Peters Township junior a matchup nightmare

Tri-State Sports & News Service

To Peters Township coach Bert Kendall, Makenna Marisa is a dream player.

To opponents, she is a matchup nightmare.

The common denominator is that most would likely agree that Marisa is one of the WPIAL’s best players.

A 5-foot-11 guard-forward, Marisa has had a terrific start to her junior season. She scored 29 points in a win against South Park in the season opener and the following night poured in 27 in a victory against West Allegheny to claim the Peters Township tournament title. Monday night against Trinity, Marisa scored 26 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a 51-35 victory.

Marisa can play any spot on the floor and often does. She’ll bring the ball up the court and run the point, something you don’t often see from someone her size at the high school level. She’s probably most comfortable at shooting guard and is a lights-out shooter — she made eight 3-pointers those first two games. She’ll likely play that position or small forward in college, but she’s dangerous down low, too. Kendall said she had success posting up against West Allegheny.

“I think teams can try to game plan against her, but it’s just hard because she has so many skills,” Kendall said of Marisa, who averaged 16.5 points per game last season. “When you have that height and that speed, you can post up against smaller players and drive it past bigger players. She has all the tools that make our team go.”

Those tools have attracted the attention of Division I colleges. Marisa already holds scholarship offers from Pitt, Duquesne, Cincinnati, St. Joseph’s and Ball State.

Basketball is big in the Marisa family. Marisa’s twin sister, Morgan, is also on the team, although the two aren’t identical. Makenna is even 4 inches taller. Their grandfather, Rudy Marisa, was a coaching great at Waynesburg University who won 565 games before retiring in 2003.

CW North Catholic

The post-Sam Breen era has gotten off to a promising start for reigning WPIAL Class 4A champion Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, which picked up two excellent wins in the season-opening Oakland Catholic tournament.

Breen, last year’s Post-Gazette player of the year, is now at Penn State, but this North Catholic team still possesses a lot of talent. It showed in a 40-34 win against Villa Maria and 34-27 win against Oakland Catholic. Villa Maria is a perennial power which beat North Catholic in last year’s PIAA quarterfinals and went on to finish as the runner-up. Oakland Catholic was a WPIAL Class 5A finalist a season ago when it reached the PIAA quarterfinals.

Tess Myers, a 5-10 guard-forward and one of the WPIAL’s top sophomores, led North Catholic with 13 points against Villa Maria and 14 against Oakland Catholic.

Winchester Thurston

The most surprising result of the opening weekend was Lincoln Park’s 37-36 win against Winchester Thurston. Lincoln Park went 4-18 last season, while Winchester Thurston captured the WPIAL Class 1A title and returned the outstanding one-two punch of Ayanna Townsend and Gia Thorpe.

However, Winchester Thurston is currently playing without Townsend, a 6-2 senior center and Xavier recruit. Townsend sustained an ankle injury last month and is expected to miss at least another week. Coach Monica Williams hopes to have her back for a Dec. 23 game against Penn Hills.

“She has a major sprain in her right ankle and this is the third time,” Williams said. “They said she tore a ligament and if she doesn’t properly rehab it, she will need surgery.”

Injury update

Torn ACLs have become an epidemic among top players as at least four standouts are recovering from serious knee injuries.

Among them are Chartiers Valley’s Gabi Legister and Lauren Wagner, starters on the Colts team that won the WPIAL Class 5A championship last season. Wagner, a senior guard, had surgery in June and coach Dan Slain said there is hope Wagner could return late this season. Legister, a 6-2 junior center and Kennesaw State recruit, had surgery in August and is likely lost for the season, Slain said.

Also out with ACL injuries are Penn Hills junior guard DiamondJay Whittington and Vincentian senior guard Madison Very. Whittington is expected to miss the season, while there is a chance Very could return. Very was an all-section choice last season.