Hillers knock out Char Valley
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Trinity senior guard and four-year starter Alayna Cappelli hopes to lead the Hillers back to the PIAA Class 5A Championship. Trinity opens play in the state tournament against Gateway at 3 p.m., Saturday at Fox Chapel High School.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Trinity’s Riley DeRubbo leans in for a hoop after beating her defender Gabi Legister from Chartiers Valley during PIAA Class 5-A girls’ basketball playoff action.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Abbey O’Connor battles Gabi Legister for a rebound during PIAA Class 5-A girls’ basketball playoff action.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac Rachel Lemons looks for an open man to dish off the ball because of the defense applied by Chartiers Valley’s Lauren Wagner. Despite the pressure, Lemons scored 13 points in Trinity’s 50-37 triumph against the Colts in PIAA playoff action.
McMURRAY – The third part of the Chartiers Valley-Trinity girls basketball trilogy often resembled a prizefight along the Atlantic City Boardwalk.
This bout took place Thursday evening at Peters Township High School and saw the Hillers win the rubber match as they knocked the WPIAL 5A champions out of the PIAA tourney with a physical, 50-37 victory.
Trinity (24-3) will take on Archbishop Carroll of Radnor Saturday at a time and site to be determined.
Archbishop Carroll defeated Harrisburg, 48-45, Thursday.
The Colts (20-8) can take solace that they defeated Trinity earlier this month in the WPIAL semifinals, but it is the Hillers who are still alive and well and heading on to the PIAA quarterfinals.
Trinity also defeated Chartiers Valley in December at the California University Hoopfest.
“Just another Trinity/CV matchup that was real physical,” Colts head coach Dan Slain said. “It looked like a football game broke out there for a while. Both teams got after it, but credit them for the win. Trinity has a real nice team.”
Trinity rode its rebounding and defense in this contest. The Hillers outboarded the taller Colts 30-15 and held Mackenzie Wagner, who scored 26 points in the last meeting, to four points this time around.
“The girls played really good help defense and communicated well all night,” Trinity head coach Bob Miles said.
Playing before a partisian Trinity crowd, the Hillers got out of the blocks quickly. Freshman Riley DeRubbo scored six of her 10 points in the first quarter as the Hillers gained control early.
The Colts used a 7-2 spurt that was capped by a Megan McConnell layup in the second quarter to close within 20-15. But a Sierra Kotchman three pointer in the corner pushed the lead to eight at the half. Kotchman’s dagger seemed give the Hillers a boost that they would carry into the second half.
The high-scoring Kotchman, who was held scoreless in the last meeting, had a game-high 16 points in this game. She also had plenty of help.
Rachel Lemons chipped in with 13 points, while Alayna Cappelli contributed nine.
“Rachel played an excellent game for us this evening,” Miles said. “Riley and Alayna were big for us tonight. We also had big performances defensively by Abbey O’Connor inside. We just boxed out and did well there too.”
It was Kotchman that sealed the deal for all intents and purposes when she scored a classic three-point play late in the third to stretch the Hillers lead to 40-24 Kotchman navigated a tough Colts defense to score 11 points in the second half.
“Sierra struggled the last time we played them but she was solid tonight,” Miles said.
McConnell and Lauren Wagner led the Colts with 11 points each. Gabi Legister scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late for the Colts.
“We wanted to get it inside to Gabi early, but Trinity did a nice job taking that away,” Slain noted. “When they stretched out on our shooters, that is when the middle opened up a little bit.”
As for the Hillers, they will get precious little time to savor the win.
“We’ll probably be on a bus for a bit of a ride on Saturday,” MIles said. “We’ll get in the trainer’s room, get some shooting in and get as ready as we can be.”