Bishop Canevin buries Frazier girls
SOUTH FAYETTE TWP. – Frazier girls basketball coach Les Martini knew Bishop Canevin had a good 3-point-shooting team, but even he didn’t expect the avalanche of treys that the Crusaders buried his Lady Commodores with on Friday night. Canevin rained in 16 3-pointers on its way to a 76-28 victory over Frazier in their WPIAL Class AA preliminary round playoff game at South Fayette High School.
Alaina Hartman hit six of those treys in scoring a game-high 20 points, and five other Crusaders also made 3-pointers as Canevin improved to 18-7 and earned a first-round meeting with second-seeded Greensburg Central Catholic on Tuesday.
“It’s kind of hard to stop that,” Martini said. “I didn’t think they could make that many against us.”
“That’s what we try to do,” Crusader coach Tim Joyce said, “because we don’t have a lot of size.”
The only Lady Commodore that gave Canevin problems was 5-foot-11 center A.J. Morgan, who scored a team-high 11 points.
Three of Canevin’s first five field goals were 3-pointers as it jumped out to a 13-4 lead and never looked back. The Crusaders led 21-9, 36-14 and 49-25 at the breaks.
Frazier had a hard time scoring against the quick Canevin defense, and when the Lady Commodores did put the ball in the basket, the Crusaders many times countered almost immediately at the other end.
Martini was impressed with much more than just Canevin’s outside shooting.
“They’re a very fundamentally sound team as far as defense goes,” Martini said. “They created a lot of turnovers from us, and they like to run. That’s their game plan, fastbreak all the time. We went through it in practice, but we didn’t do a very good job of stopping it tonight.”
Kate McCaffery hit three 3-pointers in scoring 13 points for Canevin. Jackie Tambellini, Grace Sadowski and Tami Yamatani each made a pair of treys, and Katie Gomber sank one.
Ten different players scored for Canevin, which finished in a tie for third place in Section 3-AA.
Brooke Carson followed Morgan in Frazier’s scoring column with seven points. Amanda White and Larissa Kulikowki had four points apiece.
Despite the loss, Martini was pleased with his squad’s season.
“I’m happy,” said Martini, who guided the Lady Commodores to a 13-12 record and a third-place tie in Section 5-AA. “I told our seniors they did a good job this year and that this would be a stepping stone for next year.”
Martini will lose senior starters Morgan and Carson, but has most of his key players returning.
“Brook and A.J. both play volleyball, too, and they led us in scoring and rebounding. We’ll miss them both next year.”
Martini is hoping his team can emulate the Crusaders.
“Next year we’ll expect a lot more,” Martini said. “We’ll have eight seniors and we hope to run like Canevin.”
Shooting 3-pointers like the Crusaders wouldn’t hurt either.