Tornado girls drop Pine-Richland
PINE TWP —
She sensed a letdown was possible, but in the end, her team
wouldn't allow it, sinking all eight of its free-throw attempts down the
stretch in a 38-32 Section 3-AAAA victory.
“We were coming off a big win (32-31 over Oakland Catholic in
overtime Saturday) and we had a day to get ready,” said Epps. “I could tell at
practice we didn't look sharp.
“It's a tough section. Every team will come at you, especially
on the road,” she added.
The Tornado (10-9, 6-3) — which sits in second place in the
section behind North Allegheny (15-2, 8-1) and ahead of Oakland Catholic (7-11,
6-4) — had their hands full with the Rams, who stayed close, but were limited
to 11 second-half points.
“Dorothea switched up a chaotic trapping zone and our girls
panicked,” Pine-Richland coach Cliff Foster said. “Twenty
turnovers in the second half after just three or four in the first half.
“That's been our
issue,” he added. “A lot of our girls are inexperienced.”
The Tornado broke a 10-all tie when Cait Baxter and Mackenzie
O'Donnell scored the final two baskets of the first quarter and Kalynn Callihan
opened the second quarter with a layup to give
The Rams, however, outscored
“We felt we needed to speed up, to come out and trap them,”
Epps said. “That we got turnovers was great, although not a lot of them we
turned into points.”
A pair of Caitlin McMaster free throws less than one minute
later reverted the lead back to the Rams (5-15, 2-8).
The teams were tied at 28 with less than four minutes
remaining, before Natalie Barkus gave
O'Donnell missed all three of her free-throw attempts in the
Tornado's next two possessions, but O'Donnell, Sam Marak and Baxter each
drained two free throws apiece on the next three trips down to open up a 36-28
advantage with
“This team is getting mentally tough,” Epps said of her
squad. “You can't go to sleep with any team in this section. (Pine-Richland's)
girls played hard. Cliff has them going in the right direction.”
“We had some young kids give us some good minutes,” said
Foster, who used 11 different players in the first half. “There are so many
kids and you're trying to find the right combinations. There's value to that.”
O'Donnell led all scorers with 15 points, while the Rams
received a team-high 10 points from Battaglia.
Natalie Barkus 2 0-0 5, Mackenzie O'Donnell 4 7-12 15, Sam
Marak 1 2-2 4, Cait Baxter 2 4-5 8, Kalynn Callihan 2 0-0 4, Morgan Pfabe 0 0-0
0, Alyssa DiPippa 0 2-2 2, Lauren Bresnahan 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 15-21 38.
PINE-RICHLAND 32
Marisa Hombosky 2 0-0 6, Chelsea Rourke 0 2-4 2, Kati Altman
0 0-0 0, Maria Battaglia 3 4-4 10, Caitlin McMaster 1 4-4 6, Kaitlyn Jenkins 1
0-0 2, Julia Frazier 0 3-4 3, Hannah Fassler 0 0-0 0, Angie Sporrer 0 0-0 0,
Abbey Kalin 1 1-2 3, Morgan Marek 0 0-0 0. Totals: 8 14-18 32.
Pine-Richland10 11 4 7—32
3-point goals:
JV: