PIAA-playoff bound Knoch beats Montour in WPIAL Class 4A semifinals

By: Michael Love
Friday, February 25, 2022 | 10:12 PM

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The Knoch girls basketball team will play in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals for the second straight season.

After a 15-day break from competition, the No. 3 Knights opened the playoffs in the quarterfinals Friday night and scored a 67-48 home victory over No. 6 Montour.

“We had our two scrimmage games against really good teams (Hampton and Peters Township), that and some really good practices had us prepared well for this game,” said senior Maddie Boyer, who scored 21 points and added eight rebounds in her final home game.

“We knew we weren’t going to come out slow. We knew we had to execute our gameplan. Montour is a really good team, and we had to bring our best game.”

Knoch, which won its 17th game in a row to improve to 20-2, will face No. 2 Southmoreland on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

The Scotties advanced to the semifinals with a 50-24 victory over Highlands.

Knoch will seek its first trip to the WPIAL championship game.

“When the brackets came out, I put (Montour) on our schedule,” Knoch coach Chris Andreassi said. “I expected we would play them, but Deer Lakes gave them a heckuva run (in the first round).”

The win secured Knoch’s first trip to the PIAA playoffs. It comes on the heels of team’s first section championship since 1972.

“We know it will be a great challenge against Southmoreland, but I know we’ll be ready,” Boyer said. “We want to go farther than (Knoch’s) ever gone before.”

Despite the loss, Montour (16-7) is not done. The Spartans remain alive for the state playoffs under the follow-the-leader format. The PIAA takes six teams from WPIAL Class 4A, and if Knoch defeats Southmoreland, the Spartans clinch a berth.

Montour entered the postseason without standout junior point guard Reagan Kadlecik (16 points, six assists), who tore her ACL two weeks ago.

“Knoch shot lights out, and we had our worst shooting night,” Montour coach Jennifer O’Shea said. “But our kids did a nice job stepping up. Playing in this type of playoff atmosphere, this is all new to them. We made the playoffs last year for the first time since 2011. Now, making it here and playing in a big gym in front of a hostile crowd, it was good for our kids. They’re moving in the right direction.”

Montour’s Jordyn Wolfe opened the second half with a 3-pointer to cut into an eight-point Knoch halftime lead.

But the Knights responded with a 23-6 run, which included two 3-pointers from Hattie McGraw, two from Nina Shaw and one from Naturelle Ewing, to blow the game open.

“We told Hattie and Naturelle at halftime they needed to shoot the ball,” Andreassi said. “With that 1-3-1 zone, we had to shoot them out of it. I knew they were going to get shots in the corner. They hit some big shots there, and Nina hit a couple. That was definitely the key to the game.”

Knoch also answered the bell early in the second quarter to stop a Montour charge.

Spartans senior 1,000-point scorer Olivia Lyscik snagged a rebound off a missed free throw from Julia Cox and put it up and in to close Knoch’s lead to 14-11 with six minutes to go until halftime.

But Knoch responded with an 11-0 run to open a 14-point advantage just two and a half minutes later.

Montour was limited to just six field goals in the first half.

“They do some things really well offensively, especially with their big girl (Lyscik),” Andreassi said. “Our goal going in was to take them out of their half-court offense, don’t let them set it up. For the most part, we did a pretty good job of it in the first half. I just felt we could’ve rebounded better in the first half. We also gave them too many points from the foul line, and on a couple out-of-bounds plays, they got easy baskets.”

Shaw tallied seven of the Knights’ points during the second-quarter run. She had 11 at halftime and finished with a game-best 22 to go with six rebounds.

McGraw added 12 points for the Knights, who came in averaging 54.5 points.

Lyscik, who was saddled with foul trouble in the second and third quarters, finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, while Wolfe added 11 points for the Spartans.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Knoch, Montour