Jan 18, 2018 2 min read

CHARLEROI – The Cougars of Charleroi doubled up South Allegheny in Section 2-AAA action Thursday night, but it wasn’t pretty.

Just how ugly was it early on?

Charleroi coach Kevin Lee benched four of his five starters midway through the first quarter and it sparked them to a 54-27 win.

“We didn’t come out ready to play and scored four points in the first quarter,” Lee said. “With our talent level, it is unacceptable and if you would have told me we were going to do that in the first quarter, I would have thought you were crazy.

“I saw it but I wasn’t happy in the least.”

Though Charleroi (6-1, 12-2) trailed 8-4 after the first quarter, it limited South Allegheny (9-5, 3-4) to eight points in the second quarter, four in the third and seven in the fourth as all seven were scored after the starters were taken out of the game.

“It was a slow start to say the least and I don’t know where our heads were at,” said Lee. “If we played a decent team tonight, we get beat and it is that simple.”

The Cougars exploded for 20 points in the second quarter with Maria Claybaugh and Belle Skobel each scoring seven points in the quarter.

At the half, Lee and his staff told the girls to forget the first half.

“We told them to erase it and to play a better second half,” he said. “Our defensive pressure made a difference in the second half.

“But we need to fix our foul shooting moving forward and we are lacking in execution.”

Charleroi was only 11 of 24 (46 percent) at the free throw line.

Up 24-16 at the half, Charleroi opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run and never looked back as it led 40-20 after three quarters.

Kaitlyn Riley and Claybaugh, who became the eighth and ninth players in program history to hit the 1,000-point mark recently, led the way for Charleroi with 20 and 17 points, respectively.

Claybaugh and Riley both added six rebounds and five steals, Sierra Short had five steals and five rebounds, and Aislyn Lee had eight assists for the Cougars.

“We know we are going around the second time in the section and we will get everyone’s best shot,” Lee said. “And it happened tonight.”