ST. MARYS, Pa. – Elk County Catholic’s defense is the real deal, and Monessen found that out first-hand on Friday.
Lucy Klawuhn scored all 12 of her points in the first half on four 3-pointers and the Lady Crusaders were suffocating on defense in a 45-16 PIAA Class 1A first round playoff win.
“Once I started feeling good, my teammates were confident in me and it was definitely one of those nights where I’m going to make those shots, make those 3’s,” Klawuhn said.
See Klawuhn’s full interview:
The Lady Crusaders limited Monessen (19-7) to just one field goal in the first half, a layup by MyAsia Majors at the 30-second mark of the first quarter, which also marked the Lady Greyhounds’ first points of the game.
ECC allowed just eight points through the first three quarters.
“Our on the ball defense was really good,” said Elk County Catholic coach Ken Pistner. “We’re a pretty good help defensive team, but tonight we knew that one of their strengths was driving to the hole and we knew we were going to have to play good on the ball defense and I thought it was excellent. Only once or twice we got beat off the dribble. Almost all of their shots were contested. There weren’t many free, open shots. They came out and tried to slow the game up a little bit. I thought we were really patient.”
It was a little slow in the beginning for ECC (26-2), as they managed just two points through the first four minutes as Monessen attempted to slow the game down.
Klawuhn loosened up the defense with a 3-pointer out of the timeout and the Lady Crusaders were able to speed things up with their halfcourt trap.
ECC led 10-2 after the first quarter and got a pair of 3-pointer from Klawuhn, another from Mya Pistner, as well as a bucket from Sami Straub to extend the lead to 22-5 at halftime.
“I think the fact that we are a veteran team makes it easier,” Pistner said. “A younger team might start to panic and force things (with the slow early pace), but we did not. We were patient with it. We knew if we could hit a couple shots we could get a little bit of separation.”
An 8-0 run to begin the third quarter made the score 30-5, with a 3-pointer from Syd Alexander and buckets from Tori Newton and Emily Mourer.
“They’re a team that loves to get the ball on the glass and go get it, that’s their strength,” Pistner said. “We knew that we had to have good on-ball defense and make sure everyone was boxing out because 90 percent of their points come off rebounds. I thought we did a good job on the defensive boards tonight. The offensive boards were kind of tough. We didn’t get a whole lot of second chance opportunities.”
Alexander finished with 11 points for ECC, while Newton had six, Pistner five.
Madison Johnson paced the Greyhounds (19-7) with six points.
The win was the third in a row in the first round of the state playoffs. Each of the last two seasons, however, have ended in the Round of 16, something ECC will look to change.
With the victory, ECC advances to play the winner of 6-2 Williamsburg and 7-3 Aquinas Academy in the Round of 16 on Tuesday. That game, like the rest in the Class 1A girls first round, will be played on Saturday and is scheduled for 3 p.m.
“This group has really done a good job of compartmentalizing the whole season,” Pistner said.”We’ve taken it in chunks. We try not to look too far ahead and I think it kind of showed. We looked focused out there tonight. But it’s hard not to look ahead. These girls have worked hard all their basketball careers and they are excited about taking it to the next level.”
