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'Canes will take ugly win
Raiders turn up pressure, but NC earns section victory
By Mike Kilroy
Eagle Staff Writer
JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley girls basketball team has a way of making its opponents play ugly.
With stifling defensive pressure in a game that often resembled rugby more than basketball, the Raiders made New Castle look like a collection of schoolmarms for most of their section clash Thursday.
Ultimately, though, the Red Hurricanes turned in just enough pretty plays late to dump the host Raiders 45-37.
"Sometimes you have to win ugly," said New Castle coach Luanne Grybowski. "They make you play ugly because they hustle so much. They just dive on the floor and are in your face. You just have to survive."
New Castle survived in large part because of a 15-2 second-half run to wrest the lead away from Seneca Valley for good.
The Raiders led for most of the first two-plus quarters, forcing turnovers and frustrating the athletic Hurricanes at every turn.
The 3-pointer kept Seneca Valley in the game early.
Then the well ran dry.
The Raiders were 5-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half and hit their first attempt in the third quarter, but missed on their next nine shots from behind the arc.
"We really didn't make any adjustments," Grybowski said. "We just wanted to tire them out and take away their legs in the second half.
"They couldn't possibly make those the whole game, especially expending the effort they did on defense."
Seneca Valley (2-3, 0-2) led by as many as eight points late in the second quarter, but New Castle scored the final 10 points of the first half to take a 2-point lead into halftime.
In the locker room, Seneca Valley coach Kelly Mathews circled two things on the chalkboard: "transition" and "box out."
Both eluded the Raiders in the second half.
"Their defense was creating their offense," Mathews said. "They scored in transition because of their defense and their offensive rebounds. It's not real hard to figure out how they beat us."
Seneca Valley also committed 28 turnovers. New Castle wasn't much better, giving up possession 20 times.
Jackie Mangola played well for the Raiders, hitting three of the team's six 3-pointers and scoring 17 points.
"She's a warrior," Mathews said of Mangola, who took one of many hard crashes to the floor in the first half, leaving the game briefly with an elbow injury before returning. "I know she is leaving it all on the floor. I do think we played hard."
Megan Gebrosky added nine points for the Raiders.
Tasia Wise led New Castle with 17 points.
Mathews said she is able to take some good and some bad from the loss to New Castle.
"We need to look at this as a learning experience," Mathews said. "We need to see what happens when we are passive and improve upon that. I'm pleased with the fact that we believe we can play with them."
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