'Fear' factors into Serra girls' rout of Clairton

Born and raised in Clairton, it had to be hard for Remondo Williams to admit it.

But following the Lady Bears' loss to rival Serra Catholic on Monday night, Williams said the unthinkable.
"I really believe that when we play teams like Monessen and Serra that we play with a fear factor," Williams said. "We are afraid of them."

At least last night, Serra gave Clairton everything to be afraid of.

Serra raced out to a big lead against Clairton and cruised to a 56-23 Section 4-A win that kept the Lady Eagles 1.5 games behind front-running Monessen.

"I like the way we came out with all that intensity," said Serra coach Bill Cleary, who won his 493rd career game. "After losing to Monessen the other day, I am happy the way we came out and played like we did."

Obviously, Williams wasn't enthused with his team's effort.

Two weeks after falling to Monessen by 32, the Lady Bears dropped a 33-point decision to another section front-runner.

"I feel that we are much better of a team than we showed," Williams said. "We need to play hard against every team and not just the Geibels and teams that we can beat. It is like we are waiting for them to jump on us, we are waiting for them to increase their lead ..."

Serra (7-5, 4-1) got a big game from Jaime Tedesco, as she scored 18 of her game-high 22 points in the first half. Danielle Dindak added 12 points and Katie Sieg grabbed 10 rebounds.

Clairton (5-4, 2-3) got seven points from Justice Hall, and six points and 11 rebounds from Taleese Ogletree off the bench.

"In order for us to be successful, we needed to come out with a lot of intensity," Williams said. "We should've showed them from the very beginning that we were going to be here for four quarters to compete."

Instead, it appeared that the Lady Bears wanted to be any place else put playing Serra on this day.

Clairton never scored more than seven points in any quarter and was held to a mere two points in the third quarter. Add in allowing runs of 12-3, 13-2 and 20-3 and it proved to be a long night for Williams.

"Basketball isn't rocket science," Williams said. "Coach Cleary is going to make sure he is going to have his girls execute the way he wants them to execute."

Serra came out of the gates slow offensively, but made up for it with second-chance points off of offensive rebounds.

Serra outrebounded Clairton 14-6 in the first quarter including 6-2 on the offensive end.

"Instead of playing one possession at a time and playing defense the right way — all the things you are supposed to do in order to compete against those teams — we just did our own thing," Williams said.

Serra continued to put the pressure on Clairton running up a 31-14 halftime lead before the Lady Eagles also stumbled a bit.

"Some times halftime comes at the wrong time," Cleary said. "We were playing well in the second half then after halftime, we couldn't get it back."

Serra managed only two points in an ugly third quarter when there were four total points scored.

"But we continued to play defense so they couldn't close the gap," Cleary said. "We are young and we are learning how to battle through those little lulls. We can't have that happen every night."

Serra ended on a strong note by outscoring Clairton 23-7 in the final quarter.

"Regardless of the outcome, Clairton always play us tough," Cleary said. "They know what this rivalry is all about."