Trending
WHEELING -- Wheeling Central girls basketball coach Roberta Olejasz believes the last several years have been leading up to something special.
Her Maroon Knights are proving her right.
On Thursday night, nine different players scored for Wheeling Central and its defense forced visiting Toronto into 30 turnovers en route to a dominating 76-26 triumph on Coach "Skip" Prosser Court.
"Our girls really play well together and they share the ball really well," Olejasz said. "We don't have a whole bunch of individuals, they just play as a team. Nobody cares who scores, they just want to win."
That's exactly what the Maroon Knights have been doing this season as they improved their record to 9-1, ranking them second in the OVAC Class 2A behind River.
The success, in large part, is due to a strong defensive press that Olejasz's squad showcased against the Red Knights.
Central won the turnover battle 12-1 in the opening frame and enjoyed scoring spurts of 9-0, 10-0 and 8-0 to create a commanding 30-6 cushion at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.
"Our bench is pretty deep this year so we are able to throw three or four different presses at a team at any given time depending on our personnel," Olejasz said. "We can kind of shout it out to the girls on the floor and they will switch into it pretty quickly. That's something we work on a lot in practice. Every time we switch it up, it presents a different look and creates a lot of turnovers for us to capitalize on."
Lily Vogrin and Brook Edge capitalized frequently off of those takeaways in the opening stanza as they netted 14 and 10 points, respectively, in the frame.
Central opened the second quarter on a 12-0 run and held Toronto scoreless in the frame until only 1:40 remained in the half. Again, the defense was solid, forcing eight turnovers in the second and 20 total in the first half.
"Their pressure was a bit much for us and that is hard to simulate in practice," Toronto coach Rusty Hodgkiss said. "They sped us up mentally. We can handle the ball, we can pass and we can catch but we couldn't (Thursday) because we were so mentally sped up."
Addie Payton tallied seven points in the second quarter and Haley Severns garnered six to help boost the Maroon Knights to a 49-10 halftime advantage.
Wheeling Central outscored Toronto 27-17 in the second half to take plenty of momentum into Saturday's game at Williamstown.
The Maroon Knights were led by Vogrin who finished with 24 points.
Also delivering impressive performances for Central were Edge and Payton with 12 points each, along with Severns with eight and Keiera Wilkinson with seven.
"Toronto is a good ball club and they have a lot of good ingredients on their team," Olejasz said. "I thought we needed to come out with a chip on our shoulder and play like Wheeling Central and I thought we did that."
Michelle Anderson and Ashton Thomas led Toronto with eight points each.
"We don't have any seniors so we are a young group," Hodgkiss said. "We used these guys as a measuring stick to see where we are and we're not close yet but we're getting better. We improved since the last time we played them and we had a guard injured (Thursday).
"I will say this was the best postgame speech I've been a part of. I didn't say a word. It was all the kids. It was definitely a learning experience for them."
Wheeling Central 76, Toronto 26
Tor 6 4 6 11 -- 26
WC 30 19 18 9 -- 76
WC -- Olejasz 2 1-2 5; Downing 0 0-0 0; Ratcliffe 1 0-0 2; Maxwell 1 0-2 2; Severns 4 0-0 8; Payton 5 0-1 12; Hanson 0 0-0 0; Edge 6 0-0 12; Vogrin 10 0-0 24; Miehle 0 0-0 0; Downer 2 0-0 4; Wilkinson 3 1-2 7; Totals 34 2-7 76.
T -- Derrington 2 0-0 2; L. Anderson 1 2-2 4; Chevalier 0 0-0 0; C. Anderson 2 0-0 4; M. Anderson 4 0-1 8; Rebich 0 0-0 0; Thomas 4 0-0 8; Crago 0 0-0 0; Owings 0 0-0 0; Timko 0 0-0 0; Totals 13 2-3 26.
3-Point Goals: Vogrin 4, Payton 2.