Trib HSSN Girls Basketball Team of the Week for week ending Feb. 14, 2021

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, February 14, 2021 | 9:48 PM

Norwin girls basketball coach Brian Brozeski believes coaching has a lot to do with the fact that entering the final week of the regular season, things are still tight in Section 1-6A.

“The section has a lot of good coaches and teams that have all shown improvement from the beginning of the year to now. It has been a challenge and struggle preparing consistently for each game, but as athletes and competitors, it is a challenge that you embrace and look forward to.”

The Knights have strung plenty of good nights together since late January and have won four straight, including two last week to move them alone into second place behind defending champion North Allegheny.

Norwin had to face the two teams they have been tied with behind the Tigers for most of this season last week in Butler and Penn-Trafford.

On Monday, the Knights headed north to Butler and rolled past the Golden Tornado, 54-29.

“We again found ourselves in an early deficit down 6-0 to start the game. However, the girls never showed signs of panic and kept focused on the task and the gameplan,” Brozeski said. “Really proud of how they played well together.”

Three days later, it was a home game against rival Penn-Trafford. The Warriors had won the earlier meeting by four points, but Thursday, the Knights enjoyed a big second quarter on their way to a 40-29 victory.

“Our defense was the key to our victory Thursday night,” Brozeski said. “We struggled a bit offensively, and that will happen, but the girls really played well defensively in the half court and we were able to help our offense by getting layup looks on turnover runouts.”

In the past, Norwin has relied on one or two girls to lead the way on offense. However, this year’s team has relied on a balanced attack with the likes of seniors Mara Polczynski and Danielle Rosso, junior Brianna Zajicek and sophomore Savannah Schneck contributing.

“I believe you are tougher to defend if you are able to diversify your scoring,” Brozeski said. “Not just by players but also by range, tempo and style. This way you can also adjust your gameplans and in-game adjustments to emphasize a particular style of scoring dependent upon what the defense is showing as a weakness.”

As is usually the case with this program, the Knights are strong on defense. They are ranked No. 1 in average points allowed of the 15 Class 6A teams.

“Playing together and understanding how we want to rotate has been one of the keys, but I have to give the girls a lot of credit for the energy and heart they have been playing with on the defensive side,” Brozeski said. “Oftentimes players have an emphasis on points and scoring, and it is easy for players at any level to get caught up with scoring. However, the girls have bought into the fact that you may have off night offensively when you’re not seeing the court well and your shot is not falling. However, there is no excuse why you should have an off night defensively.”

While the mercury is going up on the Knights’ play since the start of the month, checking his own mercury has become quite the task for Brozeski.

“You would think that I would catch on to the taking my own temperature process after four months of completing the same Google form, but once a week there will be a practice and I will be focused on finalizing the practice plan or gameplan and forget. However, we have a great training staff, and they’ll remind me to complete the form. We’ve actually made a little game out of trying to guess our temperature, and I have to tell you, I am getting pretty good at predicting my temperature.”

How will Norwin finish the regular season, including a second showdown with top-ranked North Allegheny before the playoffs begin?

“One of our season goals is to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year, and we will definitely be tested in the last 10 days of the season, where we will have five games,” Brozeski said. “We will need to rely on our depth and play together to end the season on a positive note.”

2021 Trib HSSN Girls Basketball Team of the Week:

Week 4 — Upper St. Clair Panthers

Week 3 — Armstrong River Hawks

Week 2 — Mohawk Warriors

Week 1 — Burgettstown Blue Devils

Tags: Norwin