Fannett-Metal, Southern Fulton girls meet again
District 3 isn't the only one gearing up for an all Franklin-Fulton rematch in the postseason.
On Wednesday at 7 p.m., Southern Fulton's girls basketball team will play host to Fannett-Metal in the opening round of the District 5 Class A playoffs.
And it's expected to be another close one. The teams have met twice this season, with the Indians earning a 50-39 win early on. But the second time around, F-M suffered just a four-point loss.
"Obviously, the second time around, they did not have (Olivia) Mottern," F-M coach Greg Best said. "We really wanted to turn up the pressure there and force them into mistakes. But they made some adjustments, too, so we're going to implement a couple wrinkles in there to try to limit our mistakes and force them into making mistakes."
There's a good chance SF (15-7) will once again be without leading scorer Mottern, according to coach Meagan Mellott, but the Indians remain confident there are other players who can pick up the slack.
"Emily Bradshaw has to continue to put up double digits," Mellott said. "We need to get Drew Gordon a lot of rebounds and get her involved without getting into foul trouble. Definitely having a big scoring game from Drew Hann would help. She's continue to show us she can absolutely put up double-digit games."
Fannett-Metal (9-12) also talked a lot about X factors. Ally Hoffmann leads the offense with 13.7 points per game, but Taylor Coffman (8.9 ppg) isn't far behind.
"Morgan Ritchey and Katie Johns have also had what I like to call plus-20 games, as far as both points and rebounds," Best said. "If they're not putting points on the board, we need girls grabbing some key rebounds or generating open looks for someone else. We have a lot of girls that can score, but it's more than just that."
Forbes Road takes on Shade: Like Southern Fulton's girls, Forbes Road's boys team will likely be without top scorer Brycen Hohman, who suffered a late-season injury.
Regardless, the Cardinals (11-10) must put their best foot forward when they travel to Shade (16-6) for a 7 p.m. first-round game Tuesday night.
Forbes Road must key in on Brady Fyfe, a sophomore averaging 23.7 ppg, while Johnny Mauger (12.3 ppg, 5.3 rebounds per game) has also been a big factor.
For the Cardinals, Aaron Schepis, Matt Brown and Grayson Hall have all been consistent scoring threats.
Fannett-Metal travels to Turkeyfoot: It could be a battle of two lights-out shooters when Fannett-Metal (9-13) visits Turkeyfoot Valley (16-4) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
While F-M boasts the area's best scorer in Mikell McGee (25.6 ppg), the Rams have seen the emergence of Chandler Enos, who recently broke a Pennsylvania record for most 3-pointers in a game with 14.
Turkeyfoot is a season-laden team, but doesn't boast too much depth.
Other big contributors for the Tigers this season have been Lucas Wingert (13.3 ppg) and Austin Raymer (8.5).
Trio of teams earn byes: Both McConnellsburg's girls and boys teams earned byes through the first round of the Class 2A tournament, while Southern Fulton's boys team gets a chance to relax in the opening round of 1A.
SF will host the winner of Turkeyfoot vs. Fannett-Metal on Friday at 7 p.m.
McConnellsburg's girls will take on the Meyersdale-North Star winner on Friday at 7 p.m., and the Spartan boys will be on a break until Feb. 28 when they will host either Rockwood or Northern Bedford in the 2A semifinals.