Harris’ hot start propels No. 9 St. Paul past Uniontown on senior night

“I’m proud of the way they played,” St. Paul head coach Calea Augustin said. “Even though the game was slow, they really stuck with it.” 

St. Paul opened the matchup on a 13-0 run, propelled by a 10-point first quarter performance by Harris. The Indians allowed just four shots in the quarter, forcing 14 turnovers in the process.

“We have to come out with some momentum and fire underneath us, because we tend to struggle in that first and third quarter. They did that tonight,” Augustin said.

Harris grabbed a pair of steals in the quarter and was driving to the basket with relative ease all night. The star guard finished with 25 points and seven rebounds.

“You can always count on Josey, she’s gonna come out and play hard,” Augustin said. “She’s gonna make a move, score for us and really get our momentum going.”

The Indians allowed just two successful field goals in the first half, leading the Eagles 25-6 going into the locker room.

Like Augustin mentioned before, St. Paul tends to struggle in the third quarter. Friday was no different, as the Eagles outscored the home team 12-6 after halftime. 

“I felt like tonight was a lot about momentum. We played really slow, but even when we tried to speed it up, fouls were coming all over the place,” Augustin said.

Uniontown found its way to the line five times in the third quarter alone, thanks in part to a few off-ball fouls and unnecessary reaching fouls.

St. Paul was able to remain steady, posting a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter before a full-five swap with less than three minutes to play.

Senior Kenna Doherty helped start that run, as she was providing sparks for her squad all night. Doherty finished with just five points, but tallied seven rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block on the evening.

“Kenna is one of our go-to players, she always seems to sneak in there and get rebounds,” Augustin said.

Senior Sophia Albertini made a pair of those fourth quarter buckets, sandwiched around a 3 from sophomore Megan Doherty. Doherty had eight points, four rebounds and two blocks, while Albertini finished with seven points.

Seniors Chloe Seme and Ava Chambers both finished the night with a single point after going 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Uniontown was paced by eight-point performances from Brooklynn Dreisbach and Addisyn Hall, but was plagued by turnovers and inefficient shooting all night long.

Up Next

St. Paul (13-5) has just a single matchup left in the regular season, welcoming Oswego (2-17) to town on Tuesday.

“We’re really gonna have to work on our defense and pressing better. That’s gonna be big later on for us in the sub-state bracket,” Augustin said.

Box Score

Uniontown: 2 4 12 10 — 28

St. Paul: 13 12 6 16 — 47

Scoring

Uniontown: Brooklynn Dreisbach 8, Addisyn Hall 8, Rylee Coulter 6, Macy Schoenberger 2, Klara Stock 2, Masen Powell 2

St. Paul: Josey Harris 25, Megan Doherty 8, Sophia Albertini 7, Kenna Doherty 5, Chloe Seme 1, Ava Chambers 1