Penn Hills girls basketball looking to shake off slow start

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, January 9, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Reinforcements are on the way for the Penn Hills girls basketball team. Indians coach Robert Cash hopes getting some fresh blood will reinvigorate an undermanned unit.

While Penn Hills has 10 players on the varsity roster, the Indians have mostly been playing six or seven while the less experienced players get up to speed. Penn Hills has yet to find its legs this season, starting with an 0-7 record overall, including an 0-2 mark in Section 4-5A.

The Indians are excited to have Cierra Epperson return.

“She’s back for the first time since August. She just got back,” Cash said. “She’s trying to get in shape. We had a shutdown last week because of covid, so we didn’t get anybody back until Monday night for a game Tuesday.”

The Indians’ return from winter break was a 47-33 loss to Franklin Regional. The closest Penn Hills came to winning this season was its last game before break, which was a 52-51 home loss to Allderdice.

The Indians’ offense has struggled early on, with Penn Hills being limited to 34.4 points per game. Cash said he would like to see the Indians step things up on defense to help the offense out.

“We make too many mistakes and don’t get enough easy rebounds,” Cash said. “For me, I think we’re giving up too many open shots. We would have more success if we rebound the ball better and figure out how to rotate.”

Having a covid shutdown didn’t have an adverse impact on the Indians. Penn Hills was still able to have a few practices with players unaffected by the virus.

“This is the first time we’ve had to deal with it,” Cash said. “We have a lot of players who are vaccinated and a few who weren’t at practice. So we were able to have a few kids that weren’t at practice. We got them extra work and some skill work for a couple days until people came back.”

Cash said with Cara Crawford and Egypt Coleman in the lineup, boosted with Epperson’s return, he expects the Indians to steadily improve.

Penn Hills will just need to try to get some younger players up to speed to help spell some tired rotation players.

“When we talk about rest, we want to get kids to rest because of the efforts they are giving,” Cash said. “We need to get into better shape. They are still learning how to play basketball. They are new to where they are now. They are still understanding what it takes to get to this level.”

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