Crosstown battle
Laurel Highlands girls topple visiting Uniontown Senior guard Kayla Ashton put on a scoring clinic, as she poured in a game-high 20 points, four of which came behind the three-point arc as the Laurel Highlands girls’ basketball team downed visiting Uniontown 48-30 in the second meeting of cross-town rivals this season.
The win keeps LH’s playoff hopes alive in Section 3-AAA. With a win Thursday at Belle Vernon, the Fillies will clinch a playoff berth. Even if Yough wins at Mount Pleasant, the teams will be tied for fourth place, and both will go to the playoffs because they split the season series.
“Kayla is a consistent performer,” said Laurel Highlands coach Jerry Slampak. “She did a good job not only shooting on the perimeter, but Kayla gets a lot of assists and does some good passing. She sees the whole floor and knows what needs to be done.”
In the last outing between the teams back on Jan. 6 at Uniontown High School, the Lady Red Raiders outlasted LH, 62-49.
After winning the tip-off, Uniontown’s Jen Tandarich scored the game’s first points. It was the first and only lead the Lady Red Raiders would have in the game, as Ashton got down to business.
She peeled off two straight threes and set the tempo for the Fillies’ offense.
During the first two periods, there were two styles of play. Laurel Highlands owned the perimeter, while Uniontown worked the ball inside for easy scores underneath.
“I thought we actually didn’t go at them enough,” said Uniontown coach Jason Winfrey. “I thought we could have attacked the hoop more. I thought that Laurel Highlands came out with great intensity playing at home on senior night. We just didn’t match their intensity.”
Despite that, the Lady Raiders chiseled away at the lead and cut it to three at 6:28 mark in the second quarter.
Laurel Highlands responded, and senior LaTara Cannon nailed a trey that pushed the lead back up to seven late in the first half.
Uniontown forced the Fillies to the foul line 12 times in the first half and they converted on eight, while the Lady Red Raiders shot 2 of 4 from the charity stripe.
Marissa Voytek led Uniontown with 10 points in four field goals and a 2-of-4 performance from the foul line, while Courtney Sanner added seven points.
“Our biggest problem was going to be consistency,” Slampak said. “Tonight they were ready to play and they wanted a little payback. They felt they played poorly at Uniontown, and they wanted to make up for it.”
Taylor Johns also scored in double figures for LH with 11 points, seven of which came at the foul line and Amber Sanner added two key 3s.
Down by only six at the half, Uniontown opened the second half with a man-to-man match-up and full court press to try and force turnovers.
“I told the girls that they had to start with more intensity then they had,” Winfrey said. “I thought that in the first half, Laurel Highlands took it to us on offense. Coach Slampak had his girls ready for our pressure.”
After an easy Taylor Johns bucket on an assist from Ashton, Uniontown and LH battled back and forth until Sanner put up a rainbow three-pointer from deep in the corner to push the lead back up to 10 points.
“We had done a great job in the beginning, then we got a little lazy on defense,” Slampak said. “I told them to keep playing the way they were, eliminate the mistakes and we’re still in great shape.”
Laurel Highlands (7-6, 9-14) is tied for the fourth spot in the section tied with Yough, while Uniontown falls to 4-9 in the section and 5-14 overall.