After big lead slips away, Greensburg C.C. girls erupt in 4th quarter to defeat Maplewood

By: Tom Reisenweber
Tuesday, March 14, 2023 | 10:01 PM

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SLIPPERY ROCK — Greensburg Central Catholic allowed a double-digit lead to disappear in the third quarter by giving up a 16-4 run.

During a timeout, coach Chris Skatell seemed unfazed by the huge momentum shift.

“I told the girls this is where we want to be. Tied game with eight minutes of basketball to play,” Skatell said with a smile. “We could have been down 10.”

Mya Morgan scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to help the Centurions build another lead as Greensburg Central Catholic held off Maplewood, 61-48, in a PIAA Class 2A girls basketball second-round game Tuesday at Slippery Rock.

Central Catholic (23-5) moves on to the PIAA quarterfinals Friday against Shenango, which rallied to beat Lakeview on Tuesday.

The Centurions came out firing in the first quarter as Morgan scored 10 of her game-high 35 points, and Erica Gribble scored nine of her 14 points.

They just struggled to put away Maplewood with fouls starting to stack up.

“We have a young team, and we had some young lineups tonight because of our foul trouble,” Skatell said. “At one point, I had two freshmen and three juniors in there, and another lineup we had two freshmen, one sophomore and two juniors. But the kids worked together to get through it.”

Central Catholic went into halftime up 37-25, but the Tigers dominated the third quarter to tie the score 41-41.

As soon as the fourth quarter started, Morgan looked to shoot. She hit a jumper, nailed a 3-pointer and made four free throws to give the Centurions a 50-41 lead.

“She’s that kind of kid,” Skatell said. “She’s that kind of player. She’s always ready to go, and all of the kids played well. That’s a well-coached team that didn’t go away. They came here to win, and I’m so proud of my girls for dealing with that and gutting out the win.”

Morgan scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to put away Maplewood. Bailey

Varndell led the Tigers with 18 points on five 3-pointers, and Sadie Thomas, a 1,000-point scorer for Maplewood, added 17.

“We’ve been playing tough games all year in our section and outside of it, and we’ve been used to playing tough in the fourth quarter,” Skatell said. “It’s nice to get off to a good start, but you can’t win games in the first quarter. I think the big change in the game is we got out of zone and went to man, and that made the difference. It was a total team effort.”

Tags: Greensburg C.C.