Dec 8, 2016 4 min read

One of the most successful seasons in the Trinity High School girls basketball program’s history is a distant memory by now. The run last season by the Hillers produced some milestones, including a trip to the WPIAL Class AAA championship game.

And, fortunately for Trinity, the majority of that cast returns. This could indeed be another very good season for the Hillers.

Trinity won 21 games last season and returns three starters, including senior Sierra Kotchman, who was the fourth-leading scorer in the area at 17.9 points per game. A hard-shooting guard, Kotchman is the catalyst. The Fairmont State recruit will give the Hillers consistent backcourt play and a leadership quality.

“She’s gotten better,” Trinity coach Bob Miles said. “She’s better at taking the ball to the basket – she’s not relying only on her shooting. We want her to be a scorer and not just a shooter. She also makes everyone around her better because she distributes the ball so well.”

Also back are junior Alayna Cappelli and senior forward Abbey O’Connor, who have a wealth of experience in big games. But they also remember how last season ended – with a loss to South Fayette in the WPIAL title game and a loss to South Park in the first round of the state playoffs. That was the same South Park team Trinity defeated by double digits in the regular season and again in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

“They came in motivated and disappointed that they didn’t play better in the first round of the state tournament when we lost to South Park,” Miles said. “That success we had last year has made us a little more hungry.

“We have a really competitive team and totally different in style than last year. They want to go back to that elite status. They want to be competing at a high level.”

To get back to that level, Trinity must replace the 17.6 points per game that 6-1 center Mary Dunn averaged. Dunn is now at Youngstown State and was the Horizon League Newcomer of the Week in the season’s opening week.

“It’s hard to replace 6-1,” Miles admitted. “Because we don’t have that big presence in the middle, it makes us change our style. We’ll be more uptempo.”

Moving into the starting lineup will be senior forward Rachel Lemons, a player who has worked her way through the program and shown consistent improvement, and talented freshman guard Riley DeRubbo. The Hillers have two reliable reserves in junior forward Jayme Britton and junior guard Allie Scarfo, each of whom provided quality minutes last season.

“We have seven solid players,” Miles admitted.

If the Hillers are going to play fast, then they’ll need more than seven players. That’s why Miles is counting on contributions from sophomore Julia Chakos and junior Sarah Hardy.

With the expansion to six classifications in basketball, Trinity has landed in Class 5-A. The Section 3 opponents – Albert Gallatin, Connellsville, Greensburg Salem, Laurel Highlands, Ringgold and Uniontown, are largely unfamiliar, but Miles knows his team will be battle-tested by the time section play arrives. Instead of padding its record against patsies that should have names like Our Lady of Consecutive Defeats, Miles is challenging his team with a rugged non-section schedule. The Hillers will play at Peters Township, Upper St. Clair and Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic and face Chartiers Valley in a neutral-court game.

Trinity begins the season tonight on its home court in a quality tournament. In the first round, the Hillers will play Chartiers-Houston, a Class AA team that has two of the best players in the area in Alexa Williamson and Jala Walker. Canon-McMillan, which has Seton Hill recruit Cheyenne Trest, and Moon are the other teams in the tournament.

“There are going to be long bus rides for section games but, you don’t play playoff games at home,” Miles said. “We figured the girls were really motivated at the end of last year, and during the summer we looked at how we could get better. That’s why we scheduled these non-section road games.”