Malkowiak suspended indefinitely, misses Lady Raider victory
Uniontown won its game, but the Lady Raiders are still without a head coach. Fourth-year head coach Annie Malkowiak was suspended indefinitely Friday by Uniontown Area School District Superintendent Charles Machesky and was replaced by assistant coach Lisa Nesser in Uniontown’s 42-40 non-section win over Latrobe Monday at A.J. Everhart Memorial Gymnasium.
Shortly after the game ended, Machesky emerged from an executive session and reinforced his Friday decision.
“She’s been suspended indefinitely, and there’s no change,” Machesky said.
Machesky said he will meet with Malkowiak today to discuss the matter further. When asked if her suspension was related to a trip to Florida in which the Lady Raiders took part in the KSA Disney Classic, Machesky said, “that’s where it all started.”
Malkowiak took over a struggling Uniontown program that had won only seven games in the two years prior to her arrival and guided the Lady Raiders to 11 wins her first season. Uniontown won 13 games in Malkowiak’s second year before posting 16 victories and qualifying for the WPIAL Quad-A playoffs last season.
Nesser will continue to coach the team “for the time being”, according to Machesky.
Against Latrobe, Uniontown (9-7) never trailed in snapping a three-game losing streak. The hosts ran out to leads of 11-0 and 13-1, before settling for a 13-7 first-quarter lead.
Jocelyn Chandler led all scorers with 19 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
Latrobe (6-10) fought its way back into the game and trailed only 21-20 at halftime. Uniontown pushed the lead back to six twice in the third quarter, both times following Jill Monahan three-pointers, but the Lady Wildcats scored the last six points of the quarter to deadlock the score at 30.
Two Chandler baskets and Sara Kovach’s three-point play put Uniontown ahead, 37-30, but Latrobe eventually tied the game again, 40-40, on Jessica Sarnese’s layin with 2:23 remaining.
The Lady Raiders took only 16 seconds to retake the lead, scoring the game’s winning and final two points on a Kovach basket after a nice pass from Emily Fisher. Latrobe ran the clock to 1:24, but lost the ball out of bounds after a missed shot.
Uniontown then wound the clock to 39.2 seconds, before Sarah Hantz fouled Fisher, who missed the front end of a one-and-one. With 18.8 seconds to play, Latrobe called timeout, but couldn’t get a shot off before the ball went off Uniontown out of bounds with one second remaining. A last-second attempt by Sarnese then missed the mark.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Nesser said. “We played well in a pinch and we stuck together as a team.
“We came out with emotion and intensity. There was so much intensity at the start of the game. We were really excited.”
Monahan finished with nine points and six rebounds, while Kovach added seven points and four boards. Hantz led Latrobe off the bench with 13 points.