Lady Pioneers come up short in final to Winchester Thurston
PITTSBURGH — West Greene has been dominant against most WPIAL girls basketball teams in the last two seasons.
The one team that has had the Lady Pioneers’ number over the last couple of years has been Winchester Thurston, and unfortunately for West Greene, the Lady Bears got the better of the play last Friday afternoon with a 76-57 victory in the WPIAL Class A championship game at Peterson Events Center.
“We just started the game out flat,” WG coach Jordan Watson said. “I thought we were flat in practice on Thursday, and I have no idea why. That’s on me. You have to play a full 32 minutes to beat a team like Winchester Thurston. We turned the ball over way too much and our long diagonal pass was not working today.”
Over the last two years, West Greene is 0-4 against Winchester, including last year’s semifinal setback, but is 41-4 versus everyone else in that time frame.
The Lady Pioneers (22-3) committed 22 turnovers in the opening 16 minutes and could never rebound from an early 11-0 deficit.
The Lady Bears (19-5) claimed their second straight WPIAL title.
“We knew this would be a tough test,” Winchester coach Monica Williams said.
“West Greene was the second seed for a reason. We were in a 3-2 zone the whole game and got into a lot of their passing lanes. We were really active in our transition game and held their inside scorers in check. We practiced that 3-2 defense a lot in practice and it worked for us today.”
Gia Thorpe had a monster game for Winchester and recorded a triple-double with 36 points, 13 rebounds and 10 steals.
“She’s the best player we have faced over the last two seasons,” Watson said. “She has the height, the speed and the ball-handling skills. We knew we couldn’t contain her, we just had to slow her down a little. We tried to front her and to put pressure on her with two players, but she was able to break it. She had an answer for all the defenses we threw at her today.”
Nya Nicholson added 20 points for the Lady Bears, while Ayanna Townsend scored nine.
West Greene had four players in double figures, Madison Lampe (15), McKenna Lampe (13), Elizabeth Brudnock (10) and Jersey Wise (10).
Despite the loss, the Lady Pioneers will continue their postseason run in the PIAA playoffs. First-round action starts next Saturday, March 10, against the District 10 runner-up with the time and site to be determined.
West Greene, the first Greene County girls basketball team to make a final appearance, was sluggish early on, with turnovers and forced shots. Winchester took full advantage of those miscues with the game’s first 11 points.
After a bucket by Madison Lampe, the Lady Bears ended the opening frame with a 12-10 rally and held a 23-12 lead at the end of one.
The Lady Pioneers battled back and trimmed the deficit to 25-20 after an 8-2 burst to start the second period. Brudnock had a pair of 3-pointers in the run for West Greene.
“We started to settle down and get into the game,” Watson said. “We hit some threes against their zone and I really liked our shot selection. We had good ball movement and found the open girl. We just couldn’t maintain that on offense and we couldn’t get enough stops on defense.”
The top-seeded Lady Bears responded in a big way with a 19-6 spurt that increased their lead to 44-26 at halftime.
“Our free throw shooting was excellent today,” Williams said.
“Gia was able to get to the line and after struggling at the line the last two games, we were effective with our foul shooting. We were never comfortable with a lead because we knew West Greene could score in bunches.”
In the second quarter, Thorpe tallied 14 points. The 5-foot-8 senior guard was effective at the foul line going 10-for-13 in the quarter and 18-for-21 in the game.
Both squads played a pretty even second half, as Winchester held a 15-14 scoring edge in the third quarter and both teams registered 17 points apiece in the final eight minutes.
Madison Lampe had nine points in the fourth quarter for the Lady Pioneers.
“We were thrilled to get to the finals, but obviously we would have liked a different result,” Watson said. “Winchester is a complete team and they are tough to match-up against. You can’t simulate their size in practice.
“Our girls are pretty driven and I think we will be ready for states. We have to get back to our game and just execute better on the court.”