Hempfield’s hopes of refining some early-season schemes were derailed by ragged play in the Spartans’ 47-17 rout of Mt. Pleasant during opening-night action Friday at the Greensburg Salem Girls Tip-off Tournament at Greensburg Salem High School.

Lenient officiating, according to Spartans coach Bob Madison — a PIAA official himself — hindered the process.

“We were trying to set screens but were basically getting tackled. So we couldn’t even get to our stuff,” he said.

Both teams seemed to be freelancing for most of the time.

“You just hope to get everybody out healthy and get some young girls experience,” Madison said.

Reagan Fisher and Ava Shipman led Class 6A Hempfield (2-0) with 14 points apiece. The Spartans held a 30-7 advantage at halftime.

“We were looking to just work on our stuff,” Madison said. “Refining our traps. Being in the right places. Being where you’re supposed to be with the ball movement. Running some offense. It was really hard. They were letting way too much go, and it really disrupted some of the things we wanted to try to do in our halfcourt offense.”

In the second game, Class 5A Greensburg Salem opened the season with a 59-18 drubbing of Class 4A Ringgold.

Class 4A Mt. Pleasant (1-1) was playing without senior point guard Morgan Gesinski, whose 15 points led the Vikings in a season-opening 49-33 victory Wednesday against McGuffey.

The 5-foot-6 Gesinski, a Robert Morris commit and TribLive Westmoreland Girls Soccer Player of the Year, was in California for a travel team tournament.

“I tried to talk her out of it,” Mt. Pleasant coach Scott Hillen said. “I told her she’s already set for college. Why not stay and help us out? But she wanted to play out there. I just think having her on the court gives the other players a little more confidence that they know that she’s going to take a little pressure off them and make it a little easier for them.”

Against Hempfield, it was anything but easy for Vikings.

“I just told them in the locker room that the easy thing to do would be to come in here and say we’re missing a player, we got outcoached, we got outplayed,” Hillen said. “But I’m not accepting that. We’re a better team than what we showed, even without Morgan. Hopefully, we’re going to come out (Saturday) and play much better.”

Mt. Pleasant and Ringgold (0-1), Section 3-4A foes, will square off at 11:30 a.m., followed by Hempfield against Greensburg Salem in the tournament’s final game at 2:30 p.m.