Pressure reliever: Cal uses balanced scoring, defense to top West Greene
COAL CENTER – West Greene’s pressure-heavy, full-court defense is designed to create turnovers that lead to easy points in transition, while often wearing down an opponent.
That has translated into one of the highest scoring offenses in WPIAL Class A, despite the Pioneers starting four freshmen and not winning one game last season.
When facing the full-court press, opponents can either try to match West Greene’s speed or slow the pace of play down to a methodical half-court game.
California chose the latter Monday night and kept itself in the hunt for a third-consecutive section title.
The Trojans broke through the Pioneers’ press and played tough half-court defense to defeat the Pioneers, 63-39, in a Section 3-A game at home.
California (10-1, 12-6) allowed just 16 second-half points and used balanced scoring to secure a season-sweep of the up-and-coming Pioneers (8-3, 14-4), who clinched their third playoff appearance in the last four years a week ago.
“In the second half, we slowed the game down and got them to play our game,” California head coach Chris Minerd said. “We played their’s too much of the first half and you can’t do that against a team that plays fast like that. When you are able to beat a team like West Greene by 24 points, that’s a statement win.”
Sophomore guard Bailey Vig led California with 19 points, while sophomore guard Grace Roberts added 11 off the bench and senior forward Destiny Gudel finished with 10.
The Trojans’ success started with their defense.
After heading into halftime with a seven-point lead when it struggled with foul trouble, Minerd’s message was simple: win or the section game against rival Jefferson-Morgan Thursday would mean nothing.
The Trojans responded by forcing five third-quarter turnovers that sparked a 14-2 run, giving California the 48-30 lead heading to the final eight minutes. After missing most of the first half because of foul trouble, junior point guard Jenna Miller was pivotal in slowing down California’s offense and pressuring West Greene’s guards into poor shot selection.
She also scored all nine of her points in the second half, including the first four of the 14-2 run on easy layups, helping California pull away.
West Greene freshman McKenna Lampe had a team-high 15 points and her sister Madison, also a freshman, added eight, but no other Pioneers player scored more than five points.
“We knew this would be a possession game, but we didn’t get our transition game going,” West Greene head coach Jordan Watson said. “Our press gives teams fits, but Cal moves and swings the ball so well that it’s hard to get good hard traps.”
That wasn’t the case early. California committed 12 first-half turnovers and often looked uncomfortable against the Pioneers’ lightning-quick pace. Instead of slowly using a motion offense to find the open player on the weak side, the Trojans forced the ball in the lane and panicked before reaching midcourt.
As a result, they only attempted 15 shots in the first half, while West Greene had 60 attempts from the field in the game. When California’s defense excelled in the second half, the Pioneers went almost eight minutes without a field goal.
“I told the girls that if West Greene doesn’t score, they can’t press,” Minerd said. “The girls did a great job and they listened. We limited their scoring and that helped us. (West Greene) started taking ill-advised shots and I think they panicked a little bit.”
The Pioneers cut the Trojans’ lead to just eight points after McKenna Lampe’s fast break layup less than three minutes into the third quarter, but Cal limited the Pioneers to contested shots near or beyond the arc.
During that stretch, the Trojans made five three-pointers and West Greene missed 12 consecutive shots from the field. Seven different players scored for California in the second half. The win gives the Trojans a chance at a first-place tie in the section when they meet Jefferson-Morgan Thursday.
“When they were pressing we were rushing during the first half,” Vig said. “Once we got used to it, we slowed the game down and that got our confidence back up. We started making shots.”