Clutch performers: Lady Warriors hang tough down stretch to put away Knoch
Elizabeth Forward's Bri Spirnak drives towards the basket against Knoch during the second half of Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School. Spirnak scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in the Lady Warriors' 51-42 win.
Elizabeth Forward's Juria Flournoy dribbles the all across mid-court as Knoch's Madilyn Boyer defends and the Lady Warriors' Haylee Briggs (22) follows during the second half of Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Elizabeth Forward's Anna Resnick (14) hits a jump shot in front of Knoch's Skylar Burkett (22) during the third period of Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Elizabeth Forward's Bailie Brinson (35) sinks a shot in front of Knoch's Lauren Cihonski (42) during the third period of Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School. Brinson scored 12 points in the Lady Warriors' 51-42 victory.
Elizabeth Forward's Bri Spirnak (10) hits one final free throw to put the finishing touches on the Lady Warriors' 51-42 victory over Knoch in their WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School on Monday night. Spirnak hit seven of eight foul shots in the final 39 seconds to cap off a 21-point performance.
Elizabeth Forward's Haven Briggs sinks a 3-point shot against Knoch as teammate Anna Resnick looks on during the second quarter of Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School. Briggs' sister, Haylee Briggs, also hit a 3-pointer in the game.
Elizabeth Forward coach Krystal Gibbs discusses the situation with her players during a timeout in Monday night's WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game against Knoch at Mt. Lebanon High School on Monday night.
MT. LEBANON — Bri Spirnak was back on the court after missing two games due to an ankle injury and didn’t turn in her most consistent performance on Monday night.
The 6-foot-1 senior came up big when she had to, though, and that was enough to help fifth-seeded Elizabeth Forward fend off 12th-seeded Knoch, 51-42, in their WPIAL Class AAAA first-round girls basketball playoff game at Mt. Lebanon High School.
Spirnak scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half and made seven of eight foul shots in the final 39 seconds to help her team advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals where it will face Quaker Valley.
“It felt good to be back playing with my team,” Spirnak said.
Spirnak also grabbed 18 rebounds, giving her a double-double, and made up for a first half in which she went scoreless for a stretch of 11:18.
“Second-half kid, fourth-quarter kid,” EF coach Krystal Gibbs said of Spirnak, who suffered a badly sprained ankle in her team’s 64-52 loss to Belle Vernon on Feb. 7.
Spirnak missed Elizabeth Forward’s final two regular-season games at Uniontown and Canon-McMillan but got herself ready for the postseason.
“She sprained her ankle pretty significantly,” Gibbs said. “It’s bruised and swollen right now.”
Spirnak wasn’t the only player who entered the game at less than 100 percent.
Freshman Bailie Brinson was coming off a knee injury. That didn’t stop her from tossing in 12 points and playing a strong all-around game.
“She’s intense. She has that heart,” Gibbs said of Brinson. “You can’t coach intensity and heart into somebody. She just has it. She had a knee brace on tonight.”
Gibbs doesn’t see injuries slowing her team down.
“We’re tough,” she said. “We’re going to just keep fighting.”
The Lady Warriors (16-7) showed that in the fourth period against stubborn Knoch.
Elizabeth Forward held a precarious 35-32 lead after three periods and Spirnak’s basket off an offensive rebound made it 37-32.
Brinson countered a basket by Skylar Burkett to keep the margin at five but Burkett then hit a 3-pointer with just under three minutes left to pull the Lady Knights within two.
Brinson calmly made a layup as EF broke Knoch’s full-court pressure but Madilyn Boyer scored with 1:40 remaining to again whittle the gap to two with 1:40 on the clock.
Gibbs called a timeout with 1:33 left and just a few seconds after that Haylee Briggs found herself open in the corner. The senior guard drained the 3-pointer and suddenly EF’s advantage was up to five, 44-39.
“What I think really changed that dynamic was Haylee Briggs hitting the shot in the corner,” Gibbs said. “That kid is so underrated. She never gets any credit. She hit that shot right there and that was like, ‘Let’s go.’
“That was a huge shot.”
At that point the Knights had just three team fouls and after missing a shot they were forced to commit four quick fouls to put Elizabeth Forward in the one-and-one.
The Lady Warriors controlled the ball flawlessly, thanks in large part to Julia Jenkins, Juria Flournoy and Spirnak, and finally Spirnak was sent to the foul line with 39 seconds left. She sank both shots to make it 46-39.
Nevaeh Ewing kept the Knights’ hopes alive with a 3-pointer to slice the gap to four with 30 seconds left, but Spirnak was fouled again and converted one of two shots for a 47-42 advantage.
Brinson came up with a loose ball caused by EF’s full-court pressure and was fouled with 17.5 seconds remaining. She missed the front end of the one-and-one but Spirnak grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 15 seconds left. She swished both shots to make it a three-possession game at 49-42 and all but put the Knights away, then added two more free throws with five seconds left to set the final score.
“We’re a lot more mature team,” Spirnak said. “We know what to do in game situations like that.”
Spirnak was nine for 11 at the foul line overall.
“We’ve been shooting a lot more free throws at practice because that’s one of our weaknesses,” Spirnak said. “I’ve just been practicing a lot on them and I had confidence in myself that I could make them.”
The Lady Warriors didn’t look like they would need any late-game heroics early on.
EF scored the game’s first eight points with five of those by Spirnak and led 12-5 after one period. Spirnak wouldn’t score again the rest of the half.
The Lady Warriors pushed their lead up to 10 twice in the second period. A lapse in the final two minutes resulted in the Lady Knights (9-14) scoring the final eight points of the half, thanks to a 3-pointer and basket by Burkett and a trey by Ewing, to pull within 31-29 by intermission.
“They started watching the game. They weren’t participating,” said Gibbs, whose message to her team at halftime was, “If you want to see tomorrow then you’ve got to finish today.”
“They were a really scrappy team,” Spirnak said. “We had to start to play a little harder and more aggressive.”
Burkett, who led Knoch with 16 points, hit one of her four 3-pointers at the start of the third period to give her team its only lead, 22-21.
Spirnak answered almost immediately with a basket at the other end and EF never trailed again.
Lauren Cihonski made one of two free throws to pull the Knights even one last time at 23-23.
Elizabeth Forward retook control with a 6-0 run sparked by senior guard Flournoy, who followed two made free throws with a basket and then fed Spirnak for a hoop inside to make it 29-23.
Knoch got to within three by the end of the period to set up the dramatic final eight minutes.
Ewing followed Burkett in scoring for Knoch with 13 points.
After Spirnak and Brinson, Anna Resnick had five points with a 3-pointer for EF, and was followed in the scoring column by Flournoy (4), Briggs (3), Haven Briggs (3 on a 3-pointer), Abigail Bickerton (2) and Seneca Thompson (1).
Quaker Valley upset fourth-seeded Freeport to set up the quarterfinal matchup, but Spirnak promises her team won’t take the Quakers for granted, especially after the scare from the Knights.
“We just have to be ready for any team,” she said. “We can’t just think that we’re going to have an easy game any game, and play every game like it’s our last.”
Gibbs, who upped her WPIAL playoff record to 4-3, was already moving on to Thursday’s game shortly after Monday night’s victory.
“This game’s done,” she said. “We’re on to the next one. We have Quaker Valley so we’ll start watching some film on the bus, see what we got and we’ll prepare for them.”