Albert Gallatin girls preview: Lady Colonials battling through early-season injuries
Jim Downey | 缅北禁地
Albert Gallatin plays one of the tougher WPIAL schedules in girls basketball but the Lady Colonials are up against a different obstacle early in the season.
“We’re facing an injury bug that I haven’t had in the past,” said third-year coach Craig Hoone. “It’s hit us hard this year.”
Albert Gallatin lost two key players to graduation in Gianna Michaux and Courtlyn Turner and are awaiting the return of three players – senior Lexi Lovis, junior Emily Sines and freshman Janiah Darnell – from injures.
“We’re hoping to have them all back by January,” Hoone said. “They’ll all be in the mix when they get back out on the court.
“We’re thin. We don’t even have a JV team right now. When those girls get healthy then that’ll be a possibility again.”
Hoone also is counting on contributions from seniors Lauren Colgan and Laney Ellsworth, juniors Grayce Panos, Mya Glisan and Mitchell Turner (Courtlyn’s sister) and sophomore Mikayla Shea, and one other freshman.
“You’ll recognize this name,” Hoone said. “Maggie Quertinmont.”
Quertinmont is the daughter of Buddy Quertinmont, who was a 1,500-point scorer at Albert Gallatin and went on to start at Washington & Jefferson, and granddaughter of the late Jules “Buddy” Quertinmont, the former Point Marion/Albert Gallatin basketball great who went to be a two-year starter at West Virginia.
Maggie has some basketball talent as well, according to Hoone.
“She’s up and coming,” Hoone said. “She’s got to get more aggressive but she can shoot and she can handle the ball a little bit.”
Maggie’s father is one of Hoone’s assistant coaches, as is Sydney Phillips.
Panos and Glisan are three-year starters who will lead the way for the Lady Colonials.
“We’re going to lean heavily on Mya and Grayce,” Hoone said. “Mya’s got a leadership role where I made her captain as a junior which is something I’ve never done before. Grayce is helping with the ball-handling duties as well. They both show leadership qualities on the court. We have three girls that share the ball handling actually, those two and Shea.”
Hoone prefers to play man-to-man defense but said he’ll use a little more zone than usual this season.
“Typically we’re a man-to-man team,” Hoone said. “This year we’re not quite as tall as we were so we’ll be mixing up man, zone, different types of defenses.”
Albert Gallatin is again a member of rugged Section 3-AAAAA along with Oakland Catholic, McKeesport, Penn-Trafford, Latrobe, Thomas Jefferson and Connellsville.
“Oakland Catholic and McKeesport are two top teams and also Penn-Trafford’s right in there,” Hoone said. “Latrobe graduated some people but it seems like they just kind of reload. Connellsville has a new coach this year so I’m not sure what to expect from them.
“We have a tough schedule that’s for sure, not only in the section but we schedule pretty tough outside of the section also. We’re facing tough competition all the way through this season.”