Published: February 20, 2007 11:58 pm      

Defense keys Laurel Valley girls to win

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Suffocating defense enabled Laurel Valley to build a 15-point halftime lead en route to a 42-31 victory over Belleville Mennonite in Tuesday’s District 6 Class A first-round girls game at Hollidaysburg Junior High School.

The reward for the eighth-seeded Rams in the quarterfinals will be top-seeded Bishop Guilfoyle, the state’s second-ranked team in Class A.

Leading 10-8 after the first, the Rams (16-9) pressured Belleville Mennonite into five turnovers and held the ninth-seeded Trojans to only four points in the frame. The Rams’ prowess on the defensive end opened things up on the other end of the floor as Laurel Valley quickly built a double-digit lead with 3-pointers from Erica LaMantia and Brittany Hall.

A fast-break layup by Heidi Hollingsworth put the Rams up 20-9 midway through the second. A free throw by Allie Wynn and a bucket by Casey Wynn expanded Laurel Valley’s lead to 23-9 before a 3-pointer by the Trojans’ Annie Mathews stopped the 13-1 run.

A pair of free throws by Casey Wynn and a basket by Hollingsworth, who led Laurel Valley with 11 points, gave the Rams a 27-12 halftime lead.

It was the first playoff win for Laurel Valley since a quarterfinal-round victory over Williamsburg in 2004.

“We were nervous at the start of the game,” Laurel Valley coach Christy Hajjar said. “It was the first playoff game for a lot of the girls on the team. We were fine once we started to play our style of basketball.”

Laurel Valley built the lead to 18 points in the third after buckets by LaMantia, Casey Wynn and Hollingsworth. The Trojans ended the quarter with a conventional 3-point play by Ally Peachey, a layup by Megan Laub and a 3-pointer from Mathews. Peachey’s 10 points paced the Trojans.

The Trojans outscored the Rams 8-7 in the fourth quarter but couldn’t close the gap to fewer than seven points, which came after Laub’s jumper made it 38-31. Back-to-back layups by Grace Altimus sewed the game up for Laurel Valley.

“We seemed passive at the beginning, but we worked ourselves back into the game in the second half,” Trojans coach Herb Zook said. “I think it was fun for the girls to play our best against tough competition like Laurel Valley.”