Raiders’ girls open strong before falling to P-R
JACKSON TWP — A frustrating theme continued to hold down Seneca Valley’s girls basketball team.
In Monday’s section encounter with Pine-Richland, the Raiders built an 11-point lead in the first quarter only to see it dissolve in a 50-41 loss to the visiting Rams.
SV opened the game by making seven of its first 10 shots, including draining its first four 3-point attempts while jumping out to an 18-7 lead.
“That’s the story of our season,” said SV coach Dorothea Epps. “We looked really good in the first, we still hanging in there in the second quarter and then, starting in the third, we lose track of what the game plan is.”
Even though the Raiders scored just five points in the third period, Brionna Brown’s bucket gave them a slim 34-33 lead with eight minutes remaining.
Sarah Pifer put the Rams (6-4, 2-1) up with a trey 39 seconds into the fourth quarter. P-R made just one other field goal in the period, but made 12 of 14 attempts from the free throw line.
“We’ve shown a lot of guts at the line this year,” said Rams’ coach Gabby Baldasare.
After shooting so well in the first period, the Raiders (3-9, 0-3) made just 20 percent (seven of 34) of their tries the rest of the game.
“I thought we got the looks, just didn’t make them,” Epps said. “You look at our results this season, we’ve been blown out twice. All of our other losses have been close.
“We’re close to turning things around.”
Baldasare said her team has struggled in a number of first quarters this season.
“We divide practices up into quarters, try to put emphasis on certain things,” she said. “It’s a matter of staying calm and collecting ourselves.”
Madison Zavasky paced the Rams with 21 points.
Brown scored 11 for the Raiders and Natalie Hambly 16, though only three came after halftime. Pifer was tasked with guarding Hambly in P-R’s box-and-1 defense.
“(Hambly) is a freshman, really talented, and she is going to have a great career here at Seneca,” said Baldasare. “Sarah did a great job. She was up to the challenge.”
PINE-RICHLAND 50
Sarah Pifer 2 1-2 7, Maren Iski 1 2-3 4, Madison Zavasky 6 6-10 21, Katie Pifer 0 6-6 6, Catherine Gentile 4 3-4 12. Totals: 13 18-25 50.
SENECA VALLEY 41
Brionna Brown 4 0-0 11, Allison Sevin 2 4-4 8, Natalie Hambly 6 2-3 16, Emerson Peffer 2 2-4 6. Totals: 14 8-11 41.
Pine-Richland 8 20 5 17 — 50
Seneca Valley 18 11 5 7 — 41
3-point goals: Pine-Richland 6 (Zavasky 3, S.Pifer 2, Gentile); Seneca Valley 5 (Brown 3, Hambly 2).
Thursday: North Allegheny at Seneca Valley
