Fillies corralled by Lady Spartans
CARROLL TWP. – Speed may kill, but size can do a good deal of damage, as well. Just ask Laurel Highlands girls’ basketball coach Rick Hauger.
His Fillies came face-to-face with a Hempfield team that features a pair of six-footers, a pair of 5-10 girls and a 5-7 point guard. Laurel Highlands, meanwhile, doesn’t have a girl taller than 5-9 on its roster.
The result was a 58-34 Hempfield win Wednesday at Ringgold High School that sends the Lady Spartans into a WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinal match-up against Albert Gallatin. That game will be played Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
“They played good, tough team defense against us, but that’s no secret,” Hauger said. “There’s no question they are a fundamentally sound team. We are, too, but on a smaller scale.”
The Fillies dropped to 15-9 on the season and can make the PIAA playoffs only if Hempfield (21-4) makes it to the WPIAL title game.
The Spartans looked good enough last night to make a run at the title.
“Obviously, we knew coming in that we were bigger than Laurel Highlands and we tried to take advantage of it,” Hempfield coach Gene Brisbane said. “We did so, most of the time. We wanted to keep them in single digits each quarter and we did it in all but the last quarter.”
The Fillies never really got untracked offensively, but managed to stay in the game until just before halftime. LH scored nine points in each of the first two quarters, but let its defense keep the game relatively close.
The Fillies trailed, 24-18, as the half was winding down, but Hempfield’s Lauren Bricker popped in a three-pointer just before the horn to make it 27-18 at the break.
“Until they hit that three-pointer, I was happy with where we were,” Hauger said. “We made a few mistakes offensively, but we were playing good defense. That three-pointer shouldn’t have happened. Then, they scored the first six points of the second half and that was the end of that.”
“You never like to give up a basket at the end of any quarter, but at the half, it’s a killer,” said Brisbane. “We wanted to get a spurt to open the third quarter and we did.”
That spurt extended Hempfield’s lead to 33-18 and, although the Fillies got the deficit down to 10, 33-23, on Lauren Mahoney’s three-pointer with 3:50 remaining in the third, they could get no closer.
Hempfield, in fact, answered with six more points to close the third with a 39-23 lead.
“Jessica Suntavy had a great game, probably her best game ever,” Brisbane said of his 6-0 senior center who finished with 14 points, six rebounds, five blocked shots and a handful of assists.
Laurel Highlands got 11 points and five rebounds from 5-7 junior forward Hallie Cupp, while Mahoney and Deena Blanc were limited to nine each.
Hempfield was intent on keeping the Fillies from beating them from long range.
“We knew all of them are capable of shooting from behind the line,” Brisbane said.
“Bricker and Amilee Ackerman did a good job switching off on Blanc. Our `white’ team gave us everything we wanted to see in practices. They did an excellent job all week. Defense is very important in the scheme of things. Teams that don’t play defense well don’t last long in this tournament.”
Hauger was complimentary of Brisbane and his program after the game.
“I like their coaches. They run a good program,” Hauger said. “They try to do things the right way. The kids are well coached and very disciplined. I have a lot of respect for the job Gene and his staff does.”
He knows his fate is in Hempfield’s hands, but Hauger thinks the Lady Spartans can play better.
“They’re probably going to shoot the ball better than they did tonight.”
“That’s probably the only thing we didn’t do a good job of was posting up our guards,” Brisbane said.
“Their guards made it tough for us to get shots from outside.”
Not to worry, with all that height, the Lady Spartans didn’t need an outside game.