Feb 23, 2024 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – The WPIAL girls basketball playoffs are only one weekend old and already they are causing their typical havoc and damage. Teams that have spent the entire regular season winning are suddenly losing games in the most unlikely ways.

While compiling a 20-win regular season, Waynesburg Central didn’t gain much experience playing from behind, which would have come in handy Saturday when the ady Raiders met Seton LaSalle in a Class AAA first-round game.

Sophomore Addie Lonergan scored 27 points and made six three-point field goals – five in the second half – as the 11th-seeded Rebels upset sixth-seeded Waynesburg, 57-36.

The win avenged Seton LaSalle’s 64-55 loss to Waynesburg in the opening round last year on the same court.

The Lady Rebels (14-8) advance to the quarterfinals Wednesday against third-seeded Beaver Falls (15-6). Waynesburg’s season ends with a 20-3 record and thoughts about how two of its final four games slipped away from it late in the second half.

Seton LaSalle trailed 25-21 at halftime and didn’t take the lead for good until Tiarra Curry dropped in a floater from the lane that put the Rebels ahead 30-29 with 1:20 remaining in the third quarter. The basket was part of a 10-0 run to close the quarter.

Seton LaSalle outscored Waynesburg 21-7 in the fourth quarter and 31-7 over the game’s final 11 minutes.

“We quit working the ball, quit working for high percentage shots, settled for the first shot we could get,” Waynesburg coach Chris Minerd explained. “We panicked. We didn’t play from behind very much this season, so we didn’t have much experience in that role. In this game, and in the South Park game (a 53-46 loss on Feb. 5), we fell apart when we got behind. We did the same things in both games.

“It was the perfect storm. The fourth quarter got us again.”

One thing Waynesburg did against Seton LaSalle was give Lonergan too much room to operate in the second half, when she scored 17 of her points, 15 coming from behind the three-point arc.

Curry and Mallory Daly finished with 14 points each, which meant 55 of the Rebels’ 57 points came from three players.

The game started very well for Waynesburg as it played a spectacular first quarter. The Raiders made eight of their first 10 shots, did not commit a turnover in the period and allowed only one offensive rebound to the Rebels. The quarter ended with Waynesburg ahead, 18-11.

“The first quarter was hard,” Seton LaSalle coach Jordan Giles said. “We had to identify who their scorers were and get better help defense on them. The defense stepped it up in the second with the help.”

After scoring 18 points in the first quarter, Waynesburg was limited to 18 more the rest of the way. Leading scorer Kaley Rohanna had seven points in the opening quarter and finished with a team-high 13. Josie Horne was the only Waynesburg player to score in every quarter and she finished with nine points.

“Last year we scored 64 points against them,” Minerd pointed out. “This year we scored 36. You can’t win playoff games with that many. You have to be in the 50s, at least.”

Waynesburg trailed by seven points entering the fourth quarter. The Raiders closed to within five twice early in the fourth before Seton LaSalle ended the game on a 19-3 run.

“It’s sad it ended this way,” Minerd said. “It’s disappointing any time you lose in the first round. To have the regular season like we did, 20-2, and have it end like that. … It will take a little bloom off the rose.

“We didn’t play our best ball down the stretch. It stings. It hurts. … But our seniors, they had great careers, they set a lot of records and won a lot of titles.”