Dec 31, 2012 By Eleanor Baileysports Editorebailey@thealmanac.Net 3 min read

Although Chartiers Valley is coming off an impressive showing in the Bethel Park Holiday Tournament and head into their Jan. 4 fray at home against Peters Township with a 3-0 record in Section 4 and 7-2 mark overall, head coach Stephan Stepko is reserving judgment on just how good his girls’ basketball team is and can be in 2013.

“I’ll tell you in two weeks,” he said after the Colts knocked off Penn Hills, 56-34.

By then, the Lady Colts will have faced the cream of the crop in the section. CV visits Mt. Lebanon at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 7. The Lady Blue Devils, won three straight state titles from 2009-11 and are the defending WPIAL Quad-A champions. On Jan. 10, the Lady Colts host Bethel Park, which is 8-1 overall.

“We are in a good place, basketball wise. Mentally,” Stefko said. “We’re playing hard. But, we’ll find out where we stand in two weeks.”

Although CV jumped ahead of Penn Hills, 13-0, the Lady Colts did not round into form until a 19-point third quarter.

“We don’t do halftime speeches,” Stefko said of any words he might have imparted on his girls to inspire their second-half resurgence. “The kids played with a bit of malaise and I was out-coached the first half.

“The PIAA dictates teams have at least one day off a week and the kids thought it was our day off. I had to remind them that was not the case,” he said with a laugh. “But, the kids decided to make the game special.”

The Lady Colts, who reached the WPIAL semifinals and PIAA semifinals last winter, are proving they can be a special club in 2013 even though they have moved up from Class AAA to the Quad-A level this winter. They sport a balanced attack as evident of 10 players scoring against Penn Hills. Mariah Wells led the way with 11 markers followed by Kristin McGeough with eight and Alexa Golden with seven.

Cassidy O’Keefe, who was named to the BP all-tournament team, and Jenna Devinney, who claimed all-tournament laurels in Florida, both finished with six points. Kristina Coyne pitched in five tallies.

Melissa Rickens, Amanda Mazzarini, Karley O’Keefe and Annie Pacella also got into the scoring act.

“We share the ball very well,” Stefko said.

The Lady Colts do a bevy of things well. They present a strong perimeter game as well as inside attack. They rebound well as McGeough is 6-3 and Coyne is 6-0. And, their smallest starter is Devinney at 5-7. Wells and Golden are 5-9 and O’Keefe is 5-8.

The Colts also boast plenty of depth as Chelsea Miccicke, Libby Schneider, Maura Malone, Jill Stefaniak, ShyAnne Toomer and Nicole Olkosky round out the roster.

“We can run and press you or we can slash and shoot it,” said Stefko. “We can do a lot of different things. We have athletic ability and a good mental attitude. We have different weapons at our disposal. A lot of tools in the tool box,” he added. “Plus we play hard and are unselfish.”

While that could be a danger when the Colts need someone to step up, they are finding they can play with the higher-level competition. They discovered that when they traveled to Florida to participate in the KSA Tournament in Orlando. Though CV posted a 1-2 record, they hung with their opponents and that pleased Stefko.

“It was a learning experience. We played good teams. We’ve never been in a tournament that strong and losing two games was no shame. We played hard and we played well,” he said.