Sams leads N. Castle past U. St. Clair

By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WEXFORD, Pa. -- After winning the WPIAL AAAA title two years ago, the New Castle girls basketball team fell short in their efforts to repeat in 2005.
Hoping to get back to the winners' circle, the Hurricanes got off to a fast start to reach that goal Tuesday as they downed the Upper St. Clair Panthers, 50-39, in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs.
"I said from day one there aren't many bad teams at this level, so you aren't going to get many 20-point ball games," New Castle coach Luann Grybowski said. "I have to give our kids a lot of credit. They played hard, they were never down and that is what we had to do win this game."
The Hurricanes came out strong as they scored 10 of the first 14 points in the game before holding onto a 14-6 lead after one period before stretching their advantage to 25-14 at halftime.
Doing much of the damage for the Hurricanes was Jalessa Sams who scored six in the opening period and nine more in the second period before finishing with 27.
In addition to her scoring heroics, Sams also played solid defense with eight steals and nine rebounds.
"I think it was just a result of what we did in practice," Sams said. "Whatever you do in practice is many times what you do in a game. We played hard as a team and that is what we had to do to win the game."
Good defense
While Sams and the rest of the Hurricanes were not scoring on offense, they were working hard on defense as they forced USC into numerous mistakes throughout the game.
For the 32 minutes, the Panthers turned the ball over 20 times.
"That is what we wanted to do and that is one thing we stress," Grybowski said. "I want our kids to play hard for the entire 94 feet. If we give up a layup or two, we have to live with that."
Leading by 11 at the break, the Hurricanes stretched their advantage to as many as 15. However, following that 6-2 run, the Hurricanes were guilty of some loose play and USC took advantage of it to cut their deficit back to single digits at 33-25.