Elizabeth Forward came together at a perfect time.
Now the senior-laden Warriors are headed to the WPIAL girls basketball semifinal round for a third consecutive season.
Abigail Sporio scored 22 points, and No. 6 Elizabeth Forward used balanced scoring to beat No. 13 McGuffey, 67-51, Monday night in a Class AAA quarterfinal game at Canon-McMillan. It avenged a loss to the Highlanders in the regular-season finale Feb. 9 and advanced the Warriors to the semifinals Wednesday against No. 10 South Fayette.
“This is the first time all season that I can recall us playing as a complete team,” Elizabeth Forward coach Krystal Gibbs said. “It all came together tonight. It was a total team effort, and I'm very proud of it.”
Jessica Palady contributed 19 points — nine during a critical stretch in the third quarter — and Olivia Barkley added 11 for Elizabeth Forward (19-5), the Section 4 regular-season champion.
McGuffey (18-7), which was led by Sammie Weiss' 22 points, plays No. 15 South Park on Tuesday at North Hills in a first-round play-in game.
“Sammie is such a great player,” Sporio said. “She's tough to guard, but I think we did a pretty good job with her after the first quarter.”
Weiss, a senior headed to Division II Cal (Pa.), increased her scoring total at McGuffey to 2,279 career points.
Katie Demi added 15 points, and Rachel Czulewicz, who scored 23 in a first-round victory over No. 3 Indiana, reached 1,000 career points for the Highlanders.
“Elizabeth Forward is a great basketball team. They shot the ball very well tonight, much better than the last time we played them,” McGuffey coach Amanda Burchett said. “They're a tough team to defend, and they played great defense.”
The Warriors clamped down in the fourth quarter on Weiss, who had 10 first-quarter points to help McGuffey take an 18-17 lead.
Elizabeth Forward went on a 14-0 run to start the second quarter, holding McGuffey scoreless for nearly the first six minutes and led, 31-18, before Weiss scored a basket for the Highlanders.
The Warriors settled for a 35-25 halftime lead before Palady got hot, hitting back-to-back jumpers during an 11-5 run that increased the lead to 16 points (46-30).
McGuffey, which had a three-game winning streak stopped, got as close as 50-41 on consecutive baskets by Demi before Elizabeth Forward pushed the lead back to double digits (56-42) heading to the fourth quarter.
“A lot of people underestimated us at the beginning of the year,” said Palady, one of five senior starters for Elizabeth Forward. “We've proven we're a good team this year, too. We've had success playing together for a while now, but we're not satisfied. We know what it's going to take to get to the next step.
Elizabeth Forward advanced to the 2014 PIAA quarterfinals after finishing as runner up to South Park in the WPIAL playoffs. The Warriors won the WPIAL title in 2013.
Dave Mackall is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at dmackall@tribweb.com.
