Knoch prevails over Seneca Valley in hard-fought struggle
FOX CHAPEL — After the first few minutes of Friday afternoon’s matchup with Seneca Valley, the shots weren’t going down like they usually do, but that didn’t deter Knoch’s Nina Shaw, Hattie McGraw, and Naturelle Ewing from continuing to put them up.
Persistence — and stout defense — paid off, as Shaw’s pair of free throw makes untied the contest with four seconds to go and locked up a 34-32 win for the Knights at the Peter Sauer Memorial Tournament at Shady Side Academy. Her side hadn’t held the lead since nearly 30 minutes before that.
Knoch (4-4) was quick out of the gate, as buckets by Naturelle Ewing and Megan Vasas gave the team a 5-0 edge just 0:30 in. The Raiders went on a 14-4 run during the remainder of the opening frame.
Over the first half, the Knights could only knock down seven of their 23 field goals — a 30.4% clip — but entered the midway point knotted up after Adah Fuller laid the ball in 0:10 before the horn sounded.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, Andreassi said. Well, not in those exact words.
“You can’t play out of fear,” he cautioned. “I tell them, ‘Don’t think about it.’ You’ve got to have a short memory in this game, no matter who it is out there. They can all shoot the ball. Just miss one, you get it back and shoot it again.”
“Everybody just clears it out of their head,” said Shaw, who finished tied for the game high with 11 points. “We just keep going, keep pushing. Defense creates our offense.”
She practiced what she preached by pick-pocketing Seneca Valley (3-6) with under 90 ticks left on the clock and drawing a foul at the other end. However, her first free throw bounced off the rim and the second missed it entirely.
Over a minute later, she pulled in a board, went coast-to-coast, and was fouled again. With 0:04 left, she made good use of the opportunity, sinking the go-ahead foul shots.
“I knew it was either I had to make that or I was getting fouled,” Shaw said. “Whenever I did that Euro step, I already knew I was getting fouled. It was not a charge.
“I stayed on the ground for a little bit and made sure that I was ready for my free throws, then I got up and I finished.”
Andreassi also lauded Paige Rodgers and Adah Fuller in coming off the bench and adding to the defensive effort as Vasas and McGraw got into foul trouble. Knoch didn’t allow the Raiders to get on the board over the last eight minutes. Seneca Valley went 0-for-5 from the field and couldn’t get to the line.
“There’s always going to be those games where you don’t shoot the ball well, but there never should be a game where you play poor defense,” Andreassi said. “I think we played pretty good half-court man-to-man defense ... It was just a matter of who was going to make enough shots.”
“We just needed to make layups,” Seneca Valley coach Dorothea Epps said. “We left 20 points right there on the basket that they didn’t make. We just couldn’t score there towards the end.”
It all played out like the Raiders would have hoped. With forwards Emerson Peffer and Allison Sevin patrolling the middle, the Knights didn’t test the paint much.
“We decided that we were going to live with their outside shot,” Epps said. “We tried to keep (Shaw) out front as much as possible ... We were trying to eliminate those large numbers and I thought, for the most part, we did.”
Over the whole of the game, Knoch shot 4-of-25 (16%) from behind the arc. The first of McGraw’s treys cut Seneca Valley’s game-high seven-point advantage down to four with 4:24 left in the third. Just over two minutes later, her other three shaved the deficit to two. She scored all eight of her points in that quarter.
With a young crew that’s gaining experience, Epps would like for her players to take something away from the tightly-contested defeat. Natalie Hambly drained three treys and finished with 11 points and Peffer 10, six of which came at the charity stripe.
“You’ve got to be able to execute at the end when you’re in tight games,” Epps said. “It wasn’t for (a lack of) effort, because they played their hearts out ... You’ve just got to be able to pull out games. You’ve got to be able to finish games. Hopefully, they’re learning here because we go right into section now.”
KNOCH 34
Nina Shaw 4 2-4 11, Naturelle Ewing 3 4-6 11, Hattie McGraw 3 0-0 8, Megan Vasas 1 0-0 2, Adah Fuller 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 6-10 34.
SENECA VALLEY 32
Natalie Hambly 3 2-2 11, Emerson Peffer 2 6-10 10, Gracie Cato 3 0-0 6, Allison Sevin 1 2-5 4, Brionna Brown 0 1-2 1. Totals: 9 11-19 32.
Knoch 11 7 9 7 — 34
Seneca Valley 14 4 14 0 — 32
3-point goals: Knoch 4 (McGraw 2, Ewing, Shaw); Seneca Valley 3 (Hambly 3)
Monday: Butler at Seneca Valley; Freeport at Knoch
