Riley tops 1,000 points in Charleroi’s 78-21 win
Lori C. Padilla
Charleroi’s Kaitlyn Riley (22) is congratulated by teammates Sierra Short (left), Aislyn Lee and Maria Claybaugh following her field goal during Thursday’s game against Waynesburg Central, making her the newest member of the 1,000-point club at Charleroi High School.
Charleroi's Kaitlyn Riley goes up for a shot fpr the two points she needed to to score her 1,000th career point. Riley finished with 16 points Thursday night in the Lady Cougars' 78-21 win against Waynesburg Central.
Lori C. Padilla
Waynesburg Central’s Shay Echegaray goes up for two against Charleroi defender Kaitlyn Riley during the first half of Thursday’s Section 2-AAA game at Charleroi
FALLOWFIELD TWP. — Kaitlyn Riley became the eighth girl in Charleroi history to reach 1,000 career points Thursday night as the Lady Cougars routed Waynesburg Central, 78-21, in Section 2-AAA girls basketball action.
Riley scored her 1,000th point on a layup with 3:10 to go in the first quarter, and the building erupted in celebration and applause.
“It’s actually a relief to get this out of the way because over the past two days I’ve been stressed out, and I even had a nightmare that it was game day and I missed every single shot. I got a lot off my shoulders now though,” said Riley .
Riley, who finished with 16 points, added, “It means a lot to me because I saw Mia Woytovich get hers, and she was my favorite player on that team. When she got it, it made me want to get 1,000 points even more when I was going to be a freshman.”
“I’m proud of Kaitlyn and her 1,000 points. She worked really hard for that, and it’s been fun to watch,” said Charleroi head coach Kevin Lee.
Maria Claybaugh (17), Maggie Albert (15), and Sierra Short (12) also scored in double digits for the Lady Cougars.
“We shared the basketball really well, and they also did a good job running the floor,” added coach Lee. “Simply put, it was a game of a veteran, experienced team taking on a young, inexperienced team.”
Waynesburg Central head coach Dave Sarra acknowledged his team’s youth, saying, “Charleroi’s a very experienced team. We have six sophomores, a freshman, and a junior, so we’re a pretty young team.”
Shay Echegaray and Rachel Elsenheimer led the Lady Raiders (0-3, 1-8) in scoring with six points each.
Charleroi (4-0, 9-1) dominated the first half, outscoring Waynesburg Central, 39-9.
The Lady Raiders continued to struggle in the second half, scoring only 12 points in the final 16 minutes with the mercy rule invoked with 2:18 left in the third quarter.
“There’s a lot of things we have to learn from the film in order to do better,” said Sarra. “We lacked a transition defense, and we can’t make the mistakes we made against a really good, experienced team like this.”
Both teams are in section action Monday night with Charleroi at East Allegheny (9-0, 3-0) and Waynesburg Central at home against McGuffey (3-7, 1-2).
The Lady Cougars hope to continue their momentum into Monday night’s road game.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us on Monday, so we’re going to go to work this weekend because there are other goals we’ve got to achieve,” added Lee.