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Oak Glen’s late run downs Blue Dons

BATTLE FOR THE BALL — Oak Glen’s Maggie Kovalcik and Madonna’s Kali Krynicki go for the ball in the first half. (Matthew Peaslee)

WEIRTON — Down by nine points at halftime, the Oak Glen girls’ basketball team ratcheted up the defense in the second half and the pressure forced Madonna into 20 second-half turnovers resulting in a 33-29 victory Tuesday night in the Bill Barrett Gymnasium inside of Madonna High School.

The Lady Blue Dons, who were losing their sixth game in a row and 11th in 13 starts, had things going their way in the first half against an Oak Glen zone defense.

A pair of sophomores, Gia Riccadonna and Andrea Alimario, found the basket for 19 of Madonna’s 21 first-half points.

It was a different story in the second half as Riccadonna failed to score and Alimario was able to get only a deuce.

“We had a couple of girls down with injuries so we weren’t able to play as aggressively at the start of the game as I’d like to,” said Oak Glen’s John Leary, whose club now is 8-7. “I didn’t like what happened in the first half. I thought we were too passive in our defense and that Madonna was able to make several skip passes for open shots.

“The Madonna kids were just playing great. So at halftime I told them we played zone in the first half and kept ourselves out of foul trouble. I said that if we’re going to win this game, my comment was: ‘we have to turn this into a street fight.’

“I didn’t mean anything violent. I just meant we have to make it a messy game.

“We did some double teaming and creating havoc in the second half and it worked to our advantage.”

At first, it appeared the pressure strategy might backfire as the Blue Dons beat it with a couple of layups by junior Kasey Canei, who finished with seven points. Canei’s second hoop gave the Blue Dons a 12-point lead at 25-13 with 5:17 left in the third.

However, Madonna failed to score the remainder of the period and Oak Glen reeled off a 9-0 run then opened the fourth quarter with a Taylor McKay basket. McKay, a senior, scored six of her eight points in the second half to give the Golden Bears a lift.

The Blue Dons committed 30 turnovers, 20 in the second half. Many times the Dons were unable to get the ball across the center line.

“It’s no secret,” said a frustrated Don Ogden, whose club lost to Oak Glen in a similar fashion in New Manchester by a score of 39-37 just 10 days ago. “Bottom line is that every team out there knows if you put pressure on us we struggle.

“We had a great first half, but that’s because Oak Glen didn’t pressure us. Everybody that plays us knows and everybody that plays us is going to do the pressure until we can prove we can handle it and so far we haven’t done that.

“Until we can correct it we’re going to have games like this. We work on it every day in practice because I know that’s our Achilles heel and so does everybody else. Tomorrow in practice we’re going to work on it again.”

The Blue Dons clung to the lead until Witherow drilled a three ball with 2:07 left in the game to give the Golden Bears a 31-29 lead. Like they did to finish the first half, the Bears went on a 9-0 run to finish the game.

Alimario recorded another double-double with her team high 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Witherow got a little closer to 1,000 career points as she finished with a game-high 13. She now is 19 points shy of joining the elite scoring club.

The Blue Dons hit the road to Morgantown Friday to play Trinity, which defeated them 40-32 Jan. 9.

Meanwhile the Golden Bears will be back in Weirton Thursday night to play Hancock County rival Weir High.

Oak Glen 33, Madonna 29

Oak Glen 5 7 10 11 — 33

Madonna 13 8 4 4 — 29

OAK GLEN (8-7): Kovalcik 0 0-0 0, McKay 4 0-1 8, Witherow 5 1-4 13, Grotefend 2 1-5 5, Price 1 1-2 3, Giorgini 1 2-2 4. TOTALS: 13 5-14 33. 3-pointers: Witherow 2; Rebounds: 19 (Price 6); Turnovers: 22.

MADONNA (2-11): Riccadonna 4 0-0 10, Alimario 4 2-2 11, Burns 0 0-1 0, Krynicki 0 1-3 1, Canei 2 3-6 7. TOTALS: 10 6-12 29. 3-pointers: Riccadonna 4, Alimario; Rebounds: 28 (Alimario 14); Turnovers: 30.

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