Jeff-Morgan falls to Winchester Thurston
Jefferson-Morgan’s Kayla Yorko has her shot blocked by Winchester Thurston’s Ayanna Townsend, who scored 23 points and had 12 rebounds in a 40-33 win Saturday at Trinity High School.
Jefferson-Morgan’s Alexandra Bodgen works inside as Winchester Thurston’s Ayanna Townsend goes in for a block.
Jefferson-Morgan’s Nicole Venick tries to get around Winchester Thurston’s Sophie Burkholder.
Jefferson-Morgan wanted to prove the WPIAL girls basketball committee wrong after the one-loss Rockets received the sixth seed in the Class A bracket.
The chip on the shoulders of Jefferson-Morgan’s players was knocked off by a big roadblock in the form of Winchester Thurston. More appropriately, that roadblock turned out to be Winchester Thurston’s 6-1 center Ayanna Townsend.
Townsend scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Winchester Thurston topped Jefferson-Morgan, 40-33, Saturday in a WPIAL Class A first round playoff game at Trinity High School.
Winchester Thurston (12-10) plays Quigley Catholic, an 82-54 winner over Imani Christian on Saturday, in the quarterfinals next Saturday.
The Rockets finish the season at 20-2 and smarting about what could have been.
“We didn’t play very well,” said Jefferson-Morgan head coach Chris Niemiec. “We struggled to make shots all day.”
Townsend, a sophomore, had a lot to do with that, blocking and altering shots.
“We haven’t seen much size like that all season,” Niemiec said. “When she was able to catch it in the paint, she pretty much could do what she wanted.”
Townsend keyed a 9-1 run late in the first quarter, scoring eight points, to give the Bears a 10-6 lead after the first quarter.
The Rockets answered with an 11-0 run that took up almost the entire second quarter to take a 17-15 lead into the locker room.
But there was just too much Townsend for J-M to handle in the second half.
The Rockets led 21-17 in the third quarter before Townsend scored five consecutive baskets as the Bears went on a 13-2 run to close the quarter, taking a 30-23 advantage into the fourth quarter.
“We had a game plan, and I think we executed it pretty well,” said Winchester Thurston head coach Monica Williams. “We changed some things up at halftime, but we wanted to get Ayanna the ball inside where we didn’t think they could defend her. We also wanted to focus on their two best scorers. I think we did a solid job defensively.”
The Rockets fell behind double digits early in the fourth quarter and the hole proved too deep to overcome.
Nicole Venick led Jefferson-Morgan with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“We had open looks,” Niemiec said. “We just didn’t make shots. That’s unfortunate because we did a solid job defensively. Any time we hold a team to 40 points we should win the game. Things just didn’t go our way.”