Mar 9, 2003 By Mike Ciarochi 4 min read

EDINBORO – Albert Gallatin’s magical girls basketball season came to an abrupt end Friday night with a 68-37 loss to Mercyhurst Prep in the first round of PIAA basketball playoffs. “I thought we came out a little timid,” first-year Lady Colonials coach Shea Fleenor said.

“I told the girls all week that if the game got into the 70s or 80s, it wouldn’t be good for us. We just didn’t play well defensively at all.”

Nor did the Lady Colonials do much offensively. They fell behind 13-6 after a quarter and managed only 16 points in the first half, after which they trailed, 35-16.

“We were soft against their press early on, but after that I thought we handled it well,” Fleenor said. “Once we got past halfcourt, though, we didn’t do a good job of screening. We needed to set good screens and cut hard to the basket off of those screens, but we didn’t do either one of them well tonight.

“We had a hard time getting shots all night and that’s a testament to their team.

“They are a very, very good team, with very, very good players. It’s scary to think about how good they might be in two years.”

The Lakers start three sophomores, a junior and only one senior and they bring even more youth off their bench.

“He has a great young nucleus to build on,” Fleenor said of Mercyhurst Prep coach Randy Bowers.

In fact, Mercyhurst Prep’s three sophomore starters were the team’s leading scorers. Chelsea Gordon led the way with 24 points, Mashea Williams added 14 and Erin Kerner finished with 13.

Kerner made her last seven free throws after missing her first three.

“The kids did what we wanted them to do,” Bowers said. “It worked pretty well for us tonight. I hope we haven’t peaked yet, but I’m pleased with the way we’re playing.”

Loui Hall scored 28 of AG’s 37 points to finish her remarkable career with 2,440 points. she also had 10 rebounds in her last game for the Lady Colonials. She will play for Duquesne University next season.

“We were quite aware of her,” Bowers said. “I thought Chelsea did a great job defending her. She is a tremendous scorer. I guess we held her under her average, but it’s amazing for anyone to be averaging 30 points a game.”

“That was kind of the story of our season,” Fleenor said, referring to Hall scoring all but nine of AG’s points.

The Lakers opened the third quarter with an 8-4 run and scored eight in a row to built their lead to 53-30 after three quarters. for the game, Mercyhurst Prep made 24 of 31 free throws, while AG converted on seven of 11.

The Lakers (25-2) will meet Hempfield, which beat Altoona Friday, next Tuesday.

The Lady Colonials finished at 21-6 and Fleenor said Friday’s game will not diminish what they accomplished throughout the season.

“It was a great season,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids for my first coaching job.

“They came to work, came to get better every day. What happened tonight doesn’t take anything away from what we accomplished this season.

“Nobody can take away 21-6, nobody can take away a 14-0 section record or that this was the first AG team to ever go through its section undefeated. I’ve spent so much time with them, I hate to see any of them leave.”

Truth be told, four starters are among seven seniors Fleenor must say good-bye to.

Besides Hall, the Lady Colonials must find replacements for starters Rachel Karpency, Ashley Davis and Shane Guerriere, as well as Deanna Gratchic and Sheronda Shultz.

“We’ll give the girls a couple of weeks off, but then it’s back to work,” Fleenor said. “We have our work cut out for us now. Not only are we losing four starters, but also a lot of scoring. This is the first time in a long time that Albert Gallatin hasn’t had a good scorer returning. These girls were very special.

“They left some very big shoes to fill.”