Norwin girls surge past rival Penn-Trafford

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 | 10:09 PM

The basketball caromed off a player, trickled out of bounds and bounced off some equipment in the Norwin pep band’s percussion section.

All the while, Norwin’s girls basketball team continued to march to the beat of a different drum.

Norwin hit the accelerator and erupted for a series of steals and layups in the fourth quarter Wednesday night to pull away from rival Penn-Trafford, 62-35, in a nonsection rivalry game in North Huntingdon.

The Knights (10-1), ranked No. 4 in Class 6A, only led by seven with 2:11 left in the third quarter. Then it was like a window blew open and the speed of the game picked up.

The Knights’ patented transition defense worked its wonders once again as Norwin ran off 21 straight points and the Warriors (5-6) went scoreless for more than seven minutes. That was the definitive stretch, and it led to Penn-Trafford’s third straight defeat.

Norwin outscored Penn-Trafford, 21-4, in the fourth, with 14 points coming off turnovers.

“We made a nice run to cut it to seven, and I thought if we could get it down to four or five going to the fourth we might be all right,” Warriors coach John Giannikas said. “But to their credit, they really picked up the defensive intensity — they played with more desperation there and we could not match it.”

Junior guard Jayla Wehner led Norwin with 14 points, and junior guard Olivia Gribble added 11, including three first-half 3-pointers.

Last year, in the team’s final section matchup before Penn-Trafford moved down to Class 5A, Sarah Nguyen made a buzzer-beating floater to sink visiting Norwin, 39-37.

No such drama this time.

“We tried to come out from the beginning with pressure,” Wehner said. “We came in thinking about them beating us last year. We didn’t want it to be as close.”

Penn-Trafford never led, but had it to 20-15 in the second quarter.

Norwin went on a 10-0 run with 3s from Gribble and Danielle Rosso, to stretch it to 30-15.

Warriors freshman Maura Suman scored on back-to-back steals to close out the first half with Norwin ahead, 30-19.

A 9-0 run by Penn-Trafford sliced the gap to 36-29 in the third, but Wehner buried a 3 to key the decisive surge as Norwin redirected momentum completely in its favor.

“Penn-Trafford is scrappy and shot the ball well,” Norwin coach Brian Brozeski said. “We had to pick up the pace after a slower third quarter. It’s nice when you’re able to throw it to some speed on the other end.”

Nine players scored for Norwin, which rotated players in packs of three and four at a time. Seniors Emily Brozeski and Jessica Kolesar each scored eight, and senior forward Abby Best chipped in seven.

Senior 6-foot-1 forward Stephanie O’Donnell led Penn-Trafford with 10 points, and sophomore Kenzie Powell added eight.

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Norwin, Penn-Trafford