OLSH defense smothers Karns City
Full-court pressure sparks decisive 15-0 run; Chargers contain big man
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart coach Mike Rodriguez summed up his team as one that starts and ends with defense.
The Chargers proved it against Karns City in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs. Once the defense got going, the game was pretty much over.
OLSH’s in-your-face defensive pressure Saturday proved to be too much for the Gremlins to handle as the host Chargers rolled to a 75-45 victory.
A big second quarter helped OLSH (22-0) create separation and pull away. The Chargers held a 20-16 lead after the first quarter. A 15-0 run in the second quarter, sparked by that vaunted full-court zone pressure, put OLSH ahead and it cruised from there.
Dante Spadafora scored 6 points in the second-quarter burst and finished with a game-high 23 to go with six steals. Jake DiMichele added 20 points, while Brad
Vaughn and Dawson Summers scored 10 points apiece.
The District 9 champion Gremlins (21-3) got 21 points from Slippery Rock football recruit Nathan Waltman. Waltman is a 6-foot-5 forward with a soft touch who can handle the ball and pass it, the best passer on the team, according to coach Chris Bellis. That made Waltman a focal point of the OLSH defense, which countered by attacking the Karns City ballhandlers. At times the Gremlins had trouble moving the ball past half court, yet alone dumping it down low to Waltman.
“He’s so big and so talented,” Rodriguez said. “What a wonderful athlete he is. We wanted to pressure the ball on the perimeter, trying to double it as much as possible and that worked for us.”
As the game progressed, Rodriguez cranked up the pressure, going to a fullcourt press. Most of Spadafora’s steals resulted in easy layups punctuated by his trademark bursts of emotion. The Chargers eventually got their way and, as the pace of the game became frenetic, the Gremlins began to wilt.
“We needed to do that,” Rodriguez said. “We couldn’t contest their size inside. We had to use the whole court. We had to pressure the ball on the whole floor so they just wouldn’t pound the ball inside on us.”
Of course, that’s what Bellis wanted to do. The Karns City offense runs best when it goes through Waltman, whether he’s taking it to the basket or finding the open teammate.
“We felt that we had an advantage in there,” said Bellis. “To OLSH’s credit, they made it hard to get Nathan the basketball. Passes into the post were more contested than we are used to. When we were able to get him the ball, he was pretty successful in there, but we did have a hard time getting him the ball at times because of their defense.”
After the tight first quarter, OLSH outscored the Gremlins, 45-18, in the second and third quarters combined. It was a rout by the time the fourth quarter came around and both teams emptied their benches.
Next up for OLSH is a semifinal matchup against Portage. The teams met in the 2020 state playoffs as well, a game that OLSH won easily, 84-56. But it turned out to be the final game of the season when the initial COVID-19 shutdown forced the cancellation of the playoffs. The Chargers, who are coming off a third consecutive WPIAL title, have not lost since, ripping off 38 consecutive wins.