Greensburg Central Catholic girls lean on their stars to hold off Serra Catholic

By: Jeremy Sellew
Thursday, January 4, 2024 | 11:53 PM

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As Greensburg Central Catholic’s girls team watched its 10-point lead get shaved to five points in the fourth quarter by host Serra Catholic, the Centurions had their stars step up to say, “not so fast.”

Mya Morgan scored 15 of her 26 points in the final quarter and joined with Erica Gribble to combine for all 23 of their team’s points over the final eight minutes as the Centurions held off Serra Catholic to claim a 66-53 win and survive an early section showdown.

Gribble joined Morgan with 26 points, including 14 in the first half.

“That’s the nice thing about having those two girls in the lineup. You can leave it all unsaid,” GCC coach Chris Skatell said. “Even though Erica is just a sophomore, those two girls have played a lot of games together. They feed off each other and play off one another.”

The Centurions jumped out to a sizable lead in the first half, thanks to sub-par play by the Eagles (7-2, 2-1). Serra Catholic committed 13 turnovers in the half and trailed 32-19 at the break.

“I think we came out a little jittery, and we took a while before we were able to get into our sets offensively,” Serra first-year coach Mike Voit said. “We turned the ball over way too much, and, honestly, they just shot the ball incredibly well in that first half. Both teams have great players, and they just hit a lot of their shots early on.”

Gribble hit four 3-pointers in the first 16 minutes, carrying the offensive load for the Centurions (7-2, 3-0). Defensively, Skatell was pleased with the output and effort of Cara Dupilka and Avery Davis.

“They didn’t have the offensive numbers they usually do, but both gave us big baskets and played great on the defensive end. I like a lot of what I saw from those two,” Skatell said.

In the second half, the Eagles cut the lead to seven after a pair of free throws and a bucket by Cate Clarke and another hoop from Bri Battles.

Battles finished with a team-high 20 points for the Eagles.

“I saw a lot more aggressiveness from our girls,” Voit said. “I thought we attacked more and the turnovers in the second have were way down from what they were in the first half.”

A couple buckets later, Davis hit another 3-pointer to push the lead back up to 10. That’s where it stayed heading into the fourth quarter.

“It was amazing to me because they didn’t have a foul in the entire first half,” Skatell said of the Eagles. “I told the girls at the half that the only way we were going to lose this game is if we started playing sloppy defense and got in foul trouble.”

The sloppy defense came to fruition early in the quarter as the Eagles made their run behind sophomore Abby Genes. The sharpshooter scored 11 of her 16 points in the final quarter, her second triple with 4:42 remaining cut the Centurions’ lead to 48-45.

“The growth Abby’s made just this season has been tremendous,” Voit said. “She’s making the right decisions with the ball. She’s streaky and once she starts hitting, she can start to feel it.”

Morgan had the answer for GCC, as she did most of the quarter, making a 3-pointer, followed by a pair of free throws to get the lead back to eight with 3:55 to go.

After Genes hit a step-back three, Gribble answered from the corner with one of her own then followed it with an aggressive drive to the bucket that turned into a three-point play to lock up the game.

“It’s a great win. I want our girls to be pushed. They’re a talented team. We’re a talented team. We know what kind of games we’re going to get from them,” Skatell said. “I think in that second half we were a little tired. We only played six tonight, but I thought Erica Rodriguez came in and played great for us. She had some big rebounds for us and was a factor.”

The Eagles, who played without forward Rylee Allebach because of an injury, will be looking forward to the rematch in a few weeks.

“The second game between teams is usually more valued, so, hopefully, we make the right adjustments and we don’t come out flat early when we see them again,” Voit said. “I think with the way we played in the second half, we have a lot of confidence as we head into that one and going forward.”

The Eagles are back in action Monday at Clairton, while the Centurions travel to North Catholic Saturday.

Tags: Greensburg C.C., Serra Catholic