Leechburg girls drop Apollo-Ridge for Apollo Trust Company tournament title

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 29, 2017 | 12:01 AM

After trailing by one at the half, Apollo-Ridge had designs of an upset over Leechburg.

But the Vikings were held to a single point in the third quarter as the Blue Devils rolled to a 64-51 victory in the girls basketball finals of the Apollo Trust Company tournament.

Senior Brittany Robillo scored 25 points — 17 in the fourth quarter — and Mikayla Lovelace had 21 points and 13 rebounds for No. 4 Leechburg (7-1).

Apollo-Ridge (5-3) had a 13-6 lead over their Kiski River rivals with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left in the opening quarter. Leechburg took the lead for good, 24-22, with 1:25 to go in the second on a steal and a basket by Lovelace.

The Blue Devils held a 27-26 advantage at the half but held Apollo-Ridge to a single foul shot, by Marley Altman, with 37 seconds left in the third quarter.

“I told the girls at halftime that Apollo was trying to slow the game down, and they did a good job of that in the first half,” Leechburg coach Joel Ceraso said. “I told them we have to pick up our pace, and we changed a few things defensively and it worked out better for us.”

The Blue Devils outscored the Vikings, 13-1, in the third quarter.

“You have to take your hat off to Leechburg. They're a solid club,” Apollo-Ridge coach Jim Callipare said. “We were just making too many mistakes to beat good teams like Leechburg. Our girls have to learn to weather the storm. We're still panicking in that storm. There's no calmness, so to say.”

Said Ceraso: “We went some to man-to-man and put Lovelace on the ball. She's tough for anybody to handle.”

Mackenzie Fello and Cam Davies contributed two field goals each to the Leechburg surge, with Fello feeding Robillo for a hoop with 1:37 left in the third. Robillo was fouled on the play by Altman and converted the three-point play to put the Blue Devils in front 37-26.

Megan Ost scored 12 points in the fourth, cutting the Blue Devils lead to nine twice, but Robillo had the hot hand to bring Leechburg over the finish line.

“We missed a lot of bunnies, a lot of put-backs,” Callipare said. “We gave them a lot of layups. We hustle and have desire, but we have to be more cerebral as a team.”

Robillo took two more bounce-passes from Lovelace in the key during the fourth quarter as Lovelace passed up several shooting opportunities to augment Leechburg's strong second half.

“When Brittany's got the stroke going, we're going to need it and other people stepping up,” Ceraso said.

The Blue Devils have won seven of eight games heading into January, with the only loss coming to West Shamokin, a PIAA semifinalist last season.

“Couldn't ask for anything better, really,” Ceraso said. “Any mistakes we make, they work hard on correcting them right away. It's a veteran group that has a workmanlike mentality.”

Ost had a solid game for Apollo-Ridge with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Junior swing player Maddie Moore had another strong outing, playing inside and moving outside for two key 3-pointers in the first half.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Leechburg