Lady Cougars fend off Waynesburg
WAYNESBURG — Coming off their first section win in four years, the Waynesburg Central girls’ basketball team went toe-to-toe with an undefeated Charleroi squad, but the Lady Cougars’ balance and overall depth was the difference maker in a 56-40 win Thursday night.
With only eight players on their active roster, the Lady Raiders (1-4, 1-2) didn’t back down and kept pace with the visitors until a deciding 13-7 edge went against them in the fourth quarter.
“We had a little pep in our step tonight after that big section win over Bentworth on Monday,” Waynesburg coach John Garber said. “Charleroi is a good team and they have a lot of scorers. I love our effort and the girls fought the whole night. We have our two main scorers, but we need to develop some offense from our other girls. We have to be more offensive-minded.”
The Lady Cougars (6-0, 3-0) had three players in double-figures and had eight players reach the box score. Maria Claybaugh, Aislyn Lee and Kaitlyn Riley all scored 13 points in the victory.
“We have good balance on our team and that is one of the main reasons why we are 6-0,” Charleroi coach Kevin Lee said. “We have balanced scoring and balanced teamwork at both ends of the court. Our shots were not falling at first and Waynesburg broke our press, but we rallied around each other and battled in the second half to get separation.”
Waynesburg was led by the strong play of its senior guards, as Kirsten Garber scored 20 points and Celine Monica tallied 17.
After Charleroi collected the first two baskets of the game, Waynesburg bounced back with an 8-2 run. The spree was capped off by a 3-pointer from Monica, but the visitors rallied back with seven straight points to close out the opening quarter.
In the second quarter, the Lady Cougars went on an 8-3 rally, but the Lady Raiders countered with six straight points to trim the deficit to 21-17.
“We threw a couple of zones at them and with our depth we can’t go man,” coach Garber said. “The girls competed well on defense and I think our zone gave them some trouble. We threw a variety of 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones at them. They were aggressive and we had our hands up.”
Once again Charleroi responded with a run of its own, ending the second stanza on a 9-3 spree to hold a 30-20 lead at halftime.
After the teams traded baskets to start the third period, the Lady Raiders cut the lead down to 36-31 after back-to-back hoops by Monica.
That would be the closest Waynesburg would get, as Charleroi ended the third quarter with six straight points and broke away in the fourth quarter with 9-3 run after the teams exchanged a pair of hoops to start the fourth frame.
“Foul trouble got to us at the end and it’s hard to rotate with only eight girls,” coach Garber said. “We had a couple of injuries to start the year and it’s been hard to get adjusted to our depth issue. We got a little tired in the fourth quarter and they made their shots.”
Waynesburg travels to Beth-Center on Monday for a critical Section 4-AA contest.