Bucs pound OLSH in semifinals
Chartiers-Houston’s Keaira Walker gets two points for the Bucs during the second half of Monday’s Class AA seminfal playoff game at Peters Township High School. The Bucs will play for the WPIAL Class AA Championship at 5 p.m. Thursday at Petersen Events Center.
Chartiers-Houston’s coach Laura Montecalvo talks to Jala Walker during a break in play during Monday’s game against Our Lady of Sacred Heart.
Chartiers-Houston’s Alexa williamson drives to the basket during the second half of Monday night’s game against Our Lady of Sacred Heart.
McMURRAY – What a difference one year makes.
Meeting in a WPIAL quarterfinal game last year, Our Lady of Sacred Heart exposed every weakness of Chartiers-Houston’s girls’ basketball team.
OLSH imposed an up-tempo offense with a senior-dominated lineup against the shorthanded Bucs, who were without standout Alexa Williamson.
Because of that, Williamson, who missed most of last year with a knee injury, wasn’t going to let a stomach bug keep her from playing against OLSH this time around.
And Williamson proved to be a difference maker, scoring 25 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as C-H defeated OLSH, 54-39, in a Class 2-A semifinal game at Peters Township High School Monday night to advance to its first WPIAL girls basketball championship.
Top-seeded C-H will play second-seeded Vincentian Academy, which defeated Greensburg Central Catholic 43-39, for the title at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Peterson Events Center.
“The kids have really bought into the program as a whole,” said C-H head coach Laura Montecalvo. “We focus extensively on defense. We have multiple defenses we like to use and ask our kids to do things that might be a little unconventional sometimes. They always buy in, play together and play for each other.”
OLSH lost all five starters from last season and doesn’t have a senior on its roster. That left Char-Houston, which won both meetings with OLSH this season, as the more experienced playoff team.
It showed early as the Bucs took a 7-0 lead, then fed the 6-2 Williamson for the final four points of the first quarter to take a 17-8 lead.
“In practice, I’ve just worked a lot on boxing out, rebounding and putting the ball back up,” Williamson said regarding the knee injury that sidelined her most of her sophomore season.
“We’ve gotten a lot better, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We have learned how to stop other teams at what they are good at. Tonight, it was their three-point shooting.”
“(OLSH) definitely wanted to play a slow, regimented and discipline game,” Montecalvo said. “They are very good at doing that. We wanted to just do a couple of things. One was make sure we weren’t in foul trouble, which we did a really good job of, and wanted to be able to run and get in transition. We were trying to create that fast pace tonight.”
The Bucs found that up-tempo attack near the end of the first quarter when Williamson’s consecutive field goals sparked a 12-0 run for C-H that lasted nearly seven minutes and ended with a 25-8 lead with 3:14 remaining in the second quarter.
After taking a 27-13 lead into halftime, C-H (22-2) continued looking for quick scoring opportunities that have worked in its 15-game winning streak that have been by an average margin of 37 points.
OLSH, however, forced 18 turnovers to slow the game down near the end of the third quarter, where it went on a four-point run culminating with a Maddie Hoff reversal layup to cut the lead to 13 points after three quarters, 36-23.
“That’s definitely something we will have to address in practice over the next few days,” said Montecalvo. “It’s something I know we can do better at because I’ve seen us do it this year. We have control over that stuff and can definitely do better in that area.”
One thing Montecalvo didn’t have to worry about rebounding. With Williamson and company, the Bucs held a 28-11 rebounding advantage.
“You can’t replace a player like her,” Montecalvo said about Williamson. “She just brings so much to the table offensively and defensively. She did an excellent job finishing. She is the crux of our defense and we can count on her to allow us to do a lot of different things on the perimeter.”
Jules Vulcano and Keaira Walker also helped on the glass combining for 13 rebounds, while Jala Walker finished with 14 points for the Bucs.
OLSH (18-6) was led by Ashley Norling’s 15-point performance.
“I talked earlier about the kids leaving a legacy and what I would say about this group five years from now,” Montecalvo said. “I asked them, ‘What is the mark you want to leave?’ They took that to heart and just said, ‘We want to be champions.'”