Focus on defensive effort lifts Shaler Area girls to fast start

By: Josh Rizzo
Thursday, December 12, 2019 | 5:07 PM

Senior guard Meghan Lacey wants this season to be a revenge tour for the Shaler Area girls basketball. The Titans made quite a statement to open the season at the Ambridge tournament.

Opening against two teams that beat Shaler by double digits last season, the Titans showed they’ve learned from the past.

Shaler turned in what is believed to be a program-record defensive effort, limiting West Allegheny to three points in a 65-3 win. The Titans (2-1) then turned around and handed Neshannock a 57-37 defeat.

“I think the mindset was this was a business trip,” Lacey said. “We want this season to be a revenge tour. We didn’t want to let them score or let off at the end of the game.”

Shaler opened Section 1-6A play against defending WPIAL runner-up North Allegheny last Friday on the road.

Cornelious Nesbit said the Titans’ effort on defense will be what carries them back to the postseason. Against West Allegheny, Shaler opened on an 11-0 run and led 46-3 at the half.

“The big thing for us is the ability to play pressure defense,” Nesbit said. “We want to create turnovers and have been rebounding well on defense.”

While Shaler has been focusing on turning up pressure on opposing offenses, Nesbit said the Titans won’t force anything that isn’t there.

If an opponent handles the ball well, Shaler will come up with a different approach.

“We’ve done a lot of trapping and have used a 2-2-1 press,” Nesbit said. “We want to speed things up and pick up the tempo. The goal is to acquire more possessions than the other team. We use it on certain teams, but won’t use it on others. We have a game plan specific to each team.”

All of the fruits from a stout defense have paid dividends on offense.

The Titans have had a plethora of double-digit scorers in each contest to lead the offense.

Emily Cavacini led Shaler with 21 points, while freshman Haley Kostorick added 12 and Audrey Fisher had 10 points against West Allegheny. Cavacini also reached 20 points against Neshannock, while Lacey contributed 13.

Things are starting to feel different for Lacey, who doesn’t forget what happened during Shaler’s 0-6 start to last season.

“We have a lot more people that want the ball this year,” Lacey said. “They want to take the ball to the hoop and score.”

Tags: Shaler