As stretch run approaches, St. Joseph girls show fine form vs. Riverview

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 10:08 PM

Last year, the Riverview girls basketball team got the better of rival St. Joseph, winning the nonsection matchup at Riverview High School to halt an eight-game losing streak in the series.

But St. Joseph didn’t let the Raiders make it two in a row Tuesday evening at the Walter Dlubak Athletic Center.

Four Spartans finished in double figures as the hosts pulled away for an 82-36 victory.

St. Joseph won its fourth straight to improve to 10-6 overall, and it will take a 6-3 Section 1-A record into Thursday’s home rematch with Eden Christian.

“We talked in practice the other day about us reaching that time of the season where the girls have to make that decision to bear down and get ready to make that run to the playoffs,” St. Joseph coach Geoff Dutelle said.

“We have a good sense of things with now playing everybody for the second time around. The girls set out with a really good practice last week after we got a couple of wins. These girls are playing good basketball right now, and they have that attitude of knowing what it takes to put themselves in a good position down the stretch.”

Sophomore Bella Bartolovic fronted the scoring for St. Joseph with 23 points. She got the Spartans off to a strong start with 11 points in the first quarter.

The Spartans used a 15-0 run in the first quarter to build a double-digit lead. A strong pressure defense in the full court and other stops in the half court created trouble for the Riverview offense.

Riverview was able to cut the deficit to eight with 6 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first half before St. Joseph regained a sizable advantage — 17 — at the break. Junior Jocelyn Spinelli scored nine of her 15 points in the second on a trio of 3-pointers.

Senior Kasey Cienik finished with 14 points. She scored six in the second quarter. Sophomore JJ Cienik was held to two points in the first half, but she came back with nine the rest of the way to also finish in double figures.

Riverview senior standout Isabel Chaparro, who came into the game averaging 26.8 points, exited Tuesday’s game with a left leg injury with 5:10 to go in the third quarter and St. Joseph leading 45-25.

Chaparro went to the trainer’s room for treatment and came back to the Riverview bench but didn’t return to the game. She finished with a team-best 16 points. Eleven came in the second quarter as the Raiders looked to stay in contention.

Riverview coach Andre Carter said he wasn’t sure of the extent of the injury after the game and was not sure of her status moving forward. Riverview, which fell to 7-6 with the loss, will put its 3-2 Section 4-2A record on the line Thursday at home against Jeannette.

“It was tough to see her leave the game like that,” Carter said. “We count on her for a lot. She’s 75 percent of our scoring. The girls need to figure out how to score without her. I do think they did pretty well after she exited the game. St. Joseph is a tough team to work that out against. The girls will be all right. St. Joseph is a really good team, and they can give you headaches. We were able to break their press at times early on, but it was the pressure after the press. We weren’t able to execute much of our half-court offense. We also had some good opportunities to score which we didn’t take advantage of. But it was good film for us to see what we need to still work on.”

Freshman Mia Murphy scored 11 of her 15 points for Riverview in the second half.

With the game well in hand in the fourth quarter, both teams subbed out their starters as much as they could.

Dutelle said his team was able to set its tempo early, and it carried over to the rest of the game.

“We wanted to play a little bit quicker, and Riverview wanted to slow it down more,” he said.

“That was probably the most we’ve been able to stay with it in a game because we didn’t have any big breakdowns. We got the game at our pace at the beginning. We wanted to go, go go, and the press was the way to do it.”

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: Riverview, St. Joseph