Waynesburg women win first game; Zalar scores 17 for Penn State Fayette
LEMONT FURNACE – The Waynesburg women had a 14-0 run to start the game at Penn State Fayette, and the visiting Yellow Jackets kept rolling for their first victory of the season Monday night with a 78-52 non-conference win.
“Yes, it does (feel good),” Yellow Jackets coach Sam Jones said of the first win. “We have had some close calls. It’s nice to get one on that side of the column.”
Carmichaels graduate Sophia Zalar scored a game-high 17 points for the Lions but a lack of offense early on doomed Penn State Fayette.
Waynesburg ran off the first 14 points over a 6:11 span from the opening tip. The lead grew to 16-1 with 2:19 left in the quarter when Brownsville grad Emma Seto made a pair of foul shots.
Penn State Fayette coach Scott Hillen was matter-of-fact in his assessment of his squad’s play, especially falling behind early in the game and playing catch up.
“I think we just played bad,” said Hillen. “We’ve been doing that all year. We’re not a good enough shooting team to catch up.
“We shot nine percent in the first quarter. You can’t do much when you shoot like that. We were in a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
The Yellow Jackets entered the game 0-9, so Jones welcomed the quick start.
Penn State Fayette (3-9) slowed the tide a bit over the final two minutes and trailed after the first quarter, 20-8.
Heaven Krumm’s layup with 7:53 to go in the first half sliced the home team’s deficit to 22-13, but the Lions would get no closer. Penn State Fayette trailed at halftime, 37-16.
Jones was pleased to see his team didn’t lose the early momentum, especially with the full-court pressure.
“We wanted to stay focused,” said Jones. “We don’t get turnovers, we have to play half court defense.”
The Waynesburg lead grew to 62-34 after three quarters.
Mia Henkins and Tori Wesololowski shared team-scoring honors for Waynesburg with 10 points each. Marley Wolf finished with nine points and Kara McFadden added eight.
Julz Mohrbacher led Waynesburg with a team-high 10 rebounds.
Waynesburg Central grad Clara-Paige Miller, a sophomore, pulled down six defensive rebounds and scored two points. Mount Pleasant graduate Alli Bailey grabbed two rebounds and made 1-of-2 foul shots. Seto had two offensive and two defensive rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets play once over Christmas break with a Presidents’ Athletic Conference road game at Grove City on Dec. 30. Jones believes the way his squad played will carry over, but noted the Yellow Jackets still need to tidy up their game.
“We’re starting to get there. We had really good intensity and were focused on the details,” said Jones. “We need to take better care of the basketball and our rebounding needs to be a little better.”
Zalar, who has played in 11 of her team’s 12 games with nine starts, is averaging a team-high 13.9 points along with 5.1 rebounds per game.
“She’s playing good for a freshman, but she makes freshman mistakes,” said Hillen.
Elizabeth Forward grad Abby Bickerton grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and scored eight points for Fayette. Connellsville graduate Daelin Burnsworth also scored eight points.
Hillen indicated the return after the holiday break will have a feel of starting over.
“We made a lot of mental mistakes. We are reverting to the beginning of the season,” said Hillen, adding, “We start over in January.”