Lady Pioneers make history
Holly Tonini
Frazier’s Jamie Muccioli (21) knocks the ball away from West Greene’s Paige Morninger (21) and Cheyenne Miller during Saturday’s game at Baldwin High School.
West Greene’s Cheyenne Miller (11) puts up a shot against Frazier at Baldwin High School in their WPIAL girls playoff game on Feb. 18. Miller scored a game-high 16 points. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
Holly Tonini
Frazier’s Teaha Nahar (22) shoots over West Greene’s Alyssa Raber (30) during Saturday’s WPIAL Class A girls game at Baldwin High School.
BALDWIN-WHITEHALL — The West Greene girls’ basketball team made history Saturday afternoon by beating Frazier, 51-31, in the WPIAL Class A preliminary round at Baldwin High School.
Pioneers first-year coach Jordan Watson explained their accomplishment after the game.
“We’ve only had five tries (in the playoffs) and tonight we were able to win our first playoff game in the history of the school,” Watson said. “We know we have to face (top-seeded) North Catholic now but we’ll take this win.”
The Lady Pioneers (12-11) jumped out to an 18-4 lead at the end of the first quarter fueled by an 8 for 8 shooting performance from the free throw line during the run.
“We shot 50 free throws a night in practice and it paid off today,” Watson said. “We wanted to play aggressive and it got us to the line.”
Frazier (10-13) head coach Shara Zupanc felt a key to the Lady Commodore’s loss was their slow start in the first quarter. They tore off a 5-0 run to start the second quarter and close the gap to single-digits at 18-9 but would not get any closer.
The Lady Commodores out-scored the Lady Pioneers in the second and third quarter 20-19, but trailed 25-12 at the break and were not able to chip away at the double-digit lead after the break.
“I thought we turned it up a notch especially in the third quarter after I told our team at halftime that this game was still winnable,” Zupanc said. “Our shots just weren’t falling tonight and combined with being in foul trouble, we just weren’t able to come close.”
Frazier had to gamble on defense midway through the fourth quarter after falling behind by 15 points and West Greene was able to break the press and convert some fast breaks to put the game away.
“We did well at breaking their press,” Watson said. “We also knew they had good shooters from the outside and worked on not letting them shoot three’s.”
Overall, 55 fouls were called in the scrappy game. Pioneer forward Cheyenne Miller shot 14 free throws, sinking eight. She scored 16 points overall to lead all scorers. Center Alyssa Raber added ten points including eight free throws.
“We use (Miller) at the top of our sets and she really played well on both sides of the ball,” Watson said. “We knew we had a size advantage underneath and we wanted to be aggressive in the lane.”
Frazier was led by Lauren Timko who scored eight points including all four of the Lady Commodores’ points in the first quarter and four points in the third quarter, which was the best quarter in the game for the Lady Commodores as they scored 12 points.
West Greene will face North Catholic on Wednesday in the next round of the playoffs at a site to be determined.