By Andrew Koob
New Castle News

Winning games isn’t always about who scores the most points.

Games can come down to who makes the extra pass, who makes the hustle play and who can step up on the defensive side of the ball.

Ashley McConnell usually is the one making those plays for the Mohawk High girls basketball team.

McConnell won’t jump out on the box score, averaging only three points per game. But it’s the little things that she does that make her so valuable to the team — such as holding the top talent of Section 1-AA to single-digit points.

She did it twice last week, holding Beaver Fall’s Mahkaila Bonomo, who averages double-digit points per game, to five in a 48-33 win over the Lady Tigers.

Next up was Lawrence County leading scorer and Neshannock start Madison McHale. McHale, who averages a county-high 19.8 points per game, was held to just six points, two of them coming late in the game in a 54-24 win over the Lady Lancers.

Her defensive performance earned her Lawrence County Athlete of the Week honors, an award sponsored by Washington Centre Physical Therapy and selected by the New Castle News sports staff.

“I just tried to stay on them as best as I could and try to deny them the ball,” McConnell said of last week’s defensive tasks. “That was my job. It felt great, I tried my best to do whatever I could to stop them. My teammates really helped me. Offense really isn’t my thing, so I focus on defense and do what I can to help my team. My teammates really helped me push through it.”

Mohawk coach Mike O’Lare credits McConnell for being able to make adjustments on the fly, helping her and her teammates zone in on the opponent’s offense.

“Where we are now, I don’t have to think twice about what she’s doing,” O’Lare said. “We go over matchups in practice and how we want to guard certain kids. But she’s so smart that she can carry it over into the game and carry it over for four quarters and make adjustments on her own based on what they’re doing. She’s very smart. When she gets out on the floor, we start a certain way and, if it’s not working, she’ll make adjustments or communicate to me that we should do something else.

“Ninety percent of the time, she’s right.”

Those on-court smarts have given the Lady Warriors’ coaching staff confidence in putting McConnell on the opponents’ best player.

It doesn’t hurt for McConnell to actually hear it from the staff, either.

“It sounds really good to hear your coach say it,” McConnell said. “Having that trust in you and him having that belief in you is great.”

McConnell also has the ability to make the little plays on offense. It’s her hustle and smarts when Mohawk (7-2 Section 1-AA, 13-4 overall) holds possession of the ball that has garnered praise as well.

“We definitely want her to be two-sided,” O’Lare said. “The things she does on offense, she extends possessions for us. She sets great screens, she gets loose balls, she gets offensive rebounds. She’s not just a defensive player, she does some really good things on offense. But we’re trying to develop her, with her only being a junior, into an offensive threat and not being one-sided. She does all those little things offensively that you want in a kid. She does all of those things that might not necessarily show up in the box score.”

McConnell’s defensive presence is a welcome sight for O’Lare and the Lady Warriors. In a sport where offense is revered at the high school level, McConnell’s performance on the other side of the ball shows just how much defense is a part of Mohawk’s plan for success.

“Today, so much emphasis in sports is put on the offensive side. What we build our program on the defensive side and how imperative it is to get stops. If you shoot 50 percent from the field, that’s successful. But 50 percent is something we feel we can chip away at, our opponents are only shooting 22 percent. So if we can hold you to that, offensively we’ll hopefully get enough points to beat you.

“But she’s bought into that, sells out on that. She’s completely a team-first kid and wants to do what’s best to win. In today’s day and age, there aren’t always a lot of kids like that. They want to score points, play offense and come back and rest on defense. She’s almost the exact opposite of a lot of kids.

“Whatever it takes to win, she’s willing to do for us.”

(Email: A_Koob@ncnewsonline.com)

Position: Guard

School: Mohawk

Grade: 11

Parents: Shelly and Ronald McConnell

Known for: Holding Beaver Falls’s Mahkaila Bonomo to five points and Neshannock’s Madison McHale to six.

Favorite Pro Team: Cleveland Cavaliers. “I’ve always liked LeBron James.

Favorite Pro Player: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers. “He’s just a good role model.”

Future plans: Definitely go to college and try to play sports.”