MORGANTOWN — The Trinity Christian girls’ basketball team opened the Region II, Section 2 tournament in dominant fashion with a 66-21 victory over the Notre Dame Lady Irish on Wednesday night high on the hill in Sabraton.
TCS head coach Mike Baldy celebrated his 100th win after the game, which he achieved the game before against Moorefield. Donald Pavelko, who the court is named after at TCS, was in attendance as a special guest for the game and was recognized at halftime.
From the opening tip, the Warriors (13-10) held the advantage and used it to jump out to a 13-point lead after the first quarter, 15-2. The lead came despite just a 6 of 21 shooting effort from the floor by the Warriors.
The shots were presenting themselves but the Warriors struggled at times to put the ball in the basket, particularly from the three-point line, going 4 for 28 in the game from beyond the arc.
The second quarter seemed better for TCS on offense, as the defense remained strong as well. Baldy praised his girls’ defensive effort in their opening sectional victory.
“I thought we came out tonight and had some fun,” he said after the game. “Our defense really turned into offense tonight. In a game where you aren’t shooting the ball well, you tell your team to create offense from their defense and we did a good job of that.”
The stifling defense of TCS allowed only nine total points to NDHS by halftime, as a 35-9 lead at the break favored the hosts.
Trinity’s duo Jenna Barnett and SuCora Brown combined for 44 of their team’s 66 points, matching one another with 22 points each. Brown, who normally scores her buckets in the paint, even made a pair of triples in the fourth quarter, which got the bench loud for their teammate.
“It’s stuff like that, that I will taker away from the game tonight,” Baldy said. “Cora comes in and hits two threes, Avery Malone comes in the game and scores two quick baskets. When everyone on the team has a chance to contribute, it’s always a good night.”
Eight different Warriors scored a basket on the night, as they cruised to a 66-21 sectional-opening win over NDHS.
“Going forward we need to be a little more aggressive on offense, fundamentally,” Baldy said. “Ball fakes, head fakes, cutting harder to the basket.”
The Warriors will move on to host the sectional championship game on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. against Braxton County.
Trinity 66, Notre Dame 21
TCS 15 20 18 13 – 66
ND 2 7 0 12 – 21
Trinity – Turner 1 0-0 2; Dinkle 3 0-0 6; Lynch 2 0-0 5; Barnett 9 4-6 22; Brown 9 2-2 22; Burrell 1 0-0 2; Baston 1 0-0 3; Malone 2 0-1 4
Notre Dame – Fryer 3 0-0 6; Shaffer 2 0-2 4; Paugh 4 0-1 8; Policano 1 0-0 2;
3pt goals – Trinity 4 (Brown 2, Lynch 1, Baston 1)
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