Jan 21, 2003 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

Laurel Highlands knew what was at stake when it took the court against Peters Township in their Section 2-AAAA girls basketball game on Monday night. Then the Fillies took care of business.

Coach Rick Hauger’s squad opened up a three-game lead over the fourth-place Lady Indians with a 57-49 victory at Harold “Horse” Taylor Memorial Gymnasium.

Laurel Highlands (12-6, 7-2) remains tied with Ringgold for second place in the section, two games behind first-place Albert Gallatin. The top three teams qualify for the WPIAL playoffs.

“I did tell them the importance of this game,” Hauger said. “Generally, I try to put it in perspective for them. But the main concern is how we play. We want to play to the best of our abilities and then let the chips fall where they may.”

The Fillies did it with their usual, tough man-to-man defense and an efficient and extremely balanced offense with their five starters scoring between nine and 14 points.

Hallie Cupp led the way with 14 points, including her team’s only 3-pointer. She also supplied the play of the game when she followed a blocked shot with a steal and long pass to Deena Blanc, who was fouled while shooting a layup in the third period.

Blanc scored 12, despite going up against a box-and-one most of the night. Abby Martin and Lauren Mahoney contributed 11 points apiece and Diane Gmiter chipped in with nine.

“You can’t get much better balance than that,” Hauger admitted.

“Our kids really did a nice job, offensively, in the first half against the box-and-one. If teams want to take one person out, we’ve got a lot of other people who can put the ball in the basket, and I think we showed that tonight.”

Laurel Highlands, which lost at Peters Township earlier in the season, 60-53, made sure it would even the score almost from the start.

Mahoney dropped in layup on a long pass from Cupp to open the game’s scoring. Leigh Sherratt countered with a bucket for the Lady Indians (10-8, 4-5) to make it 2-2, then Mahoney drained a long jump shot and the Fillies would never trail again.

Martin’s driving hoop and Cupp’s trey gave LH a quick 9-2 lead. Peters Township sliced the gap to one when Shannon McNamara and Sherratt hit back-to-back 3-pointers, but Gmiter scored off a rebound and Cupp hit a jumper to make it 13-8.

The Filles lead 19-14 after one period and pushed the margin up to 34-23 by halftime as all five starters scored in the second frame. Laurel Highlands scored the final six points of the half with Blanc on the bench in foul trouble.

The Fillies stretched the gap to 46-31 through three periods, then a Mahoney free throw and a Cupp basket gave LH its biggest lead at 49-31 early in the final quarter.

Only a slump at the foul line kept Laurel Highlands running away with the win. The Fillies missed seven of eight free throws at one stretch, which allowed the Lady Indians to creep within seven at 52-45 with 53 seconds left. Finally, Blanc hit two free throws and Martin made three of four to put the game away.

“Abby has been coming through for us very well in handling the ball, and she’s picked up her offense,” Hauger said. “Diane and Hallie did a good job on the offensive boards, and that was against a team that was a couple inches taller than us at almost every position.

“Hallie almost didn’t play. She had a hand injury and it was in a splint, but she wanted to give it a go and she played well, made some big shots and got some big rebounds for us.”

McNamara led Peters Township and tied Cupp for game-high honors with 14 points. Sherratt added 13 and Laura Calabrese had 10.

Peters Township coach Dave Welsch was unavailable for comment after the game.

The Fillies travel to Connellsville on Thursday.