Feb 13, 2007 By Adam Gretz For The 3 min read

NORTH HUNTINGDON – The Southmoreland girls basketball team had a final tune-up on Monday night before the WPIAL playoffs begin later this week. The Lady Scots fell to the host Lady Knights, 66-35, in a cross-section contest at Norwin High School. Norwin was able to take advantage of a series of Southmoreland turnovers early in the game as the Lady Knights jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, which prompted head coach Brian Pritts to use his first time-out at the 6:25 mark of the first quarter.

“We just didn’t seem very focused tonight,” said Pritts. “We didn’t play with the normal intensity that we have and Norwin came out excited and very intense right from the start.”

The Lady Scots troubles continued for much of the opening frame as they were only able to hit two field goals the entire quarter. By the time the opening buzzer sounded, Norwin had an eight point lead at 14-6.

In the second quarter, the Lady Knights exploded for 28 points as sophomore Shelly Springer and freshman Nikki Costabille led the scoring for Norwin, while Casey Batey and Jen Lauer did their part controlling the boards and gathering in rebounds.

“We played according to our game plan tonight,” said Norwin head coach Rob Schrader. “And the deeper you go into the season, the more important that is. They’re a really good team and we wanted to force Vanessa to take a lot of jump shots and make sure we got the rebounds whenever she missed them.”

Entering play on Monday night, the Lady Scots were averaging over 58 points per game, but were held to only 17 points during the first-half.

“Hopefully it’s a wake-up call for us,” Pritts said. “It’s important for us not to let down now because this team has worked too hard and we’ve had too good of a season to this point. I guess it’s better to get this out now while we can still come back and make up for it.”

Norwin received double-digit scoring nights from three players as Kayla Hilko, Springer, and Costabille combined for 39 points on the night.

“Nikki Costabille is a great little basketball player,” said Schrader. “She is going to be a handful for the next three years for a lot of teams, as if she already isn’t one now. She doesn’t shoot it much, but when she does, she’s usually pretty tough to stop.”

Vanessa Abel led Southmoreland with 15 points while Anna Coffman and Jamie Henry were able to add 5 points each.

The loss drops Southmoreland to 21-3 overall and ends the 11 game winning streak it was riding coming into the game. The Lady Knights end their season on a four game winning streak as both teams await their first round playoff pairings which will be announced today.

“We were just out of sync tonight and had a hard time establishing any kind of a rhythm,” said Pritts. “Anytime you play up a level you are going to face a different style of play and we just didn’t have it tonight.”