Hot-shooting Belle Vernon girls roll past Southmoreland

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, December 18, 2017 | 10:12 PM

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Southmoreland fell into an early hole Monday night, then spent the rest of the night trying to claw its way out.

Belle Vernon senior guard Keira Boff did most of the digging.

Boff had a first quarter to remember as she poured in 18 of her game-high 27 points to stake hot-shooting Belle Vernon to a commanding lead, and the Leopards rolled to a 66-45 Section 3-4A girls basketball win in Alverton.

Boff connected on 9 of 14 shots for the game, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range. She had a Cali Konek-type quarter in a big road win.

“I actually came out in warmups, and my shot wasn’t that great,” Boff said. “We all had fire knowing (Konek) was here, and we wanted this section win really bad. Everyone knew I was hot and they were great teammates getting me the ball. You never know when you’re going to shoot like that so you have to take advantage of it.”

Konek, the Scotties’ junior standout transfer, finished with 25 points, 11 in the fourth quarter.

The Leopards (4-1, 2-0) have won four in a row, including a victory over Class 5A McKeesport. Southmoreland (3-2, 0-2) was averaging 67 points.

“Belle Vernon shot the ball super well, and they moved the ball,” Southmoreland coach Brian Pritts said. “They didn’t miss. Anything they wanted to do, they did. They came out and controlled the game from the start.”

Boff made a trio of 3-pointers and connected on 6 of 7 shots in the first quarter to stake the Leopards to a one-sided, 30-6 advantage.

The flash, bang opening frame took Southmoreland aback and gave the Leopards quite a cushion on which to rest.

“The nice thing is we have a great shooter in Keira, but we have a great team around her,” Belle Vernon coach Lisa Fairman said. “You can’t just focus on one of our players because you have four others who can do some damage, as well.”

Senior guards Caitlyn Trombley and Kelsey Green added 12 points and 10 points, respectively.

Konek did not start because she missed a recent practice, but she entered the game with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left in the opening quarter with her team trailing 14-0 and immediately sparked Southmoreland.

Fairman did not think Konek’s early absence affected her team.

“We were very focused and prepared coming in,” Fairman said. “The fact that (Konek) didn’t start really didn’t change our mindset because we have to go to work.

“Sometimes your best defense can be a very patient offense. Great players can’t score when they don’t have the ball. When we were set on offense, we tried to run more patient sets.”

Boff opened the second quarter with a 3, but Konek scored nine in the frame to help whittle a 28-point lead down to 20 by halftime.

“Cali jumped into the game and went right at it,” Pritts said. “We had to defend better. You can’t score on one end and then come down and let them drain another 3. It wasn’t like we weren’t rebounding and they were getting second, third and fourth opportunities. They were knocking down their first looks.”

Southmoreland managed just nine points in the third and could not slice into the deficit. Konek left the game briefly with a left leg injury but returned.

Boff’s free throw late in the third stretched the advantage to 30, at 58-28.

Belle Vernon never let the lead slip below 21 the rest of the way.

“I am proud of the effort our girls put forth,” Pritts said. “They could have very easily tucked their tails and threw in the towel but they didn’t. They fought and battled and worked. We’re going to continue to get better.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Southmoreland