Feb 25, 2016 4 min read

The Canon-McMillan girls basketball team entered Thursday’s PIAA play-in game against Mt. Lebanon with a chance to snap a long drought.

No Big Macs basketball team has ever qualified for the state tournament.

The Big Macs will have to wait another year for the opportunity as a slow start proved costly in a 57-50 loss in the fifth-place game of the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs.

The Big Macs finished the season with a 16-9 record.

“It wasn’t the result we were looking for,” said C-M head coach Lou Waller. “But we have a bright future and we had a good season. If you would have told us before the season that we would have been in this position, we all would have signed up for it. Sometimes you lose to a better team and that was the case (here).”

Canon-McMillan fell behind early, but showed plenty of fight and took a lead midway through the third quarter. But every time the Big Macs made a charge, the Blue Devils (16-9) had an answer and most of the time it was from Kate Sramac, who finished with a game-high 23 points.

Leading 38-36 late in the third quarter, the Big Macs tried slowing the tempo. After holding the ball for more than a minute and a half, a costly turnover resulted in a Sramac layup and foul. That three-point play gave Mt. Lebanon a 38-36 lead after three quarters and the Blue Devils never trailed again.

A Cheyenne Trest three-pointer pulled C-M to within 41-40 early in the fourth quarter, but Lebo answered with threes from Sramac and Maura Wallace to push their lead to 48-39.

Wallace finished with 16 points for Mt. Lebanon.

“We couldn’t stop Sramac,” Waller said. “She had a great game and hurt us from both the inside and outside. Every time we got close, she made a play.”

While Sramac got going for the Blue Devils, C-M had a hard time getting the ball in Trest’s hands. The junior finished with a team-high 14 points, but nothing came easy.

“Trest is a great player,” Mt. Lebanon head coach Dori Olkader said. “We wanted to keep the ball out of her hands and make sure she didn’t beat us. We were very solid defensively.”

The Big Macs had a hard time getting Trest the ball, but they did get a spark from freshman Tamara Mathis, who came off the bench to score 13 points.

Eleven of those came in the second half as she kept Canon-McMillan in the game for a while.

Mathis opened the third quarter by scoring the Big Macs first seven points to give C-M a slim lead, but it was short lived.

“We got in some foul trouble, so we turned to Tamara,” Waller said. “She gave us a nice spark and we needed it.”

Nerves played a part early for the Big Macs as they made just one field goal in the first quarter. Rebounding and defense also were a major issue early as the Big Macs were badly beaten on the glass. The Blue Devils built a 14-7 lead after one quarter.

Things got worse for Canon-McMillan as a three-point shot from Sramac saw Canon-Mac fall behind by 13 at 25-12.

“The bottom line was they wanted it more early on,” Waller said. “They came out with the energy and we didn’t.”

Following a Waller timeout, the Big Macs got rolling.

Isabelle Allen hit a three-pointer and followed with a driving layup. Trest hit a layup, her first field goal of the half, as Canon-McMillan cut the Blue Devils’ lead to 25-19.

The Big Macs lost some momentum as a turnover led to a Sramac three, but C-M closed the half by scoring the next four points to head into the locker room down 28-23. Not bad, considering Canon-McMillan committed 12 of their 18 turnovers in the first 16 minutes.

“We came back,” Waller said. “Early on, they got to all the loose balls and beat us on the glass. We did a better job of that late, but just came up short.”