Feb 4, 2005 By Justin Zackal For The 3 min read

PERRYOPOLIS – Memory doesn’t serve the Frazier girls basketball team. Marred with several losing seasons and no postseason appearances for at least 20 years, second-year head coach Les Martini hopes to keep that all in the past. The Lady Commodores secured a spot in the WPIAL Class AA playoffs Thursday night with a 42-31 win over a playoff-bound Brownsville team at the Henry DiVirgilio Field House.

“It’s been a long time,” said Martini, who’s been a referee in the area for 29 years before taking over the helm at Frazier last year. “This team has been losing for so many it’s hard to get the players believing that they can win games.”

So what did it take?

“Just winning a couple game,” Martini added matter-of-factly.

Frazier (13-11, 8-6) finished its season winning six out of seven games, duplicating a feat during a stretch in December before some key players came down with the flu.

Down 22-18 at halftime of Thursday’s game, Frazier smothered the visiting Falcons (13-10, 8-6) to a measly two points in the third quarter with its hustle defense.

“It was a hard fought game,” Martini said. “The deciding factor was our defense. When we’re not shooting our defense wins games. We really needed this one. There was a lot of emotion.”

Brownsville coach Greg Golembiewski echoed Martini’s comments about the Frazier defense.

“They out-hustled us,” Golembiewski said. “When you score only 31 points you deserve to lose. (Frazier) was the better team and they deserve to go to the playoffs with us.”

The only field goal in the third quarter for Brownsville came from leading scorer and niece of the opposing coach Julie Martini. After scoring 12 points in the first half, including three 3-pointers, Martini’s bucket was her only field goal for the rest of the game.

Frazier used a triangle-and-one defense on Martini and when Brownsville turned to its frontcourt, the Falcons could only draw fouls. After the Falcons missed six free throws in the fourth quarter the game opened up.

Frazier closed the game on a 17-7 run after leading 25-24 through three quarters. The Falcons big run, however, came in the second quarter when Martini sank all three of her shots from beyond the arc and outscored the Lady Commodores, 16-9.

The Lady Commodores’ A.J. Morgan led all scorers with 16 points and spread her scoring around the entire game, including a game-high six markers in the fourth quarter.

“A.J. stepped up and had a couple of nice buckets,” Martini said. “It was hard for them to stop her.

“That’s our strength.”

Just five players combined for Frazier’s points. Including Morgan’s 16, Larrissa Kulikowski and Amanda White scored with nine and eight points, respectively, followed by Brooke Carson and Emily Null with six and three.

Brownsville and Frazier, both tied for third place in the section, are both playoff bound and will find out where they go when the pairing are announced on Tuesday.