North Catholic girls basketball coach Molly Rottmann knows battling Section 1-4A opponents is only part of the problem this time of year.
The illness bug haunts nearly every program around Western Pennsylvania as students fall out of their routine as holiday break starts.
The Trojanettes had four players out but leaned on a strong defense in the first half to topple Burrell, 65-39, on Monday night at home.
Harmony Jones, Kate Vislosky, Mia McDowell and Lauren Reitz were out for North Catholic.
“I was very happy,” Rottmann said. “They had off school today, which is always a little dicey when you are coming to play because you are in bed too long. I thought we came out with good energy. We had done scouting, so shoot, etc. and put a little pressure on. I thought they did a good job following that.”
Brady Wehner scored a team-high 22 points for North Catholic, which snapped the Buccaneers’ eight-game winning streak. This was the second time Burrell (8-2, 3-1) was held below 40 points this season.
“Nothing (North Catholic) does is a surprise,” Buccaneers coach Shaun Reddick said. “We know we are going to get switched. I have seen them enough over the years to know what is going to happen. Unfortunately, my freshmen haven’t. When you run four freshmen for a lot of the game, they are going to get acclimated to what happens.”
The Trojanettes (4-3, 2-1) built a 34-14 lead at halftime. Sam Weir added 20 points for North Catholic.
In the third quarter, Burrell was able to cut the deficit to 10 after crashing the boards aggressively. The Buccaneers had a few possessions where they collected multiple offensive rebounds.
Kendall Coury, who led Burrell with nine points, made two 3-pointers in the third quarter.
“We played our game instead of having our game dictated to us,” Reddick said. “You can’t go down 20 and expect to go roaring back against a team like North Catholic.”
The Trojanettes regained control by utilizing their length on defense. They put pressure on Burrell’s guards and made it difficult to find good shots.
Rottmann said she felt like North Catholic played fatigued in the second half. The Trojanettes struggled on the glass. Rottmann said it will be one of their biggest focuses moving forward.
“We’re short-handed currently,” Rottmann said. “We’re going to be in practice (Tuesday) and work on rebounding because I think it is an issue. We were fatigued in the second half. We were looking around and hoping someone else would box out.”