Lady Pioneers beat Clairton, extend quarterfinals streak
ROGERSVILLE — West Greene found itself in a familiar position as it walked off the court following a 50-21 first-round playoff victory over Clairton on Monday night.
The Lady Pioneers are back in the WPIAL Class A girls basketball quarterfinals for the 10th consecutive year.
The amazing streak has spanned three coaches with Jordan Watson at the helm for six of those years, followed by Austin Crouse for two and Ben Brudnock adding on two more in his two seasons guiding the team.
“It started long before us but I’m glad we’ve kept it going,” Brudnock said of the decade of Elite Eight appearances, although No. 10 lines up as a stiff challenge for West Greene (17-6). The sixth-seeded Lady Pioneers will travel to third-seeded and three-time defending WPIAL champion Union (18-4) for a 7 p.m. game Thursday.
Madelyn Roberts made up for a rare off-shooting night by Kendra Tharp by pouring in a game-high 19 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, to lead the way for West Greene against 11th-seeded Clairton (8-11).
The Lady Bears fell to West Greene for the third time this season. The first two meetings came in Section 2-A play with the Lady Pioneers winning 53-17 at Clairton and 46-27 at West Greene. Monday’s 29-point margin of victory was quite deceiving, though.
The Lady Pioneers held leads of just 7-5 after the first quarter and 14-10 at halftime.
That didn’t sit well with Brudnock.
“After we hit a couple early shots they went man to man and then we were hesitant with our dribble drive and very careless with the basketball,” Brudnock said. “It’s playoff basketball. Clairton didn’t come all this way just to lay down. They gave us a good run for it in the first half.
“We lit into them as a coaching staff at halftime but sometimes you’ve got to give some tough love to draw out their best. Honestly, it was a gut-check moment. We challenged the girls to play to their level, to treat every possession with urgency, to defend their home court.
“They came out in the third quarter and played lights out.”
After Clairton’s Jhustice Jones opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer to slice the gap to one, West Greene began to take over.
Tharp made one of two free throws, Roberts scored on a driving layup and Tharp hit a baseline jumper to give the Lady Pioneers some breathing room at 19-13.
Jamiya Brownfield swished a trey to get the Lady Bears within three but Roberts countered with a 3-pointer of her own to start an 11-point run that put West Greene in control. The burst also included a free throw by Tharp, another 3-pointer by Roberts, a driving bank shot by Eryka Hackney and a layup by Roberts on a long pass from Tharp.
Jones snapped the run with a jump shot but Roberts dropped in another layup off a turnover to make it 32-18.
A technical foul on Clairton’s bench with 2.4 seconds left in the quarter turned the tide completely West Greene’s way.
Samantha Zimmerman made both free throws and Tharp drained a 3-pointer on the inbounds play for the dagger that all but finished off the Lady Bears, who were suddenly down by 19 with a quarter to play.
“It was such a good feeling,” Tharp said. “I don’t normally take or make a lot of threes but to hit that buzzerbeater one I think deflated them and gave us a really big lift going into the fourth quarter.”
Up 37-18, the Lady Pioneers put the game away by opening the fourth quarter with another 11-point run that included 3-pointers by Katie Brudnock and Roberts, layups off turnovers by Hackney and Chloe Harris and a free throw by Jillissa Yeater.
“In the third quarter we made a bit of a height adjustment to give us a little more rebounding and we took much better shots and converted,” coach Brudnock said. “We knew our bench play would eventually wear Clairton down.”
Jones and Karma Fuqua each had eight points to lead the Lady Bears.
Zimmerman ended up with nine points and Tharp finished with seven. West Greene also got four points apiece from Hackney, Yeater and Harris and three from Brudnock. The Lady Pioneers made seven 3-pointers, including one each by Yeater and Zimmerman.
Tharp wasn’t concerned about her low point total.
“I enjoy having a lot of assists just as much as scoring,” she said.
“We probably rely too heavily sometimes on Kendra for both points and rebounds, but to be successful in the playoffs we have to spread the wealth,” Brudnock said. “We’re best when we’re balanced. Even though tonight was far from perfect it was great to see Madelyn have a game like this, especially in the third quarter when her jump shot was on and she scored 10 points.
“Tonight we needed someone else to step up and score. Madelyn and Sammie did that.”
Roberts deflected credit to her teammates.
“I felt pretty good shooting the ball tonight, but I think we all did a good job working together in the second half,” she said.
Brudnock felt his players redeemed themselves over the final two quarters.
“They came out with fire, with hustle, with no excuses, they took care of the ball and buried open shots,” he said. “I was proud of them.”
Brudnock pointed out the impact Tharp, who has accumulated over 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her stellar career, has even when she’s not putting up double figures in scoring.
“Kendra doesn’t get tired,” he said. “She doesn’t get too high. She doesn’t get too low. She’s just a constant, steady, hustle, grit and determination type of player. She’s a leader by example. Whether it’s passing, rebounding, going for loose balls, taking on the hard defensive assignment, even if she’s not scoring, she’s going to contribute in every other way she can.”
A win over Union would assure West Greene a spot in the PIAA tournament but even with a loss the Lady Pioneers would still have a chance to play their way into becoming one of the WPIAL’s si