VINCENTIAN ACADEMY 59, WEST FOREST 45

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March 11, 2009 - PIAA Girls' Class A Second Round at DuBois Middle School

PIAA Playoff Home Page

By Chris Rossetti

DUBOIS – Vincentian Academy used a full-court pressure defense to force 20 West Forest turnovers while turning those giveaways into 18 points in a 59-45 win over the Lady Indians in the second round of the PIAA Class A girls’ basketball playoffs Wednesday night at DuBois Middle School.

“I felt our pressure defense is pretty good,” Vincentian Academy head coach Ron Moncrief said. “I felt like we could create some turnovers and get into our transition style of play like we want to.”

Vincentian Academy’s press was most effective in the second quarter when the Lady Royals (20-8) scored nine points off five West Forest turnovers while outscoring the Lady Indians (25-4) 20-6 in the quarter. West Forest entered the second quarter with an 11-7 lead but found itself down 27-17 at halftime.

The Lady Indians tried to make a couple of runs at Vincentian Academy in the second half cutting the lead to five a couple of times, including 45-40 on two Alyssa Dreihaup free throws with 5:28 to play, but the Lady Royals seemed to have an answer every time West Forest made a run.

“It was all defense,” Wachob said. “We were doing OK offensively. We were putting points on the board. They got a lot of steals on us that they shouldn’t have. It was just all our defense. Our defense let us down.”

Vincentian Academy also used its height advantage, two Lady Royal starters are listed at 5-11 or taller including 6-1 sophomore Gabby Baldasare while West Forest’s biggest starter is 5-7, to outscored the Lady Indians 37-8 in the paint. Baldasare finished the night with 16 points, while fellow forward Keturah Vector had 11.

“It was hard to defend it,” Wachob said. “They had two girls that played well inside. We tried three different defenses against it. They scored a bunch of points on second tries. They would just get the offensive rebound and put it up. We were attempting to box them out, but they are awful big.”

West Forest stayed right with the Lady Royals in the game’s first 10 minutes thanks in large part to three first quarter 3-pointers including a pair by the Lady Indians lone senior Erica Blum. On the night, West Forest hit seven 3-pointers coming within one triple of the school record with Blum hitting four by herself.

“We have great 3-point shooters,” Wachob said. “We made a ton of them. That was the game plan. We knew they were going to play that zone and we could hurt them outside, and we did.”

Geena Sneeringer and Blum led West Forest with 15 points each, while Lindsay Primyon also had 16 for Vincentian Academy.

Despite the loss, West Forest ends the season with a school-record 25 wins while winning a PIAA playoff game for the first time since 1982.

“We wanted to further than we did last year, and we did,” Wachob said. “Tomorrow, I will be happy about our season. Today, I am unhappy about this loss. You can’t be happy. I told the girls in the lockerroom, ‘tomorrow we will celebrate your season, tonight we should be ticked off about this loss.’”  

VINCENTIAN ACADEMY 59, WEST FOREST 45

Score by Quarters

West Forest 11 6 13 15 – 45

Vincentian 7 20 11 21 – 59

West Forest – 45

Geena Sneeringer 6 1-3 15, Erica Blum 5 1-2 15, Rachel Greathouse 0 0-0 0, Hilary Clark 0 0-0 0, Grace Wallace 0 0-1 0, Amanda Carll 3 0-0 6, Alyssa Dreihaup 2 4-4 9. Totals 16 6-10 45.

Vincentian – 59

Lindsay Primyon 5 3-4 16, Joellen Spicer 1 0-1 2, Ashlee Darby 4 1-1 10, Keturah Vector 4 3-4 11, Gabby Baldasare 6 4-4 16, Mallory Silbert 2 0-0 4, Bailey Silbert 0 0-0 0, Erin Masterson 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 11-14 59.

Three-pointers – West Forest 7 (Blum 4, Sneeringer 2, Dreihaup). Vincentian Academy 4 (Primyon 3, Darby)