Fillies earn landmark PIAA win at Johnstown
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Miya Harris came through when Laurel Highlands needed her most.
She wasn’t the only one.
Every girl who took the floor for the Fillies had their moments in Saturday afternoon’s PIAA Class AAAA first-round girls basketball playoff game, and several rose up when the pressure was at its greatest to help lift Laurel Highlands to a physical, heart-stopping 51-48 victory over host Greater Johnstown.
“Miya made a couple big shots for us, but everyone was making plays and executing for us at the end,” LH coach Stewart Davis said.
The landmark win, the program’s first ever in the state tournament, propelled the Fillies into Wednesday’s second round against Fairview at North Allegheny at 6:30 p.m.
Harris hit two clutch 3-pointers and had a key assist in the final two and a half minutes to counter the Lady Trojans’ Zayona Thomas who scored a game-high 23 points with 15 coming in the fourth quarter.
Laurel Highlands (21-4), the fourth place team out of the WPIAL, held a seven-point lead with 4:25 left in the game following baskets by Aierre Jenkins and Taylor Schwertfeger.
That just set the stage for an exhilarating finish.
Johnstown (12-13), the District 6 champion, came roaring back to tie it with a seven-point run capped by a Thomas 3-pointer with 2:45 remaining.
Harris calmly responded with a 3-pointer to put LH up 42-39 but the Lady Raiders’ NaLonai Tisinger scored the next three points to knot the game again at 42-42 with 1:42 left.
The Fillies’ Aryianna Sumpter grabbed the rebound from her own missed shot and scored to put her team back up by two with 1:25 on the clock but Thomas nailed another 3-pointer 17 seconds later to give the Lady Trojans their first lead of the second half, 45-44.
Again Harris had an answer.
Righteous Richardson attempted a 3-pointer for Laurel Highlands that barely missed the mark but Jenkins gathered in the rebound and got the ball out to Harris and the junior guard drained another 3-pointer with 53 seconds left to put the Fillies ahead to stay at 47-45.
“All it takes for Miya is to hit one shot and then her eyes get big and the hoop gets big,” Davis said. “We call her the GLS, good little shooter. She has ice in her veins. That was a huge shot.”
Several nerve-wracking moments remained.
Thomas misfired on her next 3-point attempt with Sumpter grabbing the rebound which led to a Harris pass to a wide-open Richardson and the unlikely hero dropped in the layup to put LH ahead by four with 14 seconds left.
“Righteous gained some confidence in the game before when she played against Elizabeth Forward,” Davis pointed out, referring to LH’s third-place consolation game loss to the Lady Warriors. “We normally stay with the regular five but in practice I’ve seen her shot get better and her energy on defense in practice get better. She’s been itching for minutes so when Jenkins wasn’t able to play that gave her the opportunity and she shined bright in that Elizabeth Forward game. She knocked down a pair of threes and played great defensively.
“So I was comfortable with her out there. They didn’t play defense on her. They just let her go to try and double the ball and Miya was able to find her in the open spot and she hit that layup which was huge for us.”
Johnstown wasn’t done yet.
Thomas arced in an NBA-range 3-pointer to slice the gap to one as her father, coach Xavier Thomas, quickly called a timeout with four seconds left.
“She’s a streaky shooter and knocked down some big shots for them,” Davis said of Thomas.
Davis turned to freshman Schwertfeger to inbound the ball.
“I told our team during that timeout just get the ball in and hold it because they’ve got to foul us,” Davis said. “Then the second one we’d get to the foul line and then we’d just have to knock them down. I trusted Schwertfeger to throw the ball in and she answered the call.”
Schwertfeger inbounded the ball three times. The first was tipped out of bounds by Tisinger, the second resulted in Johnstown’s fourth team foul on Jenkins and the third resulted in Sumpter being fouled with 1.5 seconds left.
Sumpter stepped up to the line having made all five of her previous free throws.
“We knew Ayrianna was four for four from the foul line going into the fourth quarter,” Davis explained. “She’s always poised and is that quiet leader who keeps the same temperament throughout the game. I was confident with her at the line.”
Sumpter made both to increase the lead to three points and when the Lady Trojans failed to get off a final shot the Fillies celebrated.
Davis lauded his team for its performance in the clutch.
“They’ve definitely taken on my personality,” Davis said. “I’m not a coach that gets rattled or shows that we’re defeated. In the huddles I always tell them stay locked in, stay together, stay in sync. And they just go out there and keep battling.
“The main thing I tell them is don’t ever give up, don’t ever fold. The team we played tonight, if you look at their conference, they’re the type of team, they’re going to get on you. They’re scrappy, and they’re used to teams folding.
“We’re a team that didn’t fold. We kept our poise. I commend our girls for that.”
Harris led the way for the Fillies with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Schwertfeger and Sumpter followed with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
“Taylor did a great job getting to the basket,” Davis said. “Film doesn’t show that on her, she normally is our defender, our stopper, but tonight she was a little more aggressive. She made some layups.”
Jenkins chipped in with eight points.
The game went back and forth throughout a closely contested first half.
There were four lead changes and five ties in a first quarter that ended with a 3-pointer by Taylor Irwin that gave Laurel Highlands a 14-11 lead.
There were two more lead changes and four ties in the second quarter which ended in a 21-21 deadlock.
The Fillies were able to push out to a 32-24 advantage, the biggest of the game for either team, late in the third quarter before two free throws by Aubreyonna Nash, who finished with 10 points, got Johnstown within 32-26 heading to the fourth quarter.
Davis scouted the Lady Trojans thoroughly and prepared his team for what he knew would be a rugged battle.
“That was something that we worked on all week,” Davis said. “We got the pads out and were beating them with the pads during layups, we were playing pressure defense on them, running two at Miya, running two at Ayrianna, running two at Schwertfeger the entire week because we knew that’s the type of game that they played. We prepped for that.”
Davis was ready to dwell on what’s turning out to be one of the Fillies’ greatest seasons.
“We have a short window. We don’t have too much time to celebrate with the quick turnaround,” Davis said. “We’ll get to that at the end of the season but we’re staying on business right now.
“They’re ready for the next challenge.”