Dec 21, 2003 By Justin Zackal For The 3 min read

YORK RUN – Connellsville simply came out flat. The Lady Falcons made one measly field goal in the first quarter and only managed to score eight more the rest of the game at Albert Gallatin Friday night.

However, Connellsville applied pressure on defense, and on offense it penetrated the Lady Colonials’ defense en route to a 48-39 win in Section 2-AAAA girls’ basketball action, as it made up for the lack of field goals by sinking 28 of 44 free throw attempts.

“We haven’t seen a 2-3 (zone) defense all season and our girls just froze,” Connellsville coach Bob Renzi Jr., said. “That’s not like us to come out flat.”

Renzi made a few adjustments and his team responded well.

The Lady Falcons went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter and took control of the game after Albert Gallatin led 19-18 at halftime.

“We changed to a three guard front and kept our forwards low,” Renzi said. “The shots did come and we were able to penetrate the gaps.”

“That was big, us being up 19-18 at the half,” said Albert Gallatin head coach Shea Fleenor. “But then we started pushing some shots. We didn’t have a choice but to go man-to-man. We would’ve liked to stay in the zone, but we were forced into that.”

With less than six minutes to go in the third quarter, Connellsville point guard Shannon Kovach nailed a three-pointer to tie the game, 21-21. Later, Brooke Bryner scored on a putback to give the Lady Falcons their third lead of the game and first of the second half.

Connellsville (3-6, 2-2) never trailed the rest of the way, completing a 10-0 run that was broken up when Albert Gallatin’s Mallory Adamovich hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 28-24 with 1:04 left in the third quarter.

Adamovich was the only Lady Colonial to score in double figures with 11 points, followed by Megan Bowers and Samantha Kline with seven points apiece.

To compensate for a height disadvantage, Albert Gallatin (1-8, 1-3) had to play a more physical style of defense. But even that didn’t seem to work because of foul trouble.

A total of 52 fouls were called during the game – 32 on the Lady Colonials.

Connellsville took advantage of the situation, and scored 28 of its 48 points from the charity stripe.

“The size is no mystery,” Fleenor said. “The officials were calling the game pretty tight and it made it hard for us to play aggressive. The biggest thing was getting rebounds. We’ve got to do a better job of boxing out. We were getting banged around.”

Bryner led Connellsville with 16 points, which included 11 of 12 shooting from the free throw line. Kovach was the other Lady Falcon in double figures with 11, as she shot a perfect 6 for 6 from the line.

Connellsville’s defense also came up big. Albert Gallatin scored just two field goals inside three-point range in the first three quarters.

“You’ve got to give Connellsville credit,” Fleenor said. “They put pressure on us and we played right into it. We needed to be more patient and run our offense.”

The outcome was a key Section 2 win for Connellsville. The Lady Falcons, with another road game out the way, remain at .500 in section play.

“We had to go 2-2,” Renzi added. “I told the girls before the game this was a big road game for us.”

Perhaps they didn’t get the message until halftime.