Big 2nd half keys Trojanettes
CRANBERRY TWP — Huddled in the locker room at the half and trailing Freeport by a point, the members of the North Catholic girls basketball team were expecting something completely different to fall from the lips of coach Molly Rottmann.
What they heard her say made them take pause.
“She said, 'This is good,'” said junior guard Tess Myers.
It was good because Rottmann wanted to see how her team would react to being in a tussle — something that has been rare for the Trojanettes this season while running roughshod over their opponents with an average margin of victory of 35 points.
Rarer still was the fact North Catholic trailed at the half.
Rottmann, though, was even happier about how her team responded.
The Trojanettes opened the second half with 19 consecutive points and outscored shellshocked Freeport 44-9 over the final two quarters on the way to a 71-37 home win Monday night.
“It wasn't some magical words,” Rottmann said, smiling. “I said this is better than coming in here up by 40. This is better playoff preparation.”
If North Catholic (16-1, 11-0) plays like it did in the second half, there may be no one in the playoffs that can stop it.
The Trojanettes were buoyed by the return to the floor of Myers, who sat most of the first half after picking up two early fouls.
Myers keyed an 11-0 run out of the shoot in the third quarter by North Catholic with six points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists.
“I kept telling her to mentally stay in it,” Rottmann said. “She did and we went to her early in the third quarter. That's her maturation. Last year she might have picked up a third foul.”
Butler native and junior swing player Kylee Lewandowski also got hot during the second half, hitting five of her six 3-pointers and finishing with a game-high 30 points.
Lewandowski was also key in the quick third-quarter turnaround with a pair of steals.
“She missed a couple and sometimes she gets tentative,” Rottmann said. “She's a shooter. She's a scorer. She has to keep shooting. She puts hours and hours in the gym extra and she is capable of doing that. She just caught on fire.”
After falling behind 12-3 in the first three minutes of the game, it was Freeport (14-3, 9-2) that caught fire.
Especially guards Harley Holloway and Samantha Clark.
Holloway scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half — including three 3-pointers.
Clark also had 12 of her 14 points in the first two quarters.
But no one on the Yellowjackets' roster could get anything going in the second half.
Once North Catholic got rolling, there was no stopping the Trojanettes, who turned that 1-point halftime deficit into an 18-point lead in just four minutes.
Turnovers were the bugaboo for Freeport.
“We probably had three or four (turnovers) right off the bat (in the second half),” said Freeport coach Fred Soilis. “Next thing you know they score the first 11 and we're down 10.
You can't do that against this team. We hung with them in the first half. We showed we can hang with them.”The first time Freeport played North Catholic, the Yellowjackets got off to slow start, but played even with the Trojanettes for a bulk of the game.The same script played out in the first two quarters Monday.That is what Soilis hopes his team can take from this.“I told them, 'Do not hang your head,'” Soilis said. “When we played them the first time we were down by seven after three.“We have some athletes,” Soilis added. “We have some multi-sport athletes who can play. They should be proud of how they did.”<br>FREEPORT 37Harley Holloway 4-12 3-4 14, Samantha Clark 5-13 1-1 14, Madeline Clark 2-7 0-0 4, Sidney Shemanski 0-5 2-4 2, Laouise Fennell 0-0 0-0 0, Ally DeJidas 0-2 2-2 2, Haley Graham 0-5 0-0 0. Totals: 11-44 8-11 37.NORTH CATHOLIC 71Emma Pospisil 1-7 0-0 2, Cassie Foster 3-4 0-0 6, Kylee Lewandowski 10-18 4-4 30, Tess Myers 7-10 0-0 15, Dani Short 6-10 0-0 12, Belle O'hara 0-0 3-4 3, Lucy Wasciewicz 0-4 1-2 1, Branygan Bianchin 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 28-55 8-10 71.Freeport 10 18 5 4 — 37North Catholic15 12 24 20 — 713-point goals: Freeport 7 (Holloway 3, S. Clark 4); North Catholic 7 (Lewandowski 6, Myers)Thursday: Freeport at Apollo-Ridge; North Catholic at Greensburg Salem
