Ward steps in as coach for Lady Cougars
Mariah Ward takes over as coach of the Charleori girls basketball team this season after Bill Wagner guided the Lady Cougars the past four years.
Ward, a Monessen grad, has a relatively full roster coming back from a squad that went 14-9 overall and 8-4 in Section 2-AAA to finish in third place behind co-champions Waynesburg Central and South Park last season.
The Lady Cougars reached the WPIAL playoffs for the third consecutive year but have fallen in their first game each time, to Laurel, 61-38, last season, to Keystone Oaks, 54-52, in 2020 and to East Allegheny, 51-24, in 2019.
Charleroi is in the similar Section 4-AAA this season with the Lady Raiders and Lady Eagles as well as another playoff team, Brownsville, along with McGuffey, although Bentworth and Washington are now gone with Yough dropping in from Class AAAA.
A likely all-junior starting lineup is led by 5-foot-3 guard Mckenna DeUnger who was named to the 蘑菇视频 All-Area second team last season.
Filling out the starting lineup will be a pair of 5-6 players in Leena Henderson and Riley Jones as well as Bella Carroto and Camryn Musser. Carroto, who didn’t play last season, has provided a solid scoring punch for Charleroi early on.
The Lady Cougars began the season splitting a pair of games at the Major Corley Memorial Tournament in Monessen on Dec. 2-3, defeating California, 55-15, behind 21 points by Carroto and 10 by DeUnger, and falling to Monessen, 55-41, despite 16 points by Carroto.
Charleroi opens section play at Waynesburg on Jan. 3.