BVA rally falls short in loss to Montour

By DEAN DELLAMALVA JR.

MVI Sports

The Belle Vernon Area girls basketball found themselves down double digits early in the fourth quarter. 

But the young Leopards showed their guts and stormed back with a chance to tie it at the free-throw line in the final seconds. But Taylor Rodriguez missed the back end of a one-and-one, allowing Montour to advance for the first time since 2010 with a 53-52 victory in the first round of the WPIAL 4A playoffs.

“There was no one else who would have won it at the line,” BVA head coach Slagus said of Rodriguez. “She’ll take it hard, it’s going to stick with her for a while. But she knows and the team knows, to get back to that point from where we were shows a lot about these girls.”

It was a heartbreaking loss for BVA, especially Rodriguez, who needed to be consoled by her teammates and Slagus after the game.

Trailing by as many as 16 points in the third quarter, Belle Vernon (9-8) mounted a furious comeback in which several players got involved.

Rodriguez got the comeback started with a jumper at the 2:30 mark of the third. Presleigh Colditz followed with a three and Grace Henderson, who finished with 11 points, scored inside on a nice pass from Rodriguez. The Leps had trimmed the deficit to single digits at 42-33 heading to the fourth.

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