Konek ready to make impact for Southmoreland girls basketball

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 21, 2017 | 5:12 PM

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Junior Cali Konek can light up a gym with her smile the way she lights up a scoreboard with a basketball.

Her smile also has an arc to it.

The skilled shooter’s ability to pull up from anywhere on the court — coaches say she is a threat as soon as she crosses the halfcourt stripe — would cause you to grin, too.

Konek kept smiling when she moved back to Western Pennsylvania, even though she was starting classes at another new school and joining a new team at Southmoreland.

Making 3-pointers from NBA range is nice. You might even call it her comfort zone. And viral videos of her firing away has its advantages. But hoops fame at such a young age might have to remain a close second to being closer to loved ones. So says Konek.

“It’s really nice to be back home, by my family again,” she said. “The transition has been really nice … It was easy for me to make friends. I really like it here.”

Fresh surroundings have come easy to the scoring phenom and highly touted college prospect, who seems to be fitting in quite well in Alverton.

WPIAL basketball practice began last Friday and the season opens Dec. 8.

Southmoreland has a reason to smile. The program has produced good players over the years, Vanessa Abel and Olivia Porter among them, but Konek has the potential to be a real showstopper.

The 5-foot-7 guard, who grew up in North Huntingdon, averaged 45.4 points and scored more than 1,000 points as a freshman two years ago at Imani Christian, another WPIAL school. But she transferred to Riverdale Baptist in Marlboro, Md. for a year.

Now back in WPIAL territory and living with her father in the Southmoreland School District, Konek has her focus back on basketball, and feels more settled.

“I think we’re going to be pretty good this season so I am excited,” said Konek, whose high-water mark for points in a game is 59.

Konek is ranked as the eighth-best point guard in the country in her class by ESPN HoopGurlz.

“We inherited an established scorer who is a wonderful basketball player,” Southmoreland coach Brian Pritts said. “She does so many little things and knows the game so well, it’s already starting to have an impact on our team. She may be the best pure shooter I have ever coached or even seen, as far as the girls are concerned. And her knowledge of the game and ability to help other players be where they need to be is an asset to our program.”

Konek admits scoring 2,000 points is a goal (she has 1,295), but she wants to win too. Imani made the WPIAL Class A playoffs when Konek played there, but lost in the first round.

Southmoreland hasn’t been to the WPIAL postseason in nine years and has just one section title (2007).

“When I first walked into this gym (at Southmoreland) I noticed all of the banners,” Konek said. “There wasn’t really anything for girls basketball, so my goal is to get a banner on the wall and win our section and (the) WPIAL. And I really want to go to states.”

To score so many points, Konek obviously had to take a lot of shots. She averaged nearly 35 shots a game at Imani. It remains to be seen what that number will be at Southmoreland, but Konek has some talent around her and won’t have to be a one-girl show.

Junior 6-2 forward Maggie Moore is back, along with 6-foot sophomore forward Sarah Pisula, and senior guards Carissa Cyphert and Brooke Corley.

Konek blended into the lineup at Riverdale, passing and defending more. Her average dipped to around 11 points a game, but she went against stronger competition.

Still, that high-arcing shot is a thing to watch.

“I think practicing every day; practicing the same exact thing over and over again for the past seven years has helped me become a great shooter,” Konek said. “Now it’s just muscle memory, and I don’t even think about it. I just shoot it and it goes in.”

“Junk” defenses should be commonplace in Scotties’ games as opponents double- and triple-team Konek and try to slow her offensive production.

“We know teams are going to try to throw new things at us,” Pritts said. “She understands and the other girls coming along also understand. We’ve had box-and-1’s in the past with Olivia Porter and Vanessa Abel. So we have some things that we can do against defenses that we hope will enable us to be successful.”

If nothing else, Konek wants to keep the development of her game on the upswing, and advance her leadership skills.

“She is working hard to become as good a defensive player as she is an offensive player,” Pritts said.

Konek believes she can make her teammates better.

“I have been playing for a while and have been around the highest level of competition there is,” she said, “so I feel like I am more experienced and maybe I can teach some of the girls some things they may not know, and be a leader. Just be able to help them out.”

Konek has “10 to 15” scholarship offers, but doesn’t share who they’re from. She picked up offers from Georgia Tech, Pepperdine and Duquesne as a freshman. The list has grown.

Pritts confirmed Pitt has been in to see her, and Utah and UNC-Charlotte plan to come to games this season.

Southmoreland opens the season Dec. 8 in its tip-off tournament against Albert Gallatin.

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

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