Duo sets tone in 5A win
Woodland Hills tops Armstrong, 61-51
Armstrong and Woodland Hills came into their playoff meeting with serious questions about where they were headed and who they were as teams.
For the River Hawks, the question was whether they were the squad that opened the campaign with seven consecutive wins or the one that lost five of their final seven in the regular season. On the flip side, the Wolverines had an opportunity to clinch a section title but lost to Latrobe in the Section 4 finale, then were drubbed in a 25-point loss to Upper St. Clair to end the season.
In the end, both teams had elements of the teams that rolled early and the ones that stumbled. But unfortunately for Armstrong, Woodland Hills was able to gain its footing just a little faster.
Senior forward Peyton Pinkney did have a dominant performance, but she very quietly scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while junior guard Jasmyn Fisher turned in a solid defensive performance and carried the offense in the first half with 10 of her 13 as Woodland Hills (12-6) pulled out a 61-51 home victory over Armstrong (10-6) in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs.
“Jasmyn Fisher is our glue offensively and defensively, and she’s been consistent, especially defensively,” Woodland Hills coach Von
Pitts said. “If everyone gave that kind of effort, I think we’d be good with her intensity and her aggression on both sides of the floor.”
Fisher turned defense to offense on a few occasions in the first half as she forced several of the 15 turnovers Armstrong committed to help Woodland Hills open a 28-14 halftime lead.
“It’s completely uncharacteristic of us to make those kinds of mistakes,” Armstrong coach Kirk Lorigan said. “We were making decisions in the air as we were on the jump. We were making decisions as we were driving down the lane and not looking at anything. We don’t make those kinds of mistakes normally, … and I thought we came out a little bit scared.”
Being tentative against an aggressive pressure trapping team such asWoodland Hills is a recipe for disaster. Several times in the first half, Armstrong players passed up wide-open looks and kicked the ball around the key instead of taking the shot.
Despite all the shortcomings, Armstrong made a game of it in the second half as freshman guard Emma Paul asserted herself. After being limited to eight points in the first half, she had 13 points in the third quarter and 21 after the intermission as she finished with a gamehigh 29.
But despite the River Hawks cutting into the
Woodland Hills halftime lead, they were never able to get closer than five before the Wolverines stepped up their defensive game and locked it down. Freshman Hope Hawkins helped in that respect, with nine of her 13 points in the second half, but the Wolverines know they need more consistency from the outset Monday if they are to move past Thomas Jefferson.
“Our defense really establishes the way we play, and we came out slow, and that’s how we play,” Pitts said. “It’s unfortunate that we’re not good enough to turn the light switch off and on. We’ve got to come out in man; we’ve got to come out and press and do it from the start.”