WEST FOREST 57, MONITEAU 37

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Dec. 20, 2008

By Chris Rossetti

TIONESTA – Geena Sneeringer became the seventh girls’ players in West Forest history to reach 1,000 career points when she hit the milestone in a key early-season 57-37 win over visiting Moniteau Saturday night.

Sneeringer, who finished the game with 20 points and 1,017 career tallies, is the first junior at West Forest to reach 1,000 since the school’s all-time leading scorer Pam Novosel (1,607 points) did it in 1982.

“We have had one junior get 1,000 points before,” West Forest head coach Bob Wachob said. “But that was in the playoffs her junior year. It’s a lot of points for Geena. She deserves the accolades. But she knows there is a lot more to the game. Points aren’t the end to Geena’s game, that’s for sure. She rebounds well. She steals the ball well. She has good assists. She is an all-around player. I couldn’t be happier for her.”

As if she was planning on backing up her coach’s postgame comments, Sneeringer had another all-around great game against Moniteau recording a double-double with 11 steals while adding seven rebounds making her 1,000th-point game a memorable one.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Sneeringer said. “My team is always there for me. It really didn’t matter to me if I had gotten it, as long as the team is doing well.”

Sneeringer shared the spotlight Saturday night with senior point guard Erica Blum, who had a game-high 22 points to go along with seven steals.

“Erica played a heck of a game,” Wachob said. “Erica really took over things tonight. I was really proud of her tonight.”

Blum played the key role in a game-deciding 19-2 second-quarter run for West Forest (6-0 overall, 4-0 KSAC-North) scoring the final 11 points of the run, all after Sneeringer went to the bench with her second foul of the half. The first four points came off steals five seconds apart, and she also hit a three-pointer during the stretch.

“That was huge,” Wachob said. “That was a really odd situation for us. If someone gets two fouls in the first half, they are going to sit down. Two of my top players, Geena and Amanda (Carll) were sitting down. For (Erica) to play hard like that, get steals and make some buckets was great.”

Heading into the second quarter the game was knotted at 14, but thanks to Blum’s defense West Forest forced six Moniteau turnovers in the quarter and held the Lady Warriors (5-2, 3-1 KSAC-South) without a field goal in the frame. Moniteau was 0-for-13 from the field in the second quarter, and ended up turning the ball over 26 times in the contest.

“I was surprised how many times we turned the ball over,” Moniteau head coach Mark Yeager said. “I thought we would handle (their pressure) much better than we did. But we didn’t match their aggressiveness at all. We didn’t execute. I knew what they were going to do. We worked on it the last two days. Actually, getting snowed out (Friday) helped us. It gave us another day to prepare. But we just didn’t handle it. We were trying to dribble through it. We just didn’t execute.”

Moniteau’s turnover problems actually started in the first quarter when it turned the ball over eight times including an amazing seven steals from Sneeringer, who turned one of those takeaways into her 1,000^th (and 1,001^st) point with a layup at the 4:48 mark that gave West Forest a 7-4 lead. She was fouled on the play, but missed the free-throw.

West Forest still led by three, 9-6, following two Rachel Greathouse free throws with 3:38 to play in the quarter, but Moniteau finished the frame on an 8-5 run to tie the game at 14 on an offensive putback by Maura McCaslin with three second left.

“We just didn’t play very well in the first quarter,” Wachob said. “We played a lot better the rest of the game.”

The second quarter started with an 8-0 run from West Forest that allowed the Lady Indians to take control of the contest.

 “We pumped up our pressure a little bit,” Wachob said. “And we changed from man-to-man into a zone. They seemed to have trouble with that. Everybody started looking for their steals and getting them.”

While Moniteau’s turnover problems continued throughout the game, West Forest, which turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter, gave the ball away just eight times in the final three quarters.

“Give them credit,” Yeager said. “They did a good job with the basketball. We don’t have any excuses. They were better than us today.”

Wachob gave a lot of credit for the reduced turnovers to Blum.

“She is so much better this year than she was last year in handling the pressure,” Wachob said. “This press right here last year would have given us all kinds of fits. But they pressed the entire game, and we were able to handle it. We did a nice job. A lot of that is on my point guard. I put a lot of pressure on my point guard, and of course with Geena there to help too, that’s good.”

Trailing 33-16 at the half, Moniteau did try to make a run at West Forest in the second half starting the half on an 8-2 run thanks to eight points from Alex Guercio, who finished with a team-high 17. But the Lady Warriors were never able to get close than 11, and West Forest ended the third quarter on an 11-6 run to take a 46-30 lead to the final eight minutes.

“(Moniteau) is a good basketball team,” Wachob said. “They are playing very hard this year. They beat some really good teams in our league. I’m pleased with tonight’s win. I think this is our best win so far.”

NOTES – West Forest outrebounded Moniteau 47-40 including 24-13 on the offensive glass. Greathouse led the way with 10 boards, while Carll had nine and Alyssa Dreihaup eight to go with 11 points. Grace Wallace chipped in with six rebounds. Guercio completed a double-double for Moniteau with 11 rebounds, while Kathleen Harding had eight … West Forest shot just 30 percent (18 of 60) from the floor and 50 percent (17 of 34) from the line. Moniteau actually was a hair better shooting 32.6 percent (15 of 46) from the floor but took just 12 free throws making seven of them … Sneeringer is currently seventh in school history in scoring but is just two points behind Jean Wagner (1988, 1,019 points) for sixth place, 23 shy of Hilliary Beichner (2000, 1,040 points) for fifth place and 30 short of Theresa Gray (1996, 1,047 points) for fourth all-time. Wachob, in his 30^th year at West Forest, has coached all seven 1,000-point scorers and now has 441 career wins … Moniteau’s Maura McCaslin, who came into the game averaging 13.5 ppg, briefly left the game in the second quarter with what appeared to be an injury to her lower leg or ankle but did return. She was noticeably hobbled by it the rest of the game, though, and scored just five points, coincidently the same point total she had in Moniteau’s other loss this season … West Forest has now won 12 straight regular-season games since suffering a 57-51 loss at Keystone Jan. 25. The Lady Indians also have won 16 straight home games, including two District 9 playoff games, since losing 56-43 to Keystone Dec. 10, 2007, and are 44-10 at home since entering District 9 in 2005.  

WEST FOREST 57, MONITEAU 37

Score by Quarters

Moniteau 14 2 14 7 – 37

W. Forest 14 19 13 11 – 57

Moniteau – 37

Jenna McCorry 5 0-0 10, Kathleen Harding 1 0-0 2, Alex Guercio 6 5-7 17, Chelsea Sellers 1 0-0 2, Maura McCaslin 2 1-3 5, Chelsea Say 0 0-0 0, Jaryn Beatty 0 0-0 0, Katie Brehm 0 1-2 1. Totals 15 7-12 37.

West Forest – 57

Amanda Carll 0 2-8 2, Erica Blum 9 2-4 22, Alyssa Dreihaup 2 6-7 11, Rachel Greathouse 0 2-4 2, Geena Sneeringer 7 5-9 20, Grace Wallace 0 0-2 0, Hilary Clark 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 17-34 57.

Three-pointers – West Forest 4 (Blum 2, Dreihaup, Sneeringer).