Trending up: C-M’s Iron 5 too strong for Bethel Park
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Canon-McMillan's Kierra King drives Monday past Bethel Park defender Rebecca Rodriquez.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Bethel Park's Kamryn Lach defends Canon-McMillan's Isabella Allen Monday.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Canon-McMillan's Cheyenne Trest shoots Monday against Bethel Park.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Canon-McMillan's Cheyenne Trest is defended Monday by Bethel Park's Cailey Klink.
HEIDELBERG – The favorite subject of the Canon-McMillan High School girls basketball team these days is history. That’s because the Big Macs are making a little history this year.
Until recent seasons, Canon-McMillan’s girls basketball history had been mostly miserable. But the Big Macs have been trending upward and last week won the first postseason game in the program’s history.
The Big Macs added another winning chapter Monday night in the consolation round of the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs. It could be called The Night the Iron 5 Defeated the Old Nemesis.
Canon-McMillan, which did not make a substitution the entire game, put four players in double figures and pulled away in the second half to beat Section 4-AAAA rival Bethel Park, 57-50, at Chartiers Valley High School.
The win moves Canon-McMillan (16-8), which won a share of section title, to within one win of the Big Macs’ first trip to the state tournament. Canon-McMillan will play another 4-AAAA rival, Mt. Lebanon, Thursday at a site to be determined with the winner advancing to the PIAA tournament as the WPIAL’s fifth-place team. The Big Macs swept the Blue Devils during the regular season.
“This has been an exciting time,” C-M coach Lou Waller said. “We’ve been saying, in the locker room and only among ourselves, that this part of the season is all about history. With every game we win, it’s history. Now, we’re one win away from the state tournament. That would be more history.”
For years, beating Bethel Park (18-7) was a monumental task for Canon-McMillan. The Black Hawks had a winning streak of more than 20 games over the Big Macs until C-M snapped the string earlier this month. In the third meeting between the teams, Canon-Mac used balanced scoring, sticky defense and clutch free-throw shooting to start their own winning streak against the Black Hawks.
Cheynne Trest scored 16 points, Kierra King added 14, and Izzy Allen and Rebecca Turney each had 12 for the Big Macs. It was a fine overall performance from all five C-M players, each whom played the entire 32 minutes. Taylor Waller scored only three points, but she did a spectacular job defensively against BP’s 1,000-point scorer Justine Mascaro, holding her to seven points.
“They did a great job taking away Mascaro, who is our best player,” Bethel Park coach Jonna Burke said. “We needed some other players to step up and make shots. We made some but not enough.”
Bethel Park forged an early 7-2 lead but Canon-McMillan got its transition game in high gear and rallied. Allen scored 10 of her points in the first half – all four baskets were layups – and the Big Macs led 26-23 at halftime.
As C-M held Bethel Park without a field goal for the first 5:56 of the second half, the Big Macs increased their lead to as many as nine points in the third quarter. That’s when the Black Hawks switched to a half-court trap, which gave C-M some trouble. The Big Macs committed 17 turnovers in the game, which helped fuel a BP comeback.
Bethel Park closed to within 37-34 after three quarters before Turney, the Big Mac’s center, began making an impact. Turney turned an offensive rebound into a three-point play, converted one of two free throws and went again to the offensive boards for another putback basket. It was all part of a 13-2 run for C-M that opened a 53-38 advantage. Trest capped the run with two free throws.
“They didn’t substitute anybody,” Burke said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Their kids did a great job. They are flat out the better team.
“They got crucial rebounds. (Turney) was more involved in the second half. Maybe the trap opened up some lanes to the basket for her. She made some big baskets and we fouled her a couple of times. We also didn’t get back and stop their transition game.”
The Big Macs were playing without Lindsay Beach, who is out with concussion-like symptoms. Waller said Beach would have played, if healthy. Without her, C-M went with the Iron 5.
“Coaches have different philosophies and mine is as the year goes on your bench gets a little shorter,” Waller said.
Turney, who had a team-high eight rebounds, says she doesn’t mind playing all 32 minutes. In fact, she was prepared for it.
“In the offseason, all of us were in the gym working out at 6 a.m. We working on conditioning,” Turney pointed out. “Everybody would show up because we knew we had something special this season.”
Shannon Conely, a Canisius recruit, led Bethel Park with 18 points. Rebbeca Rodriguez had 11 points, which included three three-pointers.
“They have two really good players in Mascaro and Conely,” Waller said. “We felt that if we could shut one of those two down, then we’d give up shots to everyone else.”