Monessen Florist comeback tops Lee Supply

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

With a 10-point halftime deficit, Monessen Florist head coach Chad Carroto continuously let it be known that he had a second-half team. 

On Monday, he was right.

Penn Hills freshman Hannah Pugliese scored 16 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, including the game-winning putback with two seconds remaining to give Monessen Florist (5-4) its first lead of the game and a 47-45 win over Lee Supply. 

The win clinched the No. 3 seed in next week’s playoffs for Monessen Florist.

“We’re a second-half team,” Pugliese said. “Coach Chad has so much confidence in us and being ‘MoFlo,’ we knew we had to step up. He told me it was my game and I wanted to show him it was.”

Monessen Florist trailed by as many as 11 in the first half as Lee Supply (4-5) used an 8-0 run to take a 16-5 lead.

Pugliese and her teammates were stifled by a non-friendly rim, missing a ton of shots early on.

“We couldn’t hit anything in the first half,” Carroto said. “Even Hannah underneath, her shots weren’t falling and we weren’t shooting or rebounding well.”

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