Glowacki shoots Comets over Spartans
Mar. 5—PLYMOUTH — Four times in the first half, Crestwood's Julia Glowacki positioned herself on the left wing near the Wyoming Valley West bench, right by the letter "A" in the word Spartans.
The letter stood for automatic for the Crestwood guard Thursday night.
Glowacki made four 3-pointers in the first half, nearly all from the same spot on the floor, as Crestwood advanced to the semifinals of the District 2 Class 5A girls basketball playoffs with a 46-41 victory over Valley West.
"She does it every day in practice and is getting better at being a consistent shooter," Crestwood coach Don Hopkins said. "We are a really good team when she shoots like that."
Crestwood, the No. 5 seed, now 8-9 on the season, will play at top seed Abington Heights on Monday night. Valley West ends it season at 5-8.
What made things easier for Crestwood on offense was the way it played defense. Valley West managed just 14 points in the first half with eight of them coming in the second quarter. By the time the second quarter ended, the Comets held a 14-point lead.
"What I told the girls at the half, don't worry about scoring, just move the ball, but play defense," Hopkins said. "If we hold them to 14 points in the second half, even if we don't score, it's still a tie game. We really wanted to concentrate on defense. We wanted to make shots, but it was the defense that kept us in the game when we went dry on offense."
Crestwood's offense slowed around the time Valley West guard Mackenzie Perluke and center Trinity Johnson heated up.
Perluke scored eight of her 14 points in the third quarter, the only points Valley West scored in the period, but the Spartans were still trailing by 14.
It was at the start of the fourth quarter when Valley West came out of its zone defense and went with its full court pressure. With Crestwood deliberate on offense and more concerned with getting the ball up the floor, the pressure started to hurt them.
The Comets turned the ball over six times in the fourth quarter and Johnson started to assert herself, scoring 10 of her 14 points. But it was not enough. With no other choice but to foul to try and get the ball back, Crestwood went 8 of 13 from the free throw line over the final 5:52 of the game.
Julia Johnson made three free throws, while Glowacki and Helena Jardine each made a pair. Jardine added 11 points, while Glowacki finished with a game-high 18.
Trinity Johnson fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter, taking away Valley West's most prominent inside presence. That left the Spartans to try and win the game from the perimeter or on second-chance opportunities on misses. Crestwood was able to handle both, and earned its trip to the semifinals.
"I told the girls we had to try to slow down (Trinity Johnson) the best we can," Hopkins said. "We knew she was going to try and take the game over in the fourth quarter, and to her credit she did. If she was going to get shots, we told them not to let anybody else beat you. We had to go get rebounds if she missed."
Crestwood (46) — J. Glowacki 6 2-2 18, H. Jardine 3 5-8 11, B. Wickiser 2 3-5 7, J. Johnson 1 3-4 6, J. Weiss 1 0-1 2, I. Caporuscio 1 0-0 2, C. Hiller 0 0-0 0, Totals: 14 13-20 46.
Valley West (41) — T. Johnson 7 0-0 14, M. Perluke 5 2-2 14, K. Saunders 3 1-1 7, B. Varner 2 0-0 4, G. Marsola 1 0-0 2, H. Oliphant 0 0-0 0, Totals: 18 3-3 41.
Crestwood 11 17 8 10 — 46
Valley West 6 8 8 19 — 41
3-point goals: J. Glowacki (Crest) 4, J. Johnson (Crest) 1, M. Perluke (WVW) 2.
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