Lady Pioneers win showdown with Avella
West Greene鈥檚 Jersey Wise goes in between Avella defenders to make a floater in the first half of their Jan. 13 game. The Pioneers won, 66-49.
Luke Campbell
West Greene鈥檚 Anna Durbin dribbles past a pair of Avella defenders in the first half of a Class A Section 2 game Monday night. Durbin scored a career-high 20 points in the win.
Luke Campbell
West Greene鈥檚 Jersey Wise makes a cross-court pass during a Section 2-A game against Avella last season. Wise enters her senior season needing 251 points to reach 1,000 for her career.
Luke Campbell
West Greene鈥檚 Brooke Barner scores on a layup in Monday night鈥檚 game against Avella.
West Greene鈥檚 Elizabeth Brudnock fends off Avella鈥檚 Jordan Rush in a Class A Section 2 game on Jan. 13. Brudnock is a first-team member of the Greene County Messenger Girls Basketball All-County Team. (Photo by Luke Campbell)
Luke Campbell
West Greene鈥檚 Jersey Wise dribbles around a defender in a Class A Section 2 game Monday night. (Photo by Luke Campbell)
AVELLA 鈥� Jordan Watson wanted the knockout and he wanted it early.
From watching video and looking at past box scores, the West Greene girls basketball team was aware it was going to get Avella鈥檚 best punch.
鈥淲e knew (Avella) was going to come in and be ready,鈥� Watson said. 鈥淭his was like the Super Bowl for the section.鈥�
Fending off an initial push from Avella, the nonstop Lady Pioneers landed one gut-wrenching body blow after another. West Greene built an early lead behind balanced scoring and kept the Lady Eagles at a distance for a 66-49 win Monday night in a battle for first place in Class A Section 2.
鈥淲e weathered that storm pretty well,鈥� Watson said. 鈥淚t was a slow grind.鈥�
A slow, painful grind for Avella (4-1, 9-3), which watched the Lady Pioneers use their athleticism to win their 39th consecutive section game and earn the outright section lead. It is a streak that started against the Lady Eagles Feb. 5, 2016. The Pioneers have won nine straight against Avella.
The body blows delivered by the West Greene (6-0, 13-0) started with one that staggered the Lady Eagles. Trailing 7-4 midway through the first quarter, the Lady Pioneers went on an 18-3 run to take a double-digit lead early into the second quarter.
Avella would never catch up.
West Greene鈥檚 Anna Durbin, who scored a game- and career-high 20 points, made a layup with 54 seconds left in the first half to give the Lady Pioneers their first 15-point lead of the night, 39-24.
鈥淚 think one of the main things (that motivates us) is that people underestimated us,鈥� Durbin said. 鈥淧eople thought, well, we lost everybody and we wouldn鈥檛 be nearly as good.鈥�
Durbin was one of four players for West Greene to score in double figures. Elizabeth Brudnock finished with 11. Jersey Wise and Brooke Barner each scored 10. Katie Lampe added nine points.
鈥淚 thought we did a good job making the extra pass,鈥� Watson said. 鈥淲e basically had five in double figures. When our balance is that good we are tough to stop.鈥�
Balance and fast starts have been key to the Pioneers鈥� unbeaten start. In first quarters, they have outscored opponents 294-62. The unblemished record will be challenged again later this week with back-to-back games against Monessen and Bishop Canevin.
The problem for Avella is that the Lady Pioneers never let off the gas pedal.
In foul trouble most of the night 鈥� Avella鈥檚 Bess Lengauer sat a majority of the first half after two early fouls 鈥� the Lady Eagles would never trim the deficit back to single digits. Durbin caught and finished a full-court inbound pass from Jersey Wise to spark an eight-point run early in the third quarter. West Greene then had a pair of six-point runs late in the third and another in the middle of the fourth quarter.
鈥淎 lot of it was self-inflicted,鈥� Avella coach Mike Drazich said. 鈥淲e got ourselves in foul trouble, and when you don鈥檛 have your best players on the floor that hurts. We threw the ball away too many times. You can鈥檛 do that against them.鈥�
Lengauer, despite being in foul trouble, led Avella with 10 points.
鈥淚t was a big statement,鈥� Durbin said. 鈥淲e have to prove that we are better than people would have thought. We are good enough to go back to The Pete.鈥�