West Greene at home on WPIAL’s big stage
Playing on the big stage might actually help the West Greene High School girls basketball team.
It definitely beats the alternative of playing in the small gym at Winchester Thurston, which is as tight as a shoe box. It was something that didn’t help the Pioneers earlier this season.
No room resulted in big problems for West Greene.
The Bears mauled West Greene for the third time and two years, 58-38, and ruined its 13-0 record at the time in a regular-season game Jan. 19.
West Greene coach Jordan Watson is hoping that a larger court, and a roster used to playing on the big stage, in other sports – the Pioneers played in the last two PIAA Class A softball title games and were state champions a season ago – will translate to a fourth times being a charm against Winchester Thurston when the teams meet for the WPIAL Class A championship at 3 p.m. today at the Petersen Events Center.
West Greene is the first girls basketball team from Greene County to play in a WPIAL championship game.
“These girls have won four section titles, two WPIAL titles and a state title,” Watson said of West Greene’s recent success in girls sports.
“(Our girls) have played on the big stage before, even though this is the first time a girls basketball team has ever made a championship game. They are used to winning. They are accustomed to winning. We’re not just happy to be there. We are going in to win this thing.”
For the Pioneers to defeat top-seeded Winchester Thurston (18-5) – the defending WPIAL Class A champion – making shots will go a long way in doing so. In the mid-January game, West Greene shot only 13.4 percent from the field (11 of 82), failed to make a three-pointer (0 of 25) and was limited to six points in transition.
“We never shoot that bad,” Watson said. “Their length had a lot to do with it and we didn’t make the extra pass to get the open look.”
And while missing shots created a big disadvantage on the scoreboard, it handcuffed what the Pioneers could do with their patented full-court press defense, which has forced an average of 39 turnovers per game this season, including 60 in their two postseason games, against Rochester and Quigley Catholic.
“It’s huge,” Watson said of how making shots sets up the Pioneers’ unrelenting press.
“We run eight girls at you. We face guard. We trap. We zone press. But you have to make baskets to set all that up. It’s key to our tempo. One advantage we have over (Winchester Thurston) would be our depth. If you press, you might be able to wear them down.”
Watson admits it starts and stops with defense and rebounding, and second-seeded West Greene (22-2) did neither of those well against the size of the Bears.
The inside-outside tandem of 5-8 point guard Gia Thorpe and 6-2 forward Ayanna Townsend, a Xavier recruit, have given the Pioneers absolute fits.
Thorpe, who averages 21 points per game, scored 27 and 23 points in the two matchups last year. She led Winchester Thurston with 16 points in the regular-season meeting this season.
Watson said last year that Thorpe is the best player West Greene has ever faced.
“You could put her in a phone booth and it would be hard to get a hand on her,” Watson said about Thorpe’s shiftiness. “You have to change it up a little bit and keep her in front of you. She scores a lot and gets to the rim very well.”
Townsend averages 14 points per game.
“We know what they are going to do. They know what we are going to do,” Watson said. “I don’t think being a pressure situation will impact us at all. We couldn’t shoot any worse. If we win, it’s because we have slowed down Thorpe and Townsend because you can’t stop them.”