Shots don’t drop as Charleroi falls to unbeaten EA
CHARLEROI – For the second straight year, the Charleroi High School girls basketball team will finish second to East Allegheny in Section 2-AAA following the Wildcats’ 57-37 win on the Cougars’ home court Thursday night.
Amani Johnson, the Kennesaw State commit who went over 2,000 points last month, had an off night as she only scored 23 points, five below her average, but the 5-6 dynamo had six assists, six rebounds and four steals to pace East Allegheny (10-0, 19-0).
Johnson started slowly as she only had four points in the first half, and had Charleroi coach Kevin Lee been told before the game that Johnson would be limited early, then he would have felt good about his team’s chances.
“I would have felt good about that, absolutely,” he said. “We had a good game plan but we got behind early and got away from things we wanted to do.”
The Cougars (9-2, 16-3) got behind because East Allegheny made six of its first seven shots and led 12-2. A 6-2 run by Charleroi halfway through the first quarter made the score 14-8.
“They shoot phenomenal against us for some reason,” Lee said. “They had other girls (besides Johnson) hurting us from other spots. They are 19-0 for a reason and are really good.”
The Wildcats led 19-14 after the first quarter with Charleroi’s points coming on seven two-point baskets.
However, the Cougars went cold from the floor and onlymade six more shots the rest of the way – two in the second quarter, one in the third, and two in the fourth.
Charleroi missed countless layups and shots in the lane.
“We missed a lot of easy shots and it killed us,” Lee said. “We have been doing that a lot the last couple of games and we have to finish plays, especially against a team like that.
“We left at least 14 to 16 points of the board on layups alone.”
East Allegheny outscored Charleroi 14-8 in the second quarter and took a 33-22 lead into the half.
Johnson heated up in the second half as she made three baskets in both the third and fourth quarters.
Charleroi was never closer than 10 points in the second half and East Allegheny’s largest lead was at the final horn.
Charleroi’s Sierra Short finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, and Marian Claybaugh had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Charleroi, which is a combined 19-4 in section play between this season and last, going 0-4 against Easy Allegheny and 19-0 against everyone else, is at Uniontown Wednesday for a non-section game.