Dec 17, 2022 3 min read

Looking to bounce back from a tough non-section loss at Pine-Richland Thursday night, Trinity’s girls basketball team picked up a 63-38 win against Belle Vernon Saturday afternoon at Hiller Hall.

“We needed to bounce back and have had some struggles on the offensive end,” said Trinity coach Kathy McConnell-Miller. “Today we did a great job of sharing the ball, pushing it in transition and that was part of the focus.

“We were able to stay hooked up in our assignments and communicated well on the defensive end.

While disappointed with the loss, Belle Vernon coach Kaitlyn Slagus knows her team improved after facing Trinity.

“This wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but this is a good lesson learned,” she said. “We never want to lose, but this Trinity team is an all-around solid team and this will help us. We have to make sure to play 32 minutes of defense.”

Both teams have legitimate section title and postseason aspirations, so it was no surprise they went through a feeling-out process in the first quarter.

Belle Vernon (2-4) was aggressive early, feeding the ball inside to Farrah Reader for multiple baskets in the opening minutes.

The first quarter was evenly played with the Leopards holding a four-point lead twice, but Trinity (4-2) fought back and took its first lead with one second left in the as Agatha Niccolai hit a layup to give the Hillers a 12-11 lead and they never trailed again.

The Hillers limited the Leopards to six points in the second quarter and closed with a 12-3 run to take a 27-17 lead into halftime.

Belle Vernon opened the third quarter by scoring the first six points to trim the Trinity lead to 27-23, but they would get no closer and the Hillers closed with a 10-2 lead to take a 37-23 lead into the fourth quarter.

Using a 13-2 run to open the fourth, the Hillers put the game away, and both coaches were able to get their younger players some playing time.

“Our team is a work in progress and players who were role players in the past, we are asking them to make plays,” said McConnell-Miller.

Trinity’s Eden Williamson led all scorers with 15 points while Macie Justice (14) and Maddie Roberts (10) also hit double figures for the Hillers. Jenna Dawson (11) and Reader (10) were in double figures for the Leopards.

McConnell-Miller also spoke about the effort of 6-1 sophomore Sam Horne, who had game-highs of 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.

“I thought Sam did a nice job coming in,” she said. “Sometimes with her size, she doesn’t have the greatest matchups, but she did a good job on the boards and really cleaned up some of the defensive mistakes we made.”

Roberts added 11 rebounds for Trinity while Tessa Rodriguez led Belle Vernon with seven.