Hampton girls weather season’s ups, downs to make another playoff appearance

By: Ted Sarneso
Saturday, February 15, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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There weren’t many expectations levied upon the Hampton girls basketball team coming into the 2024-25 season.

After making it to the playoffs as a No. 15 seed last season and playing No. 2 seed McKeesport tight in a 49-46 loss, the Talbots came into this season having lost all-time leading scorer Meghan Murray to graduation and needed to replace all five starters from a year ago.

But once again, they found a way back to the playoffs for the 31st time in 33 years.

“We came into this season with a group that had very limited varsity experience,” coach Tony Howard said. “The coaching staff and I are so proud of what these girls accomplished this year, and it was probably the most satisfying season I’ve had in a long time.”

Having a roster of 13 inexperienced players, none of whom were seniors, it was paramount that Howard have as much time as he could to help develop his players during the summer and fall to be prepared for the season.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get all of his players on the court at the same time in the offseason due to many of the girls being multiple-sport athletes playing volleyball and soccer in the fall.

“Our summer was very limited, and we couldn’t get into a summer league,” Howard said. “Once their fall seasons ended was when we were finally able to get together, get organized.”

The Talbots came together quickly and were off to a hot start, going 7-2 in their first nine games. The first two wins of the season came in the Leechburg tournament, which the Talbots won.

“Winning in that tournament gave us more confidence,” said 6-foot sophomore center Katie Christy. “Those teams might not have been the best, but they helped us develop our plays and defense before we got into the tougher competition.”

Going into the holiday break, the Talbots liked the position they were in, but as Christy mentioned, the tough competition was just around the corner, and the Talbots endured a rough January.

After losing to North Hills on Dec. 28 and beating Lincoln Park on Jan. 2, the team lost five of its next six, including a four-game losing streak to the class of the section in Blackhawk, which won the state title last year, Beaver, Hopewell and Central Valley.

“That was a hard time for us, but it did help us in the long run,” Christy said. “We found a lot more weaknesses with how we were playing, and it forced us to tweak a few things. Our offense had to become more efficient. We worked a lot in practice to sharpen that side of the ball.”

What made that time especially difficult was Hampton’s roster, already small, was cut down due to injuries, which made it tough to execute adjustments and new schemes in practice.

“The last two or three weeks, we were able to get back to nine or 10 girls at practice,” Howard said. “When you’re practicing with seven or eight girls, whatever you’re working on might work, but when you get on a game floor in five on five, that healthier team is going to take away your first option. It took us a while to read and react to what was taken away from us.”

But through the ups and downs of the season, the Talbots were steadfast in playing what Howard called “five-girl basketball.”

“We knew if we could play the game of basketball and have all five girls involved, then that would make the team hard to defend,” Howard said. “Some teams rely on two or three girls, so playing as a five-girl unit gave us a fighting chance.”

Hampton’s offensive numbers reflect the team’s style of play. No player averaged double-digit points per game.

Sophomore guard Harper Gibbons led the team with 8 points per game, followed by Christy at 7.7 and sophomore Ellie Klocko at 7.6 while Maria Nyilas and junior Erin Baker each averaged 4.8 a game.

“Christy was our calming piece,” Howard said. “As a center, she’s probably our best passer and alleviated a lot of pressure in the middle when we were pressed. Ellie did a nice job of handling the ball for us as well in those pressure situations.

“Harper was sort of our attacker, bringing a ton of fire and competitiveness she had from her experience playing varsity soccer. Maria had some huge games for us, could score in bunches. She had 17 when we played Central Valley to the last possession in our December meeting.”

What really stood out for the Talbots was their defensive play. They allowed an average of 38.8 points per game and frustrated a lot of opponents.

“Teams are used to playing their style of basketball,” Nyilas said. “They didn’t expect us to force them to play how we wanted them to play. It was challenging for them.”

“We heard a lot of clipboard throwing, a lot of yelling and screaming from our opponents during halftime,” Howard said. “We were able to control the tempo of the game with our defense. We knew it was one of our assets coming in, and the girls bought in and made teams work.”

During their rough stretch in the middle of the season, Howard brought in a “believe” sign to try to rediscover the energy from earlier in the year. The hope was to get the team back to its winning ways.

As they head into the playoffs, the Talbots have to believe in one another and their tough defense if they want to make some noise.

However the season ends, the young Hampton girls basketball team put a lot of experience under their belts, learned to grow and play together and could be a group to watch moving forward.

“I think as we grow closer, it’s going to help that we faced all these ups and downs during the season,” Nyilas said. “We’re excited for the challenges that the playoffs bring, and it’s going to be a great experience for us moving forward.”

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