against the visitors.
“The opening eight minutes are so important for us,” West Greene coach Jordan Watson said. “We always preach starting every game fast and dictating tempo. We trap and we put constant pressure on teams. We don’t want other teams to be able to run an offense. We have four different types of pressure and we like to keep teams off-balance on offense.”
McKenna and Madison Lampe tallied 15 and 13 points, respectively, while Kaitlyn Rizor chipped in with 12 and Savannah Pettit added eight.
Kristina Aeschbacher scored a team-high six points for the Lady Mikes (2-2).
“We are young and it’s very frustrating to play against their press,” Carmichaels coach Ian McCombs said. “West Greene is extremely good at it and to break their press consistently you need all five players handling the ball and being active on the court. You have to be willing to attack it and you can’t be passive out there. This is definitely a learning process for us.”
West Greene had five players score at least a point in the opening eight minutes, and ended the first quarter with 13 straight points for a 19-2 lead.
Both defenses clamped down in the second stanza, as the Lady Pioneers held an 8-2 scoring edge in the quarter and carried a 27-4 lead into halftime.
“We are always looking to create more offense from our half-court sets,” Watson said. “We have been shooting the ball very well from the perimeter and the Lampe twins use their speed to get to the paint. If we can make our threes and be consistent with our shots, we can be potent on offense.”
The Lampe twins combined for the opening 10 points of the third quarter, as McKenna garnered two inside hoops and Madison collected two shots from beyond the arc.
Carmichaels grabbed four of the final six points to end the quarter and brought the deficit down to 39-8 heading into the final eight minutes of play.
West Greene once again started a quarter off with a spree, as the Lady Pioneers pushed its lead to 48-10 after a 9-2 spurt. In the run, Rizor had a bucket and capped off the run with a 3-pointer.
“Kaitlyn runs the show for us,” Watson said. “We run her at point, but truthfully she is our tallest girl. She is very versatile and is getting better every game. She had a career-high (20 points) versus Bentworth this week and her decision making has been really good on offense. She is also key on our press at top with her length and speed.”
With both team’s back-ups in, the Lady Mikes ended the contest with an 8-2 spree.
“I like where we are at so far, and we all know it’s really early in the season,” McCombs said. “These girls fight every game and they hustle all the time. We had a great come-from-behind win over Avella this week and that’s a big character builder for us. We have to believe in each other.”
Carmichaels will be back in action today at home against Mapletown, while West Greene is idle until a road match-up with Clairton on Monday.