Streak busters: Trinity ends CV run at 64
The last time Chartiers Valley lost a girls basketball game, LeBron James was still in Cleveland.
Antonio Brown was still a Steeler, Lamar Jackson was not yet a Raven, and Prince Harry was two months away from marrying Meghan Markle.
A lot has happened in the past 1,051 days. Plenty of good and plenty, plenty, plenty of bad.
Through it all, Chartiers Valley won 64 straight games, breaking a state record with win No. 63 Monday night against Gateway.
Well, all good things must end, and for the Colts (7-1) the ending came at Trinity’s Hiller Hall Saturday afternoon.
The Hillers (6-1) — six-time victims of the streak, including last year’s Class 5A WPIAL Championship game–slayed the dragon, 49-42, in a nonconference matchup.
The opposing coach responsible for ending Tim McConnell’s unbeaten reign was none other than his sister.
One may think Kathy McConnell-Miller would get some type of satisfaction in winning a sibling battle. While she was, of course, elated about the win, it wasn’t because of who was on the other side.
“The last person I ever want to go up against is my brother,” McConnell-Miller said. “I have so much respect for him and his team, what they’ve accomplished. We feel good about the win, and we know we beat a really quality team today.”
“I thought they played harder than us,” Tim McConnell said. “I thought they outworked us. I thought they wanted it more. It showed on the scoreboard.”
The Hillers took the lead with 4:50 left in the first quarter, and never gave it up.
More than anything else, Trinity won because of defense and outside shooting.
They held Chartiers Valley to 27 points below its season average. Offensively, the Hillers scored 21 of their 27 first half points from outside.
Courtney Dahlquist, who led both teams with 19 points, scored 12 of them from three-point range, showing off skills that McConnell-Miller said weren’t there last year.
“She’s really expanded her game. …,” McConnell-Miller said. “She’s really learned to stretch defenses and shoot the three ball. I credit her for the amount of time that she put in. I definitely respect what she has done. She knows she has the green light, and she definitely played her role.”
Perhaps the first sign that it was going to be Trinity’s day happened just before the half. The Hillers were up 24-21, when point guard Emily Venick, who rarely shoots and hadn’t attempted a shot in the game, took a pass from Dahlquist and nailed a three-pointer as time expired, doubling the lead.
Though Venick is a player who McConnell-Miller says prides herself on being a pass-first point guard — somewhat of a throwback — her coach said the senior understood that the situation called for her to shoot.
“She knew what we needed,” McConnell-Miller said. “She understood time and score, and she hit a big three. She deserved it. She’s in this gym before practice every day, at least 45 minutes to an hour, and stays. She and (sister Kaylin) are the last two to leave. So to see that hard work pay off, that’s a really good thing.”
It only got better for the home team.
The Hillers led by eight going into the fourth quarter and spent much of the final period keeping possession of the ball and playing matador.
It worked. With 1:48 to play, Trinity led 42-31, and it looked as if the Hillers would not only win, but possibly win by double digits.
But Chartiers Valley started to get off the mat.
In just 27 seconds, the Colts cut the lead to five. When the Hillers got the ball, Chartiers Valley had no other option but to foul Dahlquist. The senior sunk both free throws and sunk the streak.
“We do free throws so often in practice, so it was just easy for me,” Dahlquist said. “I’m so used to doing that. … I definitely knew the stakes of the game, so I kind of had to put them in, but I was ready for it.”
Above all, it’s the senior class of Dahlquist, the Venick sisters, Ashley Durig and Abby Wayman, who McConnell-Miller hangs her hat on.
“They’ve been working for this,” she said. “This is something that they’ve set their sights on. They are a very talented senior class. They’ve been playing together a long time. To see them really put that together is just a credit to them. It’s a credit to their leadership. It’s a credit to their work ethic. They deserved it. They deserved to come out with a victory in a tough game like that.”
For Char Valley, Perri Page was a bright spot, scoring 15 points. Overall, however, it was a dark afternoon for the Colts. For Tim McConnell, the end of the streak is irrelevant. What does matter is that he feels his team was outworked.
“I don’t even think about the streak, so it doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “The streak means nothing to me.
“Today they took us out of our stuff, and they did a good job. They wanted it more. That’s the bottom line.”
The sky is hardly falling for Chartiers Valley, however. It’s streak of 31 straight conference wins remains intact, and the Colts hope to add to that Thursday night at 7:30 against Oakland Catholic and make no mistake, the Colts are still a favorite to three-peat in Class 5A.
For Trinity, there’s still plenty of work to do, starting Monday night at Laurel Highlands. The goal is to win a WPIAL and state championship, and with more performances like Saturday’s, all things are possible for the Hillers.
“We have to keep playing as a team,” Dahlquist said. “If we keep doing that, we can beat anybody.”