Pickin' Splinters

Rochester's Independent Sports Source

White-Principio leads Waterloo past Mercy

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By PAUL GOTHAM

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Held without a bucket for the first 10 minutes of the game, Giavanna White-Principio scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half when the Waterloo Indians erased a deficit and went on to beat host Our Lady of Mercy 43-34 in non-league action, Tuesday night.

White-Principio scored on the first two possessions of the third quarter to give Waterloo (No. 2 NYSSWA Class B) a lead it did not surrender.

“We pretty much knew what they were going to do,” Waterloo head coach Mike Bree said of the defense he expected from his opponent. “We thought she was going to get double-teamed a lot where they were going to keep Audrey (Hintz) back behind her or in front of her and then come with another girl right behind her.”

White-Principio’s third field goal of the quarter gave Waterloo a 31-25 lead in a stanza that they outscored Mercy 12-4.

“In the first quarter, I wasn’t really moving around,” White-Principio said.  “Coach told me I needed to be more active. He always gives me that talk if I’m not doing well. It just gets in my head and I push.”

The 6-foot-1 center added seven more points in the fourth quarter. When Mercy cut the deficit to six at 40-34 on a Natalie Casale 3-pointer late in the frame, Waterloo went back White-Principio for the final three points of the game.

“We thought if we could get the ball on her side that they were at least going to have to come out and cover one of our shooters and we could dump it down to her,” Bree explained.”And we did.”

White-Principio, who came into the game averaging better than 17 points per game, connected on three consecutive possessions midway through the second quarter to give the Indians a 19-12 advantage.

Mercy (No. 28 NYSSWA Class AA) responded with an 11-3 run to take a lead into halftime.

“I thought we had them right where we wanted,” Bree said of the seven-point lead. “I thought we were going to get that typical push that we get a lot. I give them credit because they came back and hit some shots there. I think a lot of it was self-inflicted. I feel like we turned the ball over a lot.”

Karli Harnischfeger connected on a jump shot. Libby McDonough hit her second 3-pointer of the first half before Audrey Hintz scored six straight for a 23-22 Mercy edge heading into the break.

“This group hasn’t been down very often,” Bree said. “I thought they accepted the challenge. I think they knew this game was going to be different than some of the games we will typically play.”

After turning the ball over three times in the final three minutes of the second quarter, the Indians committed three ballhandling miscues in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

“I felt like that was part of the reason we couldn’t quite get that push that we will get a lot of times,” Bree said of the turnovers. “Second half we cut that down. We started getting the ball where we typically will get it.”

Waterloo  scored the first seven points of the third quarter.

“Coach Bree said whoever wins the third quarter is going to win the game,” White-Principio commented. “His halftime talks,  they just get us going.”

Waterloo’s Macy Carr hit a 3-pointer to open the game’s scoring. Morgan Caraballo followed with a pair of field goals for an early 7-2 lead. Addison Bree connected on a corner triple and Carr closed the first eight minutes with her second trey of the game. Waterloo led 13-9.

“We didn’t have the typical success that we do,” Bree said of his squad which had won each of its previous seven games by double digits. “On a night where we didn’t shoot our best or play our best to come out of here with a W at Mercy is fantastic.”

Carr finished the game with eight points. Caraballo had six. Jazzmyn Lewis accounted for five points.

Hintz paced the Mercy attack with 10 points to go with seven rebounds and three blocks. Harnischfeger and McDonough scored six apiece. McDonough grabbed eight rebounds. Sophie Dearcop finished with four points, four rebounds and five steals. Olivia Luchetti chipped in with three points and five rebounds while Mia Valvo had two points.

Mercy (6-3) will host Williamsville South (VI) on Saturday for a 2 PM tip off.

Waterloo (8-0) hosts Palmyra-Macedon on Friday.

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