Cold-shooting Mohawk falls to Seneca Valley
Seneca Valley (52) Vs. Mohawk (26)
The Mohawk High girls basketball team couldn’t find the range in the second half last night.
The Lady Warriors were 1 of 24 from the field in the final 16 minutes in dropping a 52-26 nonsection verdict to Seneca Valley.
“We did nothing different from the first half,” Mohawk coach Mike O’Lare said. “Seneca Valley didn’t change anything defensively, we just weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be.”
The Lady Raiders are a Class AAAA school coached by Rob Lombardo, a 1990 New Castle graduate.
Shelby Brown led the Lady Warriors (2-1) with eight points and Brooke Shasteen followed with six.
O’Lare hopes playing bigger schools will prove beneficial down the road.
“We’ve done it a variety of ways the last five years,” O’Lare said of his team’s scheduling. “This year we’ve gone all-out to find anyone we could get to play us.
“I want to believe this will help us. I want to be prepared for when February rolls around. In February, we’ll know if games like this helped us or not.”
Seneca Valley (2-1) has not had a winning record the last eight seasons.
Last year, the Lady Raiders were just 2-18.
“It’s outstanding to be 2-1,” Lombardo said. “The girls have done a lot of hard work and it’s tough to shed that losing mentality.
“It’s nice coming back home to Lawrence County, too. I’ve been very lucky and this was nice tonight.”
Lombardo, 39, was an assistant coach for the Seneca Valley’s boys basketball team for six seasons prior to moving to the girls program.
Amanda Geiger paced the Lady Raiders with 13 points, while Alyssa Miller contributed 12 and Alex Karika chipped in with 11.
“I call those girls my triple-As,” Lombardo said of the trio. “We said before the season started if we can get 35 points out of those girls we’re going to win.”
Mohawk, which has reached the playoffs three years in a row, was outscored 22-6 in the second half.
“It’s always nice to win a road game against anybody, but to get a quality win on the road against a playoff team like Mohawk has been, it’s a real nice win,” Lombardo said.
The Lady Warriors open WPIAL Section 2-AA play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday when they visit Riverside.