Clemmer, Larkin star in Lady Gators无毛视频� win over Serra
A triple-double isn’t achieved very often in high school girls basketball but Mallory Clemmer made a run at that rare feat on Monday night.
The Geibel Catholic freshman totaled 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocked shots and the Lady Gators pulled away in the second half for a 61-36 victory over visiting Serra Catholic in a Section 2-A clash.
Emma Larkin poured in a game-high 28 points to lead the way for Geibel (6-1, 13-1), Ava Henderson added 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Janiah Darnell contributed nine rebounds.
“Mallory had a great game and we’re getting offense from other sources besides Emma which is helping our team out a lot,” Lady Gators coach Sara Larkin said. “We had three girls with double figures tonight.”
Larkin felt the performance was her team’s best of the season.
“For the first time all season the girls executed for four straight quarters,” she said. “I’m proud of them. They did a great job tonight.”
Abby Genes sank four 3-pointers on her way to a 14-point night to pace Serra, which also got 13 points from Bella Dumbroski.
The victory kept Geibel ahead of the Lady Eagles (4-2, 6-6) in second place in the section.
“It was a big win for us,” Sara Larkin said. “We knew coming in the winner of this game was going to be in second place behind Clairton (6-0, 8-2).”
“We were ready and we matched up pretty well against Serra. We’re familiar with Bella and Abby. Mallory and Bella both play AAU together and we’ve played in the summer league with Abby. We knew going in what we needed to do.”
The Lady Gators built a 14-9 lead after one quarter but Serra fought back in the second and held a 22-21 advantage until a three-point play by Larkin with 51 seconds left put the hosts ahead to stay. A Clemmer block led to a layup by Larkin and Clemmer added a basket in the final seconds to give Geibel a 28-25 halftime lead.
The Lady Gators scored the first eight points of the second half and never looked back. Larkin and Henderson started the spurt with back-to-back 3-pointers and Clemmer followed with a pass to Madison Waggett for a fastbreak layup to make it 36-25.
Genes made a 3-pointer to snap the run but Henderson hit a floater and Clemmer put back her own miss to make it 40-28 and Geibel was never threatened again.
“It was pretty tight the whole first half,” Sara Larkin said. “We came out in the third quarter and went on a big run and never looked back after that.
“We pulled the press back to start the second half. We played a little bit of zone and mixed it up with a little bit of man. What really lit it up for us was our shooting.”
The Lady Gators led 46-31 after three quarters then opened the fourth with a 10-point burst on 3-pointers by Clemmer and Henderson and baskets by Larkin and Clemmer to extend the margin to 25 points.
Geibel outscored the Lady Eagles 33-11 in the second half.
Larkin noted her team’s more balanced scoring attack this season has a ripple effect.
“It’s been great to take some of that pressure away from Em,” she said. “She can still score but she doesn’t have to carry the load every single game, which is huge, because it also gives her a little more energy on the defensive. That creates some offense for us as well.”
Larkin also commended Darnell for her play inside with Clemmer.
“Janiah is a rebounding machine,” Larkin said. “She’s averaging 10-plus rebounds per game for us.
“Just having all that across the board, the scoring, the rebounding, the defensive pressure, it just makes a big difference for us.”
The Lady Gators will be back in action Thursday when they travel to West Greene for another section game.