Girls basketball: Gabi Bednar, tough defense lead Providence past Lockport

NEW LENOX – Points were at a premium Tuesday afternoon when Lockport visited Providence in a nonconference game.

Both teams stressed defense and succeeded in their mission, but Providence overcame a Lockport defensive effort that limited Celtics standout Annalise Pietrzyk to four points and came away with a 39-24 win.

“If you would have told me before the game that Annalise would only have four points and Sydney Spencer wouldn’t score any, I would have said we were in trouble,” Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “But we kept telling the girls that defense and rebounding would win the game, and we had other girls step up and score.”

One was guard Gabi Bednar, who had missed some time during the Sandburg Holiday Tournament because of an illness. She was stellar in her return, leading the Celtics (12-7) with 15 points.

She wasn’t alone, as Molly Knight scored nine points and Bella Morey added eight. Pietrzyk led Providence with eight rebounds, while teammate Eliish Raines (three points) hauled in seven boards, Morey added five, and Madison Swanson had four.

Pietrzyk left the game early in the second quarter with an injury, although she returned a few minutes later. No matter, however, as Bednar scored seven points in the quarter to help Providence increase a 7-4 first-quarter lead to 20-6 at halftime.

“We all work hard, and we have multiple girls that can score,” Bednar said. “It’s nice to get a win when Annalise had an off game. We know that someone else is going to step up. This was a really great game by everybody. I am proud of all the girls.

“It’s always fun to beat Lockport because the schools are so close to each other. I am always excited when we get to play them.”

On the defensive end, Bednar and the rest of the Celtics mostly played a tight man-to-man defense and were able to force Lockport (12-8) into 20 turnovers and snap a five-game Porters winning streak.

“We just couldn’t buy a bucket,” Lockport coach Darien Jacobs said. “We got good looks, but we just couldn’t score. Our defense held their best player to four points. That was a great job by Veronica Bafia. She always gets the toughest assignment, and she is a phenomenal defender.

“I am kind of at a loss for words. You go against a good team and do a good job against their best player, you think you are going to win. But it was a great job by Providence. They had other girls that stepped up and delivered. They are a talented team full of good shooters.”

Knight hit a 3-pointer to give the Celtics their first lead at 7-4 in the first quarter. Before that, Pietrzyk scored her only four points of the game, and they were matched by four from Lockport’s Patricija Tamasauskas, who led the Porters with five.

The Celtics opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer by Raines, then back-to-back baskets by Bednar, for a 14-4 lead. Alaina Peetz (four points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots) scored on a putback for Lockport before the half ended with 3-pointers by Morey and Bednar.

“I told the girls there’s a reason the coaches preach defense and rebounding,” Copenhaver said. “Those will always be there even if the offense is off. This was a game you expect when these two teams play. They like to play physical, and so do we. It was good for us to see that.

“It was nice to have Gabi back after she missed the last four games. She came in and picked up right where she left off. We were able to hit four 3s in the first half, and in a game like this where there’s not a lot of scoring, those really help stretch the lead. Our defense was also able to deny them of going on any sort of big scoring run, which was huge.”