Lady Commodores positioned for section title
PERRYOPOLIS — The Frazier girls basketball team put itself in good shape for a three-day set next week that will decide the Section 4-AA championship, with a 57-33 win over Waynesburg Central on Thursday.
The Lady Commodores are one game out of first place and will visit Carmichaels on Tuesday, then host Charleroi and Washington on consecutive nights.
Frazier coach Ken Poling said he welcomes the three-day showdown.
“I don’t care if it’s boys or girls, you are conditioned to play basketball. By now, if there is a loss, it’s not because of playing three nights in a row. I like it and I’d play four nights in a row.”
The loss put Waynesburg Central in a position where the Lady Raiders will need help to qualify for the playoffs.
“We may still be one game behind Beth-Center,” said Waynesburg coach John Garber, “But, we’ll need some help.”
Waynesburg Central (4-7, 6-11) gave Frazier a scare in the first meeting of the teams at Waynesburg, but the hosts used a 22-5 advantage in the second quarter on Thursday to put some distance between the teams.
Frazier (7-2, 10-7) led 2-0 on Brooke Poling’s opening basket, but Waynesburg Central took its only lead on a pair of free throws by both Taylor Staley and Rachel Eisenheimer, around a basket by Kirsten Garber.
The Lady Commodores went ahead 7-6 on two free throws by Emily Marshall and a 3-point field goal by Lauren Mastowski.
Claire Garber’s free throw tied the game for the second and final time before Alena Blaszczak’s trey and a basket by Poling made it 12-7. Celine Monica sank two free throws for the Lady Raiders to cut the lead to 12-9 at the quarter break.
After Eisenheimer’s basket cut the deficit to 12-11 to start the second quarter, Frazier ran off eight straight points, six by Poling and two by Marshall, for a 20-11 lead.
After Staley broke the run with a free throw, Frazier ran off six more points, four by Poling and two by Jovanna Isaac for a 26-12 lead.
Minutes later, Frazier closed the half with eight straight points to build a 34-14 lead after 16 minutes. That run extended to 12 points when Isaac and Marshall scored to open the second half.
Trailing 38-14, the Lady Raiders went on their only significant run of the game as Kirsten Garber scored six points and Eisenheimer added four points to cut the lead to 38-24.
But after a Frazier time out, the Lady Commodores responded with a Poling basket and four points from Mastowski, and the lead was never less than 18 points the rest of the way.
Poling and Mastowski led Frazier with 20 and 9 points, respectively, while Eisenheimer and Kirsten Garber scored eight points apiece to lead Waynesburg Central.
“We worked on our trapping defense,” said Ken Poling. “(Celine) Monica and (Kirsten) Garber are good guards and you’re not going to stop them all night. You just have to try to slow them down. They are well coached, and we were fortunate to make some runs and get a little lead.”
John Garber said Frazier “ran two girls at Celine Monica and played a box-and-one on Kirsten. Staley stepped up and got some points inside, but overall, their size dominated and they took our strengths away. Still, our girls played hard for four periods.”