Westmoreland PIAA basketball capsule for March 11, 2020
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Tuesday, March 10, 2020 | 6:23 PM
Southmoreland’s Olivia Cernuto (10) tries to keep Freeport’s Melaina Dezort (34) and Sidney Shemanski (left) at bay in the WPIAL basketball playoffs Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020.
Today’s game
Class 4A
Second round
Southmoreland (25-1) vs. Lancaster Catholic (26-3)
6 p.m. at Bedford High School
Winner plays: Winner of Northern Lebanon (23-4) and Danville (25-3) on Saturday in quarterfinals (time, site TBD)
Coaches: Brian Pritts, Southmoreland; Charlie Detz, Lancaster Catholic
Players to watch: Sarah Pisula, Southmoreland (Sr., 6-0, F); Sommer Reeser, Lancaster Catholic (Sr., 5-8, G)
About Southmoreland: The Scotties raced to a 22-point halftime lead, clamped down on defense like they can and handled Huntingdon in the first round 57-29 at Greensburg Salem. Freshman Olivia Cernuto had a team-high 16 points and five steals, and Pisula had 13 points, seven rebounds and five steals as Southmoreland rebounded from a 61-44 loss to North Catholic in the WPIAL title game. Saturday marked the Scotties’ first state playoff win in their first try. The WPIAL runners-up have played 26 games, the most in program history. Sophomore Gracie Spadaro leads the team in scoring at 15 ppg. Senior Charity Henderson has been giving the team big minutes in the playoffs of late. Pritts is 235-205 in 18 seasons, spread over two coaching stints.
About Lancaster Catholic: A District 3 power, the Crusaders won their PIAA opener handily over WPIAL seventh-place Indiana, 73-50, on Saturday. Reeser scored 17 points and made five 3-pointers, increasing her Lancaster-Lebanon League record for career 3-pointers to 243. Senior 5-foot-9 forward Katie Haefner added 16 points, and sophomore Naomi Zulueta had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Lancaster has size but relies on its guard play and plays at a fast pace. Indiana freshman forward Eve Fiala had 26 points and 17 rebounds in the first-round loss. The Crusaders have four state titles (1974, ’89, ’96 and 2018). Before this season, they won 62 straight games, a record streak that was snapped by Mifflinburg in last year’s PIAA quarterfinals.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.
Tags: Southmoreland
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