Defending state champs wear down Lady Mikes
CARROLL TWP. – It’s bad enough facing the defending state champs in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs. It’s even worse when the defending state champs are trying to snap out of a four-game losing streak. The Carmichaels girls basketball team learned that lesson Tuesday night in its 58-29 loss to Monessen in a first-round WPIAL Class A game at Ringgold High School.
“Their athleticism took over in the second half,” Carmichaels coach Jim Lane said. “This is a big floor and the way they run … it took its toll.”
The Lady Mikes hung right with the Lady Hounds through the first quarter, which ended with Carmichaels holding an 18-17 lead, thanks to a last-second basket by Courtney Gilpin.
But when the second quarter began with a 10-2 Monessen run, it became painfully apparent the Lady Mikes season was about to end.
“We felt good that we were handling their press to that point, but you could see that we were playing right into their hands,” Lane said. ” Fatigue became a factor. At the half, we were down only seven points (30-23), but you could tell they were just ready to take off.”
Indeed, the Lady Hounds owned the third quarter, 18-2, and ran off with the win that improved their record to 18-7.
“They were starting to breathe hard in the first half,” Monessen coach Major Corley said. “We got back to the running game that we’ve able to run through the years and it paid off.”
Corley said he had been running his team hard in practice, partly because of the four-game skid and partly because of the size of Ringgold’s floor. The Lady Hounds opened the game in a full-court press and forced 11 Carmichaels turnovers over the first eight minutes. The game stayed close because of some key Carmichaels baskets, like Aly Staun’s two three-pointers, and because of some playoff jitters from Monessen.
“We had a couple of girls who were playing in their first playoff game,” Corley said. “It showed in the early going.”
Monessen kept up the defensive pressure and it paid off in the middle quarters, when Carmichaels was outscored, 31-7. Carmichaels committed 36 turnovers in the game.
“We jumped the ball a lot more than we normally try to, then we took the ball up court and got some easy lay-ups,” Corley said. “We didn’t play as well as I would have liked, but at least we played better than we’ve been playing.”
Perrial Pearson led all scorers with 18 points, while Kelly Mornak added 12 for (18-7) Monessen. Megan Stuvek led (11-14) Carmichaels with 14, including all six second-half points.
“I’m proud of these girls,” Lane said when asked to assess the season. “We won 11 games and made the playoffs and we have four starters coming back next year. They accomplished a lot this year. Some people may see our record and think otherwise, but we’ve come a long way since last year’s undergrads.”