Greensburg Salem beats Apollo-Ridge, clinches WPIAL Class 4A playoff berth

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, February 7, 2019 | 9:54 PM

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Greensburg Salem coach Rick Klimchock called his team’s overtime loss Monday to Indiana one of the toughest he has witnessed during his coaching career.

But the Golden Lions bounced back Thursday at Apollo-Ridge in a key Section 1-4A game with a WPIAL playoff spot on the line.

They seized momentum in the first quarter, led by as many as 15 early in the second half and rolled to a 66-45 victory.

“Our philosophy coming into the game was to not put pressure on the girls,” Klimchock said. “I didn’t want to tell them ‘You gotta win.’ I just wanted them to enjoy the game and go play, and they played great. Our energy was great the whole night. I am so proud of them.”

The win put Greensburg Salem (11-10, 7-7) in the WPIAL playoffs after failing to qualify last season.

Despite the loss, Apollo-Ridge (15-6, 7-6) also clinched a postseason berth for the second consecutive season.

Four teams — the Golden Lions, Vikings, Knoch and Indiana — entered Thursday in the hunt for the final two playoff spots from the section. North Catholic and Freeport already clinched the No. 1 and No. 2 playoff spots, respectively.

“One thing about this league, you’re going up against a good coach and great players each night,” Klimchock said. “Every game is a battle.”

The Greensburg Salem/Apollo-Ridge game began at 6 p.m., and the teams had to wait for the later contests – Knoch against North Catholic and Indiana against Freeport – to see how things played out.

Knoch lost, dropping to 7-7 in the section, but the Knights remain alive and need an Apollo-Ridge loss to Freeport on Friday to clinch on a tiebreaker.

Freeport beat Indiana (6-8) to eliminate the Indians.

“Greensburg Salem looked like a hungry team,” Apollo-Ridge coach Jim Callipare said. “They started out hot and were getting all the loose balls. They were getting rebounds and making all the hustle plays. We didn’t play strong defense, and we took a lot of bad shots. You can’t start out the way we did and hope to fare well against a good team like that.”

The Golden Lions raced out to a 9-0 lead with 3 minutes, 37 seconds gone and led 15-8 at the end of the first.

Greensburg Salem extended the advantage to 27-15 at halftime and went up 32-17 early in the third quarter.

Apollo-Ridge rallied with a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to 34-26 with 2:47 left in the third, and the Vikings trimmed the lead back to eight at 39-31 early in the fourth. But that was as close as they would get.

Greensburg Salem closed out the game from the free-throw line. Twelve fouls were called on Apollo-Ridge in the fourth quarter, and the Golden Lions made 18 of 24 free-throw attempts.

Megan Kallock hit nine of 10 from the line in the fourth and finished with a game-best 28 points.

Nikki Mellinger sank five of 10 free throws in the final quarter and scored 22 points.

Abby Mankins added four points from the line in the fourth.

“It was a really tough loss against Indiana, but we needed this one,” Kallock said. “We knew it was going to be tough. Apollo is a great team, and we had to come out strong. We did that. It was a great win.”

Maddy Moore, with the help of four 3-pointers, led the Vikings with 18 points. Rylee Eaton added 16 points, with 13 coming in the second half.

“We can’t cry over spilled milk,” Callipare said. “We have to come out strong (Friday), and it’s not going to get any easier with Freeport. We just have to play better basketball.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Greensburg Salem