FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — North Schuylkill felt it was overlooking a key part of its team the first couple games of the season.
Inside the paint are 6-foot Carly Gregas and 5-9 Nina Marone, two seniors and the most experienced players the Spartans have on their roster.
When North Schuylkill hosted Pine Grove in a Schuylkill League Division I contest Friday night, it looked to change all that — and it did.
Gregas led the Spartans to a 43-19 victory over the Cardinals, using a game-high 10 points and adding six rebounds, five blocks, two steals and an assist.
“We’ve been stressing that the guards have to look inside when they’re on the perimeter so I feel like it helps because they’re always looking in at me,” Gregas said. “I’ve really been working on my timing on when I should post up.”
Marone was just as effective on the defensive side, tallying three steals, pulling down seven boards and not budging from her assignment all night.
“This is the first game this season that we’ve made them a priority,” North Schuylkill coach John Rizzo said. “We’ve been harping on it the last couple weeks in practice. We thought we could’ve been better at getting the ball inside. They’re seniors, they’re three-year starters, we want the ball in their hands.
“So we did a good job of doing that. A lot of that came off the defensive turnovers that we created.”
The Spartans (3-1, 2-0 D-I) forced five Pine Grove turnovers in the first four minutes to help build an 8-0 lead. Before long, seven first-half turnovers by the Cardinals allowed North Schuylkill to garner a 23-5 advantage headed to the second.
Gregas had six points alone in the first quarter, most notably a lay-in off a stolen inbounds pass when she was the only Spartan in the backcourt.
She stole another Pine Grove pass to open the second quarter and fed Tiffany Lapotsky for a bucket to open the scoring in the second quarter and put North Schuylkill up by 20.
Pine Grove (1-5, 0-2) never could reduce the deficit. It trailed 37-15 after the third quarter, in which the Cardinals got their only back-to-back points on a bucket and two free throws by Morgan Edge.
“They’re bigger than us across the board,” Pine Grove coach Chris George said. “Their point guard is as big as our center. Size-wise, we’re going to struggle to compete against the bigger and the older teams right now.”
The size advantage of Gregas and Marone had a lot to do with it. Pine Grove has one player listed at 5-10 and two that see significant time listed at 5-8.
“We work really well together, me and Nina, because we’re friends off the court, too,” Gregas said. “We communicate a lot so we know whose girl is coming across the block so we can pick them up.”
Waverly Snyder had nine points for the Spartans and Lapotsky added seven points, three assists — one a half-court bullet to Gregas under the bucket — and two steals.
Edge’s six points led Pine Grove. No other Cardinal managed more than four.
That’s how much of this early season has gone for Pine Grove following the graduation of last year’s All-Area Co-Player of the Year Becky Evans.
“We’re young and we knew our schedule coming in was going to be brutal,” George said. “We’ve already played three quad-As, two triple-As, and they’re all good schools. They’re not pushovers at that level.
“We’ve competed in almost all the games and we’re right there.”
North Schuylkill’s next league game Tuesday is also against a quad-A — Pottsville — in what many expect to be the two teams in the divisional race this season.
The Crimson Tide (3-0, 2-0) escaped Blue Mountain in overtime Friday night, but North Schuylkill knows it has to play better to fend off Pottsville again.
“We have to be sharper on both sides of the ball,” Rizzo said. “We know Pottsville has some really good guards, they have some really good athletes, they’re playing some good basketball right now.
“We have to come out and play a near-perfect defensive game. We have to limit the mental mistakes. We can’t play one quarter on, one quarter off, call time outs and yell about mistakes. We need to be disciplined on both sides of the ball.”
Game Summary
PINE GROVE (19) — R. Edge 1 2-2 4, Shiffer 0 0-0 0, M. Edge 2 2-3 6, Car. Conrad 1 0-0 2, Whitman 1 0-0 2, Cay. Conrad 1 0-0 2, Kaufman 1 0-0 3, Wolf 0 0-0 0, Sleva 0 0-0 0, Felty 0 0-0 0, Geiger 0 0-0 0, Mabry 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 4-5 19.
NORTH SCHUYLKILL (43) — Lapotsky 3 1-2 7, Snyder 4 1-1 9, Jordan 2 0-0 5, Marone 1 0-0 2, C. Gregas 5 0-0 10, Stokes 2 2-2 6, Shinkus 1 0-0 2, Long 0 0-0 0, Bell 1 0-0 2, Damiter 0 0-0 0, Ferriola 0 0-0 0, L. Gregas 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-5 43.
PG (1-5, 0-2) 5 4 8 4 — 19 NS (3-1, 2-0) 23 6 8 6 — 43
3-point FGs: Kaufman, Jordan
JV score: North Schuylkill 44-26