As expected: Peters Township girls at the top
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Journey Thompson pulls down the rebound away from Canon-McMillan’s Jenna Cromp (22) during a section girls’ basketball action.
Eleanor Bailey
Isabella Mills chases down a loose ball against Lacey Russell.
By Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Isabella Mills (21) puts up a shot and is fouled by Stellanie Loutsion (15). Abby Daniels gets a hand in the action, too, for Canon-McMillan.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
After blocking her shot, Makenna Marisa battles Tamara Mathis for possession of the basketball.
Peters Township is exactly where everybody expected it to be at the halfway point in the girls basketball season. The Indians are undefeated overall, 12-0, and perched atop the Section 2A standings in Class 6A.
Yet, the Indians aren’t even close to where they anticipate being come mid-March. Hard as it is to imagine, a team that is averaging 69.1 points per game, second only to North Catholic in the entire WPIAL while allowing only 38.4, can get better.
“It’s easy for high school kids to look at their record and look at some of the scores and start believing that they may be better than they are. So we’ve got to keep them focused,” said Bert Kendall of his coaching staff, which also includes his daughter, Katie, and Samantha Loadman, “and realize that there is room for improvement every day at practice and we have got to get better every day.”
The Indians must improve because Bethel Park (6-1, 11-1), Mt. Lebanon (5-2, 6-8) and Upper St. Clair (4-3, 7-6) not to mention Baldwin, Canon-McMillan, Hempfield and Connellsville, await their rematches. PT hosts both Bethel Park on Jan. 28 and Mt. Lebanon on Feb. 4.
“We’ve gone through a half. Now we know what we can do, but now we have to get better the second half because the second half is always harder than the first,” Kendall said. “People have played you. They watched the film. They know what to expect and do. So while we may have caught some people off guard with our length and our athleticism, it won’t be that simple the second time.”
Coming into the season, teams knew the Indians would attempt to return to the Petersen Center – site of the WPIAL finals – to compete for the championship by utilizing their talented seniors: Makenna Marisa and Isabella Mills. The pair, indeed, have spearheaded the streaking Indians.
A Penn State recruit, Marisa ranks among the league’s scoring leaders with a 22.5-points-per-game average. She converts 58 percent of her field-goal attempts, and has a team-high 29 3-pointers to go along with 3.9 assists, 3.7 steals and 5.3 rebounds per game.
A Case Western recruit, Mills averages 13.8 points and 5.3 rebounds a game. She dishes up a team-high 5.3 assists an outing and manages nearly two steals.
“Seniors always tend to step up but the two of them have really done that. They realize that there is no tomorrow. They have embraced their leadership roles,” Kendall said.
Acknowledging that Marisa and Mills are two of the best that he has had the luxury of coaching, Kendall addressed their desire that their success is nothing unless it is the team’s, too.
“Our motto every year is our team and they exemplify that,” Kendall said. “They want what’s right for the team. As long as we keep being a team, we can go farther and do even better than we have done so far.”
The Indians are doing better than they have done in the past and are likely to advance even farther because of Journey Thompson and Makenzie Lehman.
A 6-1 freshman, Thompson registered her second career double-double when she scored 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a 65-25 win against Canon-McMillan on Monday. She also blocked seven shots. Thompson is averaging 12.8 points and 8.4 rebounds a game.
“Journey’s talented. She has lots of potential,” Kendall said. “She can play any position.”
A senior, Lehman manages 9.3 points and 6.5 rebounds. A lacrosse player who has a scholarship to Liberty University, Lehman hadn’t played for the high school program but participated in basketball in the eighth grade.
“She has been a joy to have on the team and she’s a fast learner. Picked up all the plays,” Kendall said. “She’s just an athlete and yet you can’t say enough about just having athletes on the floor and I think most of the time we have five athletes out there. That’s the biggest difference in this year’s team, and that we have that inside presence now.”
The Indians, including Lizzy Brucker, Morgan Marisa, Emma Devine, Abby Peyton and Avana Sayles, have done an even better job of reigning in their egos and accepting their roles.
For example, as the fifth starter, a role she has played since her freshman year, Jordan Bisignani is the ultimate team player. She averages four points, two rebounds and her share of assists per game. A dependable ball-handler, she has the fewest turnovers on the team.
“Jordan understands her role and she is doing a great job. She hustles,” Kendall said. “We put her on some pretty tough assignments on defense and she always delivers.”
Peters Township is delivering victories at an astonishing rate because of its camaraderie, too, and unselfish efforts.
“They are sharing the ball. Lots of assists,” a pleased Kendall said. “We have a lot of athletes that are capable of scoring a lot of points and they are okay with not making that extra pass.
“We talk all the time that there is only one player on the team and that’s Peters Township and it doesn’t matter who scores and who makes the assist or who gets the rebound, it’s all of our jobs to do that and they are buying into that. That’s the thing that I’m most pleased with. We share the ball and we pass the ball as well as any team that I have had.”