Mar 4, 2016 4 min read

FARRELL – For the majority of three quarters, the crowd supporting the team that had to travel only a few short minutes was quiet.

Quiet enough to hear the echo of angry Mike Williams scream from the bench in the middle of the second quarter.

“If we keep playing like this, we are going home,” Williams, the West Middlesex girls basketball coach said.

The District 10 champion, West Middlesex took that message to heart in the fourth quarter of its PIAA Class AA first-round game Friday night. Nine fourth-quarter turnovers forced by the Big Reds allowed for a 27-11 advantage in the final eight minutes as West Middlesex defeated Chartiers-Houston, 57-43, at Farrell High School.

“It was a little close for me,” said a relieved Williams, whose Big Reds cruised with an average margin of victory of 24.5 points entering Friday. “We missed free throws, layups and a lot of other opportunities in the first half.”

The Bucs did exactly what head coach Laura Montecalvo wanted them to do – keep the game close.

Continued mistakes by West Middlesex (25-1) allowed the Bucs to take a 32-27 lead halfway through the third quarter, following two three-pointers by Cassidy Stollar.

“I definitely thought we had a good chance against this team,” said Montecalvo. “They are a very tall and big team. We knew that we were going to have to do our best boxing out and rebounding.”

The Bucs did an admirable job controlling the boards, but turnovers forced by the West Middlesex press defense caused fits.

“It was very hard for us to see over top of them,” said Montecalvo. “We could not find the open person like we normally can.”

A few days of preparation did wonders for the Big Reds, who saw the value of Chartiers-Houston’s Jala Walker.

“We thought that if we could get the ball out of the hands of Jala Walker and force their secondary kids to handle it, then we would have a pretty good chance,” Williams said.

The Big Reds press, which forced 16 second-half turnovers, led to them capitalizing on easy looks and trips to the free-throw line, where they struggled by only shooting 58 percent as a team coming into Friday night.

West Middlesex made 20 of 23 free throws in the fourth quarter as it took a 35-34 lead on a Mackenzie Mackay layup with 4:28 remaining.

It was a lead the Big Reds would protect.

“We played a tough schedule but have not played in a lot of close games,” said Williams, whose team played only one game that was decided by less than five points. “Chartiers-Houston is a really good basketball team, along with the rest of District 7. I thought this was going to be a game that extended into overtime, to be honest with you.”

The struggles for the Bucs in the fourth quarter did not all end in the backcourt, as they made only one of their first seven field goals.

“Some of the shooting is definitely attributed to the fatigue,” said Montecalvo, who only had seven healthy players after Savannah Wheeler broke her foot this week in practice. “It was one less kid we had to sub. When we got tired, our shots started falling short.”

The fourth-quarter performance for West Middlesex was sparked by junior guard Gretchen Elsey, who scored a team-high 14 points. Two other Reds, Delaney Dogan and Mackay, finished with 11 and 10 points respectively. The District 10 champion moves on to face Our Lady of Sacred Heart.

“I am so happy for our team,” said Williams. “We have really turned the corner with this program.”

Chartiers-Houston (18-9) was led by Walker’s 12 points, only two coming in the second half. She also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Stollar finished in double figures with 10 points.

“The future looks bright,” said Montecalvo. “We have a lot of key returners that improved during this season and that will only help us next year. Basically, our whole team is back so we will see what we can do.”