Knights can't escape holes they dug in playoff loss
MONROEVILLE — There are bad starts, then there are
bad starts.The Knoch girls basketball team actually had two horrendous beginnings.The Knights fell behind West Mifflin 15-0 out of the gate, then managed to crawl back into their WPIAL Class AAA playoff game against the Titans.But all the work Knoch put in to close the gap to 21-14 at halftime was sabotaged by West Mifflin's 18-0 second-half start as the Knights fell 44-23 atGateway High Wednesday night."I really thought at halftime we had some momentum," said Knoch coach Curt Vasas. "Obviously, we didn't start out the way we wanted to. We couldn't get any consistency on offense."It's hard to get consistency when you are turning the basketball over at the clip Knoch did. The athletic and quick Titans forced 30 Knoch turnovers.The Knights (15-9) attempted only 37 field goals in the game and made six.Still, Knoch closed the first half on a 14-6 run, capped by a buzzer-beating layup by senior Laura Gray."I was a little upset," said West Mifflin coach PhilShar. "Sometimes, success spoils us. Things were going so well. We thought every time we got the ball we were going to score, score, score and we weren't patient."The Titans regrouped at halftime and the same bugaboos that led to Knoch's 15-0 deficit to start the game popped up again.Knoch committed 11 turnovers in the third quarter and at times didn't even threaten to get the ball past halfcourt."I felt in that third quarter, I don't remember being down on the other end (on offense)," Vasas said. "It seems like we were playing defense the whole quarter."West Mifflin (17-6), which will play Mars in the next round of the playoffs at 1 p.m. Saturday at Gateway, was determined to press Knoch and to fluster the Knights."We scored a lot of points on defense, really," Shar said. "That's the way we play. We make you pay if you make a mistake. We watched enough film to know we wanted to shake them up a little."Sara Montgomery scored 12 points and had 12 rebounds for Knoch despite playing with a painful right shoulder injury.The joint was heavily wrapped. At one point, the senior left the game to get new bandages."They came out 8-0 and we were back on our heels," Montgomery said. "We can't turn the ball over like that. We weren't playing our game."Vasas, who was hired as assistant principal at Canon-McMillan High School in December, said he will take some time off to decide whether or not he will return to coach the Knights."I have to look at what's best for both of my families," Vasas said. "I have my family at home and my family here. I have to make sure they are both in the right position."
KNOCH 23Hannah Novotny 0-5 0-2 0, Haley Hutterer 0-7 0-0 0, Gina Robb 1-3 0-0 2, Sara Montgomery 2-7 8-12 12, Laura Gray 2-8 1-2 5, Lindsay MacArthur 1-2 0-0 2, Emily Protzman 0-1 0-0 0, Taylor Tresatti 0-3 2-2 2, Jenna Kanterman 0-0 0-0 0, Quinn Pendred 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 6-37 11-18 23
WESTMIFFLIN 44Taylor Fulton 2-8 0-0 5, JaCoiya Vaughn-Reid 1-7 1-2 3, Monica Poupakis 1-9 1-2 4, Jazmyne Hayes 3-8 6-8 12, Jessica Pitts 7-11 0-0 14, Jayla Leftwich-Johnson 1-1 1-1 3, Jhyla Staples 0-1 0-0 0, Amie Olasz 0-0 0-0 0, Thea Lucas 0-0 2-3 2, Mackenzie DiDominic 0-2 0-3 0, Sydney Hill 0-0 1-4 1, Molly O'Leary 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 15-47 12-23 44
Knoch 4 10 0 9—23West Mifflin 15 6 17 6—443-point goals: Fulton, Poupakis
