Eagles settle in after injury to top Greyhounds
Bella Dumbroski poured in a game-high 31 points as Serra Catholic got a section road win.
Bella Dumbroski poured in a game-high 31 points as Serra Catholic got a section road win.
Serra Catholic and Monessen played their second section matchup against each other Thursday night in a 61-45 result that provided both sides with hope moving forward.
For the Eagles (12-6, 102), it completed the season- sweep over the Greyhounds (4-12, 2-10) and extended their win streak to six straight.
“I’m happy that we were able to get everybody in and get another section win on the road,” Serra Catholic coach Mike Voit said.
However, the win was marred by an unfortunate event for Serra Catholic, as junior starter Niki Sfanos left the game halfway through the first quarter after colliding with a Monessen player going for a loose ball. The two players hit each other hard, and Sfanos took the brunt of the collision.
According to Voit, two of her front teeth went all the way to the back of the roof of her mouth, and one of the teeth went through her lip. She was bleeding for some time and left in an ambulance at the beginning of the second.
“Niki getting hurt pretty gruesomely rattled the girls I think,” Voit said. “They said they were feeling sick after that, and we just played like crap in the first half. I feel awful for Niki. At the very least, she didn’t break a bone, which is good.”
For the home Greyhounds, first-year coach Jason Schmidt appreciated the progress from their last meeting with the Eagles. Serra Catholic defeated Monessen 69-32 on Jan. 7, so the Greyhounds cut that deficit well in half.
“This was night and day from the last time we played them,” he said. “We’re growing, and this score makes that evident. We’re not there yet, but I think the mindset we have is that we’re never gonna be there because there’s always somewhere higher to go.”
Serra’s Bella Dumbroski, the impressive freshman who has helped the Eagles succeed despite graduating seven seniors from last year’s WPIAL runner-up squad, wasted no time getting to work on her gamehigh 31 points.
She scored the first nine points for Serra, but Monessen’s Madison Johnson added five during that stretch. Johnson paced the Greyhounds with 27 points of her own and helped keep the game close the whole way.
Serra led 9-7 before Sfanos added her only points of the game before she exited, Dumbroski made a layup and Abby Genes, who scored 17 points for the Eagles, nailed a three to make it 16-7. Rayniya Lyons replied with an and-one, but Dumbroski and Genes each scored before the end of the first to cap it off at 20-10.
Both squads were even in a low-scoring second quarter. Na’Jaziah Carter, who joined Johnson in double-digits with 14, started the quarter scoring before Dumbroski added three points. Johnson made both from the line, Genes hit a triple and Ariana Ward made a layup to make it 28-14 with little time remaining in the half.
But Monessen got four points from Carter before the second quarter ended to make it 28-18 and give the home squad some momentum heading into the break.
Johnson turned that strong close to the half into an 8-0 run with the first four points of the third quarter. With its lead cut to just six, Serra Catholic got points from Dumbroski and Kendy Niedermeyer to make it 10 again.
With that same lead later in the quarter, the Eagles rattled off seven straight points to take a 43-26 advantage. But again Monessen came back with seven of its own before Dumbroski banked an important three to start a Serra Catholic run that put it out of reach.
Dumbroski’s triple ended the third at 46-33, but it also started a 12-0 run that put the Eagles up 22 early in the fourth. Johnson, Lyons and Carter made it closer down the stretch, but it was SC that picked up the 61-45 win.
The Eagles have two section contests remaining this season, one at West Greene and one against Geibel Catholic. With Geibel atop Section 2-1A at 11-1 and Serra and Clairton sitting right behind at 10-2, that looming SC-Geibel matchup figures to be a huge one for Class 1A playoff seeding.
Monessen also has two section games left, one at Geibel Catholic and one against Clairton. Up next is Frazier on Saturday at 1 p.m.