Trib HSSN WPIAL Girls Basketball Team of the Week: Week ending Jan. 30, 2022

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, January 30, 2022 | 3:38 PM

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The focus at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and across the WPIAL has been on the record-setting winning streak of the OLSH boys basketball team, breaking the nearly 40-year-old WPIAL record with 54 straight wins, and counting.

“The boys’ run is very impressive, especially considering the tough WPIAL and PIAA playoff games the past two years.”

Those are the words of OLSH girls basketball coach Don Eckerle, whose team is quietly on a roll of its own. After two wins last week, the Chargers have won eight straight.

“We have steadily improved and gained confidence with each game,” Eckerle said. “We have a solid team, and we are experienced. It’s not that we didn’t have confidence prior to the winning streak. It was. There was little reinforcement.”

Win No. 7 in a row came Monday when OLSH won at New Brighton, 59-9.

“We have 15 juniors and seniors on this year’s squad,” Eckerle said. “We used this game to play many of those players who have had limited playing time in the past couple of weeks. It was a good opportunity to reinforce the need to take advantage of playing time. No need for the starters to pad stats in this game.”

The Chargers weren’t caught looking ahead to a big showdown Thursday at home against defending champion and top-ranked Neshannock.

Coming into the game, the Lancers were in first place in Section 1-2A with an 8-0 record, one game up in the loss column on the 5-1 Chargers.

“We got off to a good start but found ourselves down two to five points until midway through the third quarter,” Eckerle said. “We then hit six 3-pointers from four different players in a span of four-and-a-half minutes and took control of the game. We continue to have different leading scorers from game to game.”

OLSH beat Neshannock, 53-39, to hand the Lancers only their second loss of the season and put the Chargers in good shape to earn a share of the section crown.

Since taking over the OLSH program 19 years ago, one staple of Eckerle’s teams has been good defense. That is again the case this year as the Chargers are sixth in Class 2A in team defense, allowing 34.8 points per game.

“We spend a substantial amount of time of defending in practice and have been fortunate to have the players buy into the value of defense,” Eckerle said. “We have a versatile defensive team and have multiple combinations of players who can play a particular defense.”

Balance is a good word for OLSH, not only on defense but also on offense. The team leans on the likes of seniors Emily Schuck, Katie Hoff, Kaleigh Costantino, Kennedy Walsh, Delaney Walsh and Sy’rai Johnson-Dilliard, along with juniors Kyleigh Nagy, Mia Grisafi, Kara Bridge, Gia Ierullo and Alyssa Minton.

With two weeks left, if OLSH can take care of business, they will earn at least a share of the section crown and draw a high seed in the upcoming WPIAL playoffs.

What else do the Chargers need to do in their final five regular season games?

“Staying healthy is always important and keeping the confidence will be key,” Eckerle said. “We have earned the right to be proud with wins over Rochester, Obama and Neshannock. We have talked all year about being our best when our best is needed. It’s starting to show.”

2022 Trib HSSN Girls Basketball Teams of the Week

Week 5: Waynesburg Central Raiders

Week 4: Montour Spartans

Week 3: Trinity Hillers

Week 2: Union Scotties

Week 1: Blackhawk Cougars

Tags: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart