Feb 6, 2023 3 min read

McDONALD – Not a lot of teams have beaten Trinity since Kathy McConnell-Miller took over as girls basketball coach before the 2019-20 season.

The Hillers are 73-20 in Miller’s tenure.

Three of those losses have been against South Fayette within the past year, and two of them have been by double-digits this season.

The defending WPIAL Class 5A champions beat Trinity 47-25 last month at Hiller Hall, and followed that with a 48-31 win at home Monday night.

Maddie Webber led South Fayette with 20 points. Ava Leroux added 16.

South Fayette, which linched the Class 5A Section 4 outright title, got off to a hot start, scoring the game’s first 10 points. Trinity didn’t score its first points until there was 2:57 left in the first quarter. It took Trinity 1:47 to score again. South Fayette led 15-2 at the end of the quarter and got that lead up to 19-2 in the second period.

“Just came out a little nervous, a little anxious,” McConnell-Miller said after the game. “Turned the ball over, and just allowed South Fayette to control the tempo from the get-go.”

The rough start surprised McConnell-Miller. Her team came into the game having won six straight, it’s last section loss being to South Fayette at home.

South Fayette coach Bryan Bennett also wasn’t expecting it.

“I didn’t expect to get the lead like that early,” Bennett said. “I thought it’d be more of a grind it out game.”

Bennett’s star played like it Tuesday. Webber, a Villanova commit, came in averaging 17.5 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. As Bennett said, Webber is “tremendous.”

“We’re fortunate to have her,” he said. “She played an all-around game tonight. I thought she was great on the defensive end. She hit big basked when we needed to keep that lead. She just makes plays.”

Webber impresses the opposing coach as well.

“I’ve been watching her since she was in the 8th grade. I think se’s one special player.She can do things that are difficult to teach. She just has a knack for the ball… she understands the game. She has a high IQ, she’s a great teammate, she brings energy. She scores at all levals, at the rim, mid-range game, 3. She’s the complete player.”

Webber said her “goal is to just play hard.”

She did that, and so did her teammates.

“We beat them (Trinity) first time, and to be section champs, we’d have to beat them again, so just play hard, rebound. I think we did all that.”

McConnell-Miller was disappointed with the loss, but was pleased with how he team responded after the first quarter.

We played them evenly the rest of the way. So if you take away that segment where we got down quick and came out a little nervous and turned the ball over, the rest of the game, we played Trinity basketball, and I was proud of them for that.”

Bennett is proud of his squad, too, and the Lions are hot as the playoffs are approaching.

“Last year, the teams were hunting Char Valley,” he said. “This year I feel like the teams are hunting us.”