Turnovers are a popular pastry this time of year, but turnover is something the McKeesport girls basketball team didn’t taste much of heading into this season.
The Tigers returned all five starters and most of their top reserves from a team that reached the WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A semifinals.
Well, on Tuesday, McKeesport helped itself to lots of turnovers, except they weren’t of the apple, cherry or even peach variety. It was the Tigers’ ability to force turnovers and a dominant third quarter that fueled them to a win against an unbeaten foe and further strengthened the belief that this McKeesport team could be destined to win its first WPIAL title since Swin Cash’s senior season 24 years ago.
McKeesport rallied from a halftime deficit by shutting out Norwin in the third quarter and then holding on for a 47-37 nonsection win at McKeesport’s Neenie Campbell Gymnasium. Norwin (7-1) had been the last remaining unbeaten team in Class 6A. McKeesport (7-1) notched its fifth consecutive win since its lone loss Dec. 6 at Blackhawk.
“I told them that it was going to be tough. Norwin is a tough team,” said McKeesport coach Amy Gumbert, who played alongside Cash on that 1998 WPIAL championship team. “It depends on who wants it more, and I felt like our kids dug down deep. We wanted this game.”
Defense was the biggest storyline heading into the game, only it was Norwin’s defense that was the focus. The Knights came into the game surrendering only 28 points per game after limiting six of their first seven opponents to fewer than 30 points. But not only did Norwin give up a season-high 47 points, but it was McKeesport that shined the brightest defensively. The Tigers forced 26 turnovers and limited Norwin to 38% shooting (13 of 34).
“The intensity [made a big difference],” said McKeesport junior guard-forward Rachael Manfredo, who finished with 12 points. “Knowing this was a [7-0] team, first in the state … we just had to step it up.”
McKeesport certainly did that in the third quarter after falling behind, 20-16, at the half. McKeesport owned the third, outscoring Norwin, 16-0, to take a 32-20 lead into the fourth. Manfredo’s 3-pointer with 5:10 left in the third gave the Tigers a 23-20 lead, one they would never relinquish. Junior guard Maddie Hertzler scored seven of her 12 points in the frame. Norwin was 0-7 from the field and turned it over seven times as it faced loads of pressure.
“I really think we started to work together better,” said McKeesport’s Brooke Evans, a junior guard who chipped in eight points. “As soon as someone made a good play, we would all pick them up and the energy just kept going.”
Added Gumbert, “We started trapping. We went into a full-court press and threw a couple of different things at them. I felt that our trap and our full-court press worked really well against them.”
Norwin finally ended its scoring drought early in the fourth, but despite knocking down a couple of 3-pointers, the Knights never drew closer than seven points. Sophomore guard Kendall Berger paced the Knights with 11 points.
With McKeesport about one-third of the way into the regular season, Gumbert said she now is seeing her team play similarly to how they played during 2022’s long postseason run when they lost to eventual champion South Fayette in the WPIAL semifinals and Chartiers Valley in the PIAA semifinals. McKeesport and South Fayette are the odds-on favorites to win the WPIAL title this season.
“They felt a little pressure at first, but I think it’s slowly started to fade away. And they’re going back to how we played at the end of the year,” Gumbert said.
It has been nearly a quarter-century since a WPIAL girls championship banner previously was hung in one of the WPIAL’s most historic gyms. There is no Swin Cash on this McKeesport team, but this group of Tigers is playing on “Swin Cash Court.” On that court, McKeesport made its case Tuesday for being considered one of the WPIAL’s elite teams, and Gumbert can’t help to see some similarities between the team she is coaching and the one she played on in the late 1990s.
“I would say their grit,” she said. “We had shooters. We have shooters. We have good post play. We had good post play back then. I feel like their heart is where our heart was. We dug down deep and they dig down deep. There are a lot of comparisons, and it has to do with your heart and how bad you want to win.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.