CALN >> Great Valley prides itself on defense and it was on full display in the second half of Tuesday’s nonleague girls basketball game against Coatesville.
The Patriots held the Red Raiders to just two field goals in the final 16 minutes and pulled away for a 49-30 victory.
They outscored Coatesville, 37-17, after the first quarter and 24-9 after halftime to take control of the game after trailing at the end of the first quarter.
“We came out in a halfcourt zone defense. We watched tape of them against Northampton over the weekend, they ran their offense well,” said Great Valley coach Paul Girone. “They got off to a really good start. What I was really proud of was that we came back in the first quarter. We got the jitters out and settled in. We switched to a man-to-man defense and that was critical. We’re very good in help.”
Coatesville (1-2) scored the first two baskets from Serenity Burgess en route to jumping out to a 12-5 lead. The Patriots fought back and closed the quarter on a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to 13-12 after one.
“Great Valley is a great team. They came and ran that spread offense and they ran it to a T,” said Coatesville’s first-year coach Tina Nicholson. “They have quite a few seniors who have played together for awhile, and it shows. They played great defense, but we stopped running our offense and stopped doing what was working for us earlier.”
The Patriots found their stride at the start of the second. Two straight baskets from Julia Curran gave them their first lead of the night, 16-13. They led 20-14 midway through the quarter before the Red Raiders went on a quick 7-0 spurt to take a 21-20 lead.
The see saw tilted back to Great Valley, as a putback from Chandler Powell and a three-pointer by Laura Lum put Gv up 25-21 at the half.
“We did start a little shaky, but we were able to learn their defense and maintain compsure,” said Lum. “The second half, we were able to take it to them and we were able to pull out the win.”
After Kaitlyn Ward opened the second half with a basket for Coatesville, it was all Great Valley from there. Ward’s basket prove to be the lone field goal in the quarter for Coatesville, while the Patriots outscored them 16-5 to build a 41-26 advantage. Gia Sioutis led the way with eight points in the quarter and Lauren Frederick added six.
The turnovers started to pile up for Coatesville, After only having four in the first half, they committed five each in the third and fourth quarter.
“They sure did,” said Nicholson when asked about the miscues adding up. “And they were unforced turnovers, those are things that can be corrected and fixed.”
Points didn’t come easy for either team in the fourth as they combined for 12 points. But, Coatesville went cold at the worst time. They made just one of nine attempts from the floor as the Great Valley lead grew, despite turnover issues of their own in the quarter.
Lum finished the night with 14 points and Frederick added 10, while Sioutis contributed 10. Deja Morris paced the Red Raiders with 13 points. Ward added 8.
Great Valley improved to 3-0 on the young season as the experienced team is expected to battle for the Ches-Mont League American Division title and a District 1 playoff spot.
“Third quarter we put the clamps on them and we ran our offense well, getting layups,” said Girone. “We hope to build on this. We’re 3-0 and that’s big.”
Great Valley 49, Coatesville 30
Great Valley: DiPrinzio 2 0-0 4; Sioutis 3 3-4 10; Maslowski 0 0-0 0; Curran 3 0-0 7; Lum 5 2-2 14; Frederick 4 4-4 12; Powell 1 0-0 2. 18 9-10 49.
Coatesville: Fields 0 1-2 1; Morris 3 6-8 13; Burgess 2 1-2 5; Butcher 1 1-2 4; Wah 0 0-0 0; Ward 3 1-2 7; DiMatteo 0 0-0 0. Totals: 9 9-16 30.
Great Valley 12 13 16 8 — 49
Coatesville 13 8 5 4 — 30
3-point goals: Sioutis, Curran, Lum 2, Moris, Butcher.
