BLAIRSVILLE — Penn Cambria forced 33 turnovers in its District 6 Class 3A semifinal matchup at River Valley on Saturday but lost, 51-37.
Unfortunately for the Lady Panthers, a lot of that had to do with them making 35 turnovers themselves.
“We didn’t do a good job in the second half protecting the basketball,” Penn Cambria coach Keith Saleme said. “With their halfcourt trap where they extended their defense out there, we didn’t do as good of a job in the second half taking care of the basketball as we did in the first half.”
Penn Cambria, which will play Westmont Hilltop in the 3A consolation game on Wednesday the same night River Valley plays Forest Hills for the District 6 title, led for most of the first quarter and trailed just 20-16 at the half.
That’s when River Valley made an adjustment.
“We held back a defense until the second half so they couldn’t make halftime adjustments,” River Valley coach Rick Brown said. “That defense just killed them. They only scored 11 points in the second half. We held that defense just for that.”
Penn Cambria was held scoreless for the first two and a half minutes of the third quarter while River Valley went on an 8-0 run that provided the separation it was able to maintain for the rest of the game.
“When we got a turnover, unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on it,” Saleme said. “Sometimes it was on a dead ball where we didn’t get momentum going back the other way like when our press causes it.”
Hindering Penn Cambria’s defensive pressure was the fact that Emily Hite, Devon Cornell and Marah Saleme all picked up two first-quarter fouls. Saleme eventually fouled out with 5:43 left in the game.
“It slowed us down with the way we wanted to play defense,” Keith Saleme said.
Daijah Lilly led the Lady Panthers with 13 points.
Julia Potts scored 12 points for River Valley, star freshman Ava Persichetti scored 12, and Rylee Kitner added 11 points. In addition to the turnover woes, River Valley missed 16 free throws.
“Free throws have been our Achilles heel,” Brown said. “I was going to live with 15 turnovers today. I’m not going to live with 30-plus, we have to fix that, but that’s what Penn Cambria does. That’s how they win games. That press is dynamic. They are 10-deep, and they are all the same size and quick. They pressed the crap out of us, and we failed miserably sometimes, but the girls did a fantastic job to overcome all of that.”
Penn Cambria and Westmont split a pair of games in the regular season.
“I told the girls in the locker room, it is important to get the third seed so we don’t end up playing the WPIAL champion,” Saleme said. “We’ll be ready to go Wednesday night against them. They beat us last time, and we didn’t play our best, so we get a chance to redeem ourselves.”
PENN CAMBRIA (37): Lilly 5 3-4 13, O’Donnell 3 0-0 6, M. Saleme 1 0-0 2, Hite 1 1-2 4, Cornell 1 1-2 3, Crossman 1 6-8 8, Vinglish 0 1-2 1, Della 0 0-0 0, Andersen 0 0-0 0. Totals — 12 12-20 37.
RIVER VALLEY (51): Artley 1 2-2 4, Kitner 5 0-3 11, I. Pynos 1 2-3 5, Potts 6 0-5 13, Persichetti 5 2-4 12, Foust 0 1-4 1, A. Pynos 2 1-3 5. Totals — 20 8-24 51.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penn Cambria 12 14 5 6 — 37
River Valley 14 16 11 10 — 51
3-point goals: Penn Cambria 1 (Hite); River Valley 3 (Kitner, I. Pynos, Potts).
Officials: Steve Yesenosky, George Figura, Tony Hutzell.
Records: Penn Cambria (17-8); River Valley (20-4).
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