All-Kiski Valley girls basketball notebook: Fox Chapel to face Hampton again

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 | 8:05 PM

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Fox Chapel is the only team in Section 2-5A to topple Hampton (8-2, 4-1) this season.

The Foxes upended the Talbots, 58-49, on Jan. 12, and Hampton followed that loss with seven straight victories.

The rematch is at 6 p.m. Friday at Fox Chapel.

Behind 13 points from senior Ellie Schwartzman, Fox Chapel (4-5, 4-3) won its third in a row Monday, 60-25 over Kiski Area.

“Friday is another great opportunity for the girls,” Foxes coach Marty Matvey said. “We’re excited for that game and just very thankful to have had the chance recently to put ourselves back in contention in the section, which has a lot of parity. Anyone can beat anyone else on a given night.”

Matvey said getting healthy has been a big key to recent team success.

“We have (sophomore forward) Elsie (Smith) back and (freshman guard) Sarah (Slember) back, two of our starters we’ve been without at various points,” he said.

“Starting with the Mars game (Jan. 25), we’ve had a full team, and that really brought a lot of good energy and allowed us to get back into our style of play. We know we’re not the fastest team, but feel we can press and put pressure on people fairly well with players such as Elsie and Sarah and (Domenica Delaney) at the top.”

Busy Knights

Knoch, No. 2 in the Triblive HSSN WPIAL Class 4A rankings, is 5-0 overall and in Section 1. The Knights will get numerous chances over the next week to keep their unblemished record intact.

Thanks to covid-19 rescheduling, Knoch will play six games in eight days starting with Thursday’s section contest at Highlands.

The Knights, who are averaging 61.6 points, will step away from section play Saturday against Laurel (9-2) and again Monday against Mohawk.

Mohawk is 5-1 in Section 1-3A, second only to North Catholic (6-0), and is 11-2 overall. The Warriors are No. 2 in the Trib’s WPIAL Class 3A rankings and No. 4 in the Trib’s state-wide rankings.

Career night

Kennedie Montue has had numerous big offensive outputs at Plum.

None matched the 38 points the senior netted Tuesday in the Mustangs’ 53-43 victory over Indiana in a Section 2-5A contest.

Her career-high output helped Plum snap a three-game losing streak and get back in the thick of the section standings at 3-3. The Mustangs will visit section foe Mars on Thursday in a rematch of a 59-48 Plum win Jan. 12.

The Mustangs and Planets are tied for fourth in the section, a half-game behind Fox Chapel (4-3).

Montue’s big night against the Indians put her over the 1,300-point mark for her career.

Back to section business

Because of postponements, Deer Lakes waited two weeks to play another Section 1-4A game.

The Lancers, who had played two nonsection games since their last section matchup, a 50-42 win over Highlands on Jan. 18, got back into the section flow Tuesday and battled down to the wire against rival Burrell.

In the end, 18 points from Reese Hasley and 17 more from Nikki Fleming helped Deer Lakes edge the Bucs, 45-42, and move to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the section.

The Lancers hope to keep it going Thursday at Derry.

Yes, we’re open

The WPIAL on Monday announced the period to declare for the open championship tournaments will run through 3 p.m. on Feb. 18.

Numerous Alle-Kiski Valley teams have indicated they will take part.

The open-tournament format, established by the WPIAL in a December vote, helps eliminate issues that could arise in putting a field of teams together from unbalanced section standings.

There are less than three weeks before the WPIAL committee plans to meet (Feb. 23) to seed and then reveal the tournament brackets, WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman said.

The playoff games could begin as early as Feb. 27.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.