Feb 9, 2017 4 min read

With a section championship already secured, the Trinity High School girls basketball team had one more goal left for the regular season – an undefeated section record.

With playoff-bound Ringgold visiting Hiller Hall Thursday night, it wasn’t easy, but the Hillers put together several runs that wore down the Rams and Trinity came away with a 55-36 victory, capping an undefeated Class 5-A Section 3 championship.

This is the first time Trinity (12-0, 19-2) has gone through a section unbeaten since 1986.

“It’s a nice way to cap off a section title,” Trinity head coach Bob Miles said. “Especially for our seniors on Senior Night. We played sluggish tonight, at times. Senior Night can be a distraction. But we got it together and played well and came up with some key baskets when we needed them.”

The Hillers showed a balanced attack as six different Trinity players found their way into the scoring column as the Rams tried to limit the opportunities for Trinity’s leading scorer Sierra Kotchman.

Kotchman led all scorers with 15 points while Rachel Lemons also finished in double figures with 13. Alayna Cappelli finished with nine points and Abbey O’Connor chipped in seven to go along with 12 rebounds.

“They played Sierra tough, but she is going to get hers,” Miles said. “On any given night, other people step up. It can be Alayna knocking down threes or Riley DeRubbo taking it to the basket. I thought Rachel had a very good game and Abbey played well, especially rebounding the ball.”

The Hillers got off to great start, putting together a 17-1 first-quarter run to take a 17-3 lead.

Cappelli helped spark the run by knocking down a pair of three-point shots.

Things didn’t stay that way for Trinity as the Hillers had trouble taking care of the basketball, turning it over on eight of their next 10 possessions, allowing the Rams to get back into the game.

Ringgold (8-4, 12-9) went on an 11-0 run to close within 17-14 midway through the second quarter. Most of the damage was done by Ashley Briscoe, who scored eight of her team-high 12 points in the first half. Rams point guard Nya Adams also scored in double figures with 11 points.

“We wanted to try and limit Sierra’s touches,” Ringgold head coach Erika McCarthy explained. “It worked for us in the beginning.”

That’s as close as the Rams would get as Trinity closed the first half on a 9-3 run to take a 26-17 lead into halftime.

Trinity was sloppy to start the third quarter, again having turnover issues.

A putback by Ringgold’s Taylor Costa closed the gap the 30-24 before the Hillers delivered the knockout punch.

“We were careless with the ball,” Miles said. “We threw a lot of soft passes. We lost our aggressiveness and it changed the whole flow of the game. It seemed like we were running in quicksand.”

Trinity put together an 11-0 run to close the third quarter. Kotchman followed a pair of free throws with a three-pointer and Cappelli made her third three-pointer of the night to make it 38-24. Allie Scarfo hit a jumper to give Trinity a 40-24 lead after three quarters and erase any chance of a Ringgold comeback.

“When teams make runs at us we get down on ourselves,” McCarthy said. “It’s been happening all season and it is something we need to overcome. That was too much for us to bear tonight and they just kept coming at us.”

The Hillers close the regular season when they host South Fayette in a nonsection game Saturday.

“This was a big win,” Miles said. “We were struggling at times and at halftime we challenged the girls to play our style of game. We just didn’t have our jump tonight, but still played pretty well.”