Rodriguez’s career-high leads BVA girls
Mike Darnay / MVI Sports
Belle Vernon Area’s Taylor Rodriguez (24) drives past Ligonier Valley’s Haley Boyd on her way to the basket during Wednesday’s game. Rodriguez finished with a career-high 19 points.
By JEREMY SELLEW
jsellew@yourmvi.com
Kaitlyn Slagus and her Belle Vernon Area girls basketball team will enter the WPIAL tournament with two straight wins after a blowout section win over winless Ligonier Valley.
Taylor Rodriguez celebrated her likely last game on her home floor by scoring a career-high 19 points as the Leopards rolled to a 58-31 win.
“It’s great to see Taylor have a game like this in her final one at home,” Slagus said. “And I think she needs a game like this heading into the playoffs. She was good defensively and she was able to convert a bunch of steals into points.”
Rodriguez scored 17 of her points in the first half as the Leopards (9-7, 6-4) used an 11-0 run in the first quarter to take an 18-5 lead.
BVA followed the big first quarter up with an even bigger second, outscoring the Rams (0-13, 0-11) by a 26-7 margin.
The second half started with the mercy rule and running clock in place.
Most importantly for the Leopards, they featured balanced scoring finishing with three players in double figures.
Sophomore Viva Kreis finished behind Rodriguez with 14 points and Grace Henderson added a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
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