By Jim Hunter
February 9, 2010 — Seniors Danielle Cappellino and Emily Mottillo showed their irreplaceable leadership Monday night.
Combining for Meadville’s first 12 points in the third quarter, Cappellino and Mottillo made sure Titusville didn’t make a run as the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Rockets, 17-11 for a hard-fought 55-48 victory in Region 5 action at the House of Thrills.
With the win, MASH moved into a fourth-place tie with Titusville at 4-7 in the league.
“It’s a big win ... but all games down the stretch are going to be big,” said Meadville coach Darryl Jones. “We have Grove City, Oil City and Sharon coming up. We’re going to take it one game at a time and see what happens.”
With unflappable Cappellino and Mottillo leading the way, Jones realizes anything is possible.
The MASH senior gals showed the way against Titusville.
On the opening possession in the third quarter, the Rockets ran a textbook back pick as Sam Savitz scored on a layup to cut Meadville’s lead to 23-19.
The beginning of a Rockets’ comeback? Not quite.
On the ensuing possession, Cappellino stepped behind the three-point arc in the right-wing area and drained a trey to put MASH ahead 26-19.
Then, Mottillo stepped up.
After netting two free throws, the Lady Bulldogs’ floor general scored on a nifty left-handed driving layup to give MASH a 30-23 lead with 3:24 remaining in the third quarter.
Back to Cappellino.
After swishing two free throws, the MASH senior guard bombed in a 3-pointer from the right-wing area again to push the Lady Bulldogs’ lead to 35-25 with 2:00 left in the third stanza.
Jones was thrilled with Cappellino’s scoring outburst.
“Danielle missed a couple shots early in the game, but I told her to keep shooting,” he said. “She is getting her confidence back. She has been struggling as of late. I told her that she is a senior and this is her year.”
The Lady Bulldogs weren’t just a two-girl team. Four players scored in double figures: Mottillo (14), Cappellino (13), Victoria Severo (13) and Toni Fiedler (10). Like Cappellino, Severo hurt Titusville from the outside with three 3-pointers.
Obviously, Jones was ecstatic with the balanced attack.
“Four players in double figures ... you can’t beat that,” he said. “As a whole, we played pretty well. There were times we played sloppy, but we corrected ourselves.”
