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Shady Side Academy’s pressure defense too much for Burrell girls

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Thursday, January 4, 2024 | 9:51 PM

Shady Side Academy girls basketball coach Jonna Burke said her team is at its best when it plays good defense and turns that into offense.

With a stout press, that’s exactly what the Bulldogs did Thursday night against a young, up-and-coming Burrell team.

The Bulldogs caused nearly a dozen turnovers in the first quarter, pulled out to a double-digit lead and went on to secure a 55-24 victory in a Section 3-3A game at Mellon Gym.

“The idea for us is to feed off our defense,” Burke said. “If we’re able to press a team, we will, and look to score in transition off turnovers.”

Shady Side (8-2, 2-0) pressed Burrell (7-2, 1-1) from the outset.

Deflections and steals gave the Bulldogs long stretches with the ball. Standout sophomore guard Karris Thomas hit a pair of 3-pointers and had 10 points in the frame to help the Bulldogs race out to a 21-8 lead.

“We’re a young team,” Bucs coach Shaun Reddick said. “We’re fast enough to get through (the press), but we have to realize that. We made some critical errors early on and let them play offense for long stretches of time. That starts to snowball. Credit to them. They took advantage of it.”

The Bulldogs extended the lead to 42-14 by halftime. Maggie Spell had eight points in the second quarter, including a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Thomas finished with 15 points, and Spell and Leah Buford scored 12 apiece. Buford, a freshman, hit a pair of 3-pointers.

“More times than not, when you win a game, you need three players in double figures,” Burke said. “Maggie and Karris are usually there, but there are nights where it’s Leah or Cassie (Sauer) and other kids can step up, too. That’s important, because most teams key on Maggie and Karris, so you need to have someone else that can score.”

Shady Side held Burrell to eight field goals. Jules Fisher had seven points to lead the Bucs. Casey Brancato, Mikayla Coury and Anna Clark scored four apiece.

The teams will meet again Jan. 29 at Burrell.

“Now we have them on tape against what we do, so we can examine that,” Reddick said. “You go into games and think, ‘You can do this,’ or ‘You can do that,’ but until you’re on the gym floor with them, you don’t really know if you can do it or not.

“We don’t have a senior on our roster. The great thing about our team is that they’ll take this and learn from it. You could end up in a dark place and feel like this is terrible, but that’s not our style. We’ll take this film and learn from it and find positives, because that’s what we do.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

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