Baldwin Girls Outlast Upper St. Clair, 54-52

Basketball is about size and speed, otherwise known as Anna Lauterbach and Taylor Wentzel, respectively.

Lauterbach scored a team-high 17 points—most from within a few feet of the basket—and Wentzel added a darting-and-diving 10 to lead to a 54-52 overtime win against visiting in varsity section play on Monday night.

It was a win that Lauterbach, a 6-foot-2 senior forward/center, had to enjoy from the bench for the last 1 minute, 38 seconds of overtime, as a physical game eventually led to her fouling out. She still managed to pull down an impressive 14 rebounds before watching Wentzel, a 5-foot-6 senior point guard, sink two free throws with 17 seconds left for the game's final lead.

"She's a big body," Baldwin's first-year head coach  said of Lauterbach. "She's definitely the reason that we won that game tonight. She had 17 points and 14 rebounds. You can't ask much more out of a girl than that."

Baldwin (11-5, 6-2 in WPIAL AAAA Section 4) found itself down, 52-51, with just over a minute to play in the extra period after Upper St. Clair's junior guard Jordan Serio hit a 3-pointer for the last of her game-high 19 points.

Baldwin came back down the floor and almost turned the ball over, but Prosser called a timeout with 48 seconds left while a Highlanders player was on the floor with the ball.

The Highlanders eventually got a shot off on that possession as time was winding down, but sophomore guard Nicole Corcoran missed the layup and gave the ball back to the Panthers (7-9, 2-5 in Section 4). Serio was then fouled and went to the free-throw line for a one-and-one chance, but she missed the front end, which was rebounded by Baldwin and taken the other way. That led to Wentzel being fouled by Serio and sent to the line, where Wentzel put Baldwin ahead to stay.

The Panthers had a chance to win the game on the next possession, but sophomore guard Constance Raftis missed a jumper that was rebounded by Baldwin with only a few seconds remaining. The Highlanders' sophomore guard Amanda Johnston, who finished with 11 points, was then fouled and went to the line for a one-and-one with 0.3 ticks left. Johnston made the first free throw for the game's final point and missed the second, and the clock expired while USC was going for the rebound.

"We missed a shot right at the end of (regulation) with about a minute left, and then we missed a wide-open look (late in overtime)," USC's 27th-year head coach  said. "We had the opportunities. They just didn't go down for us."

While battling for the rebound after Serio's late missed free throw, USC's freshman forward Rachel Mazzie rolled her ankle and sat out the last 17 seconds.

Play was allowed to continue while Mazzie was down since Baldwin was fast-breaking the other way. That proved to be important, as the Highlanders had a numbers advantage that led to Wentzel drawing a foul and ultimately hitting the winning shots.

"Gotta push the ball," Wentzel said. "We were in a bonus (foul-shooting situation), so if you push the ball, you're more than likely gonna get fouled. You just gotta get the ball to the hoop and hope for a foul."

Mazzie was versatile and valuable, moving in and out of the paint on her way to 15 points.

"She can play inside; she can play outside," Prosser said of the 5-foot-8 freshman. "That's always a tough matchup as far as that's concerned.

"I think (Baldwin's 5-foot-9 sophomore guard/forward) Taylor Letender matches up pretty well. (Letender's) quick enough to guard on the perimeter, and she's big and strong down underneath the hoop.

"I think we had a pretty good matchup with her, but that girl (Mazzie) was just on fire tonight. She couldn't miss."

Letender finished with six points.

Baldwin led, 28-19, at halftime, but the Panthers dominated the third quarter to take a 35-32 lead into the fourth.

When asked what the difference was between his team's play in the first half and in the third quarter, Koontz said, simply, "Defense." He continued, "They (USC's players) kind of swallowed Lauterbach down inside (during that quarter), deflected some passes. She wasn't getting the nice, easy layups like she did in the first half."

"They came out strong," Wentzel said. "Lot of ball pressure, so we couldn't work it in inside, and they were just playing tight D. So, it was harder to work the ball in to Anna."

"I just think that, sometimes, our effort is lacking," Prosser said of the third quarter. "They (USC) hit a couple big shots. Sometimes, when teams hit big shots on us, we tend to hold our head down or lose a little bit of confidence.

"We were stagnant tonight. We weren't the team that we've seen the last couple of games."

Baldwin has won five games in a row and six of its past seven. St. Clair has last three of its past four and four of its past six.

Play went back-and-forth during the fourth quarter with Baldwin taking the final shot of regulation after a timeout with three seconds left. Wentzel had a decent look just before the buzzer, but it wasn't to be. Regulation ended with the score tied at 45.

Wentzel made up for it in overtime, though, by scoring four of her 10 points in extra time—and none bigger than her final two.

"(Wentzel)'s definitely experienced," Prosser said. "She's getting (NCAA) Division I (scholarship) offers—Rider (University) maybe. I know that they've seen her. I know that they've told her that they'd like to offer her a scholarship, so she's definitely that caliber player.

"She's the main one that we look to, and she's, most nights, the best athlete out there."

USC next plays at section opponent  (5-11, 0-7) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

The Highlanders next play at Mt. Lebanon High School on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., a game that Lauterbach and Wentzel say that they've been looking forward to all season.

"Every game's now a big game for us," Lauterbach said. "We have to pick it up. That (the USC game) wasn't a good win for us, but a win's a win. We'll take it and get ready for Lebo on Thursday."

"They're going down," Wentzel said under her breath. "Big rivals."

"We want to win WPIALs (the WPIAL championship), so you've got to beat everybody," Lauterbach said.

Mt. Lebanon was the WPIAL runner-up last year but went on to win the state championship despite a 1-1 regular-season split with Baldwin, including a 48-46 loss at home.

Baldwin was blown out at home against Mt. Lebanon earlier this year, 62-28, on Jan. 2.

The Blue Devils are 14-2 overall and 7-0 in WPIAL AAAA Section 4, good for first place ahead of the second-place Highlanders. USC is in fifth place in the section behind 5-3 . The top four teams qualify for the WPIAL playoffs.