Jan 25, 2016 3 min read

CANONSBURG – The Canon-McMillan girl’s basketball team entered Monday night’s Section 4-AAAA game against Baldwin tied for the section lead with Bethel Park.

A lot can change for the Big Macs in the next two weeks as they enter a tough four-game stretch that features games against the top teams in the section.

Up first were the Highlanders, who used an effective 3-2 zone defense to defeat Canon-McMillan in the first meeting right before Christmas.

Thanks to a strong effort from Big Macs guard Cheyenne Trest, things were different this time.

Trest scored 21 of her game-high 33 points in the first half as Canon-Mac built up a 16-point lead en route to a 62-42 victory, the fifth consecutive for the Big Macs and giving them sole possession of first place in the section.

“This was huge,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Lou Waller. “We have a tough stretch coming up and we needed to start it off on a good note. Fortunately, we have three of the four at home. We just need to keep protecting our home court.”

Canon-McMillan got to the basket early and often as Trest had success on her drives. When she wasn’t making layups, Trest got to the free-throw line, making 14 trips, including eight in the first quarter.

Canon-McMillan (9-2, 12-5) started quickly with a 10-3 run and took a 14-6 lead after one quarter, with Trest accounting for 12 of the 14 points.

“Our plan was to just be aggressive and drive to the basket and get to the foul line,” Trest said. “This time … we were at home and we have to protect our home court. We just came out with a lot of intensity tonight and got a big win.”

The Big Macs picked right up where they left off in the second quarter, jumping out to a 9-2 run to take a 23-8 lead. Baldwin (6-5, 11-7) eventually cut the lead to nine, but the Big Macs finished the quarter on a 7-0 run to go into halftime with a 30-14 advantage.

The Big Macs did a solid job on defense, especially on Highlanders guard Lauren Gilbert, limiting Baldwin’s top scorer to just nine points. C-M aggressively double teamed the ball, forcing Baldwin turnovers and preventing the Highlanders from getting into their offensive sets for most of the game.

“We tried to double team the ball and deny Gilbert the ball once she got rid of it,” Waller said. “She hit a couple shots, but she is also excellent at driving to the basket. We didn’t let her do that and she didn’t get to the free throw line at all.”

The only real question in the second half was whether or not Trest would outscore the Baldwin team, which she did, until the 3:45 mark of the fourth quarter.

Canon-McMillan got a nice lift from Isabelle Allen, who finished with 14 points, often finding the soft spots in the Baldwin zone for uncontested jumpers.

The Highlanders were led by Abby Barr, who came off the bench to score 12 points.

“We came out with a lot of energy,” said Waller. “Our energy level is very high at this point. We are running the floor as hard as we can and attacking the basket. We just have a little bit of a different energy level right now and the girls are responding to what we want to do.”