Feb 17, 2023 4 min read

HOUSTON – Postseason basketball games are often better when the contest is a neighborhood rivalry.

Friday evening’s festivities at Chartiers-Houston was Exhibit A to that thought as Fort Cherry and Chartiers-Houston’s girls basketball squads battled tooth-and-nail in a first round Class 2A playoff game that had several twists and turns. At the end, the gritty Buccaneers had just enough guile at the end to pull out a tough 38-36 win over the visiting Rangers.

Chartiers-Houston’s record improves to 16-7 and the Bucs will move on to the next round of the playoffs while Fort Cherry sees its season come to a close with a 14-9 mark.

“We have five games with them in the past that have been real close just like this one,” Buccaneers coach Laura Montecalvo added. “I told our girls there in the second half, that we have to find some kind of way to win this game and we did.”

The Rangers did defeat the Buccaneers 37-34 on Dec. 6 also on Chartiers-Houston’s home floor. For a good portion of the fourth quarter, it appeared that history was about to repeat itself as the Rangers were poised to go ahead in the game’s waning moments, but Ella Richey was able to steal the ball with less than 10 seconds left in the game and the Bucs clinging to a one-point lead.

“Ella (Richey) getting on the floor and getting us the ball was so huge,” Montecalvo said. “That showed how determined we were to win this game.

Although she missed the front end of a one-and-one, the Bucs were able to repel the Rangers again as they forced yet another turnover when Zalayah Edwards entry pass to Raney Staub sailed out of bounds, giving the Bucs the ball and a chance to seal the deal.

Ava Capozzoli made one of two free throws with less than three seconds remaining, which resulted in the final margin of victory for the hosts.

Chartiers-Houston took control of the contest early by going on a 12-4 run in the game’s opening six minutes. Two Capozzoli three-pointers helped fuel the run as the Bucs took a 14-7 lead into the second quarter. The expanded their advantage to 22-12 at halftime thanks to Mia Mitrik’s two buckets and a Kaydan Buckingham three pointer in the second quarter.

The Bucs were also on point defensively as they held the Rangers to one-of-10 shooting from the field in the first quarter.

“I think we were a bit too jittery early on,” Rangers coach Clarence Edwards said. “We missed so many lay-ups and open shots. Our defense was there, we just weren’t getting rewarded for it.”

The Rangers flipped the script in the second half as the visitors went on a 14-4 run to slice the Buccaneers lead to 26-23 at the end of the third quarter. Freshman point guard Bella Bianchini got hot in the third quarter. Her seven third quarter points which included a three-pointer early in the frame helped kickstart the Rangers as they clawed their way back into the contest.

“She played her heart out,” Edwards noted. “She played real tough. We got some big shots from others too.”

Bianchini, who finished with 11 points, drained another three-pointer to give Fort Cherry a slim one-point lead early in the fourth. She unfortunately was injured when Capozzoli scored an old-fashioned three-point play midway through the fourth quarter.

Edwards said it appeared she injured an ankle. She did not return following the play.

It appeared that the Rangers were about to finish the comeback, but Buckingham hit two more three-pointers in the final frame, the second one with 3:50 left gave the Buccaneers a 35-34 lead.

Two Ali Wingard free-throws gave Chartiers-Houston a 37-36 lead and helped set up the frantic finish that saw the Buccaneers hold off the Rangers twice before preserving the win.

Buckingham and Capozzoli led the Buccaneers with 10 points apiece. Staub chipped in with nine points for the Rangers.