Young Pitt-Greensburg women's basketball team hopes to grow as season progresses

At 22 years old, Melina Maietta is hardly a candidate for an AARP membership. But on a youthful Pitt-Greensburg women’s basketball roster, the Greensburg Central Catholic grad has become the de facto team mom.

Aside from her “advanced” age, Maietta, a junior guard, has a wealth of experience. Of a possible 50 games during her first two seasons, Maietta started 46 and earned a pair of all-conference honors.

And with the graduation of All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference point guard Sidney McCully, Maietta knew exactly what her role was going to entail coming into the season.

“I always had Sidney by my side,” she said. “I had to get everyone in line. I think naturally I’ve always been a leader no matter what team I have been on, so it hasn’t been that tough of a transition for me.”

The Bobcats hope their transition is as smooth.

After graduating a number of experienced players, UPG (1-3) has a roster loaded with freshmen and sophomores. On top of it, they have a coach, Darien Lantz, who is in just her second season running a college program.

Lantz, too, remains on a bit of a learning curve. She led the Bobcats to a 9-5 AMCC mark (14-13 overall) in her first season at the helm.

Her coaching acumen will be tested even more this season with such a green lineup. But Lantz said she learned valuable lessons last season that will help her — and the team — going forward.

“Just being more confident in my knowledge of the game and presenting that to the players with confidence,” said Lantz, who spent time as an assistant at Thiel before coming to UPG. “Last year I was confident, but it was also my first year, so I was a little more hesitant.”

Lantz said this season she has been simplifying her approach, something she would have done anyway but is even more pertinent now given the relative inexperience of her personnel.

Besides Maietta, who averaged 16.4 points, second to only McCully on the team, two players with ample starting experience return: sophomore Madison Scalese and sophomore Tiana Moracco, a Derry grad.

Moracco, a 5-foot-10 swing player, averaged 5.2 points and 5.6 rebounds during her freshman season, when she started 14 games. Scalese, a 5-7 forward, started 11 games and averaged 6.2 points and 6.9 rebounds. Her rebound total was second to only McCully on the team.

Picking up McCully’s considerable slack in the backcourt are sophomore Anna Durbin and freshman Sarah Penrod, a Franklin Regional grad.

Durbin spent much of her freshman season as McCully’s understudy, averaging 3.3 minutes in 16 games played. She has shown that she learned well, averaging 8.5 points and 2.5 rebounds.

“She’s like a mini Sidney almost,” Maietta said. “After seeing her performance (in the third game of the season against Waynesburg), she’s going to have a really great season. She’s definitely a very tough player, came out of her shell, stepped up and is very vocal on the court, which helps a lot.”

Penrod, meanwhile, also has shown plenty of promise, averaging 8.2 points and shooting 41.2% from 3-point range.

She, too, drew high praise from the “team mom.”

“I know the first game, she was so nervous going in,” Maietta said.

“Just her transitioning to the point guard, that’s a big role. You’re the leader on the floor. You’re running the offense. Her shots have been falling, she’s a very tough defender, she can rebound. She’s a very good hustler, too.”

UPG’s season got off to a rough start as the Bobcats lost their first two games to Ohio Wesleyan and Carnegie Mellon by a combined score of 181-80.

Lantz and Maietta assured the young team it would get better, that those two opponents would be among the best — if not the best — they would face all season.

As the Bobcats prepared to take on Waynesburg, Maietta tried to offer some reassurance.

“I know all of them were so nervous, especially freshmen starting their first college game,” she said. “It’s definitely tough. You don’t want to make mistakes. But I told them (before the Waynesburg game), ‘Just play our game, play together and we’re going to come out with the win.’

“It’s the sport we all love. We all want to play. There’s no reason to be nervous.”

The message got through. UPG outlasted Waynesburg, 81-77, with Maietta scoring 21 points, Durbin adding 19, Penrod 14 and Moracco 13. Moracco also had eight rebounds.

Getting that first win out of the way was a relief and a good stabilizer for the young team. But that isn’t likely to be the end of the bumps in the road. There still will be mistakes. There still might be some ugly losses.

But Lantz sees plenty of potential in this team once it can work out the kinks.

“They are a very unselfish team,” she said. “I think having the ability to find the open person and make that extra pass and not forcing plays … our first couple of games were a little bit rough because they haven’t learned that yet.

“But because I know how unselfish they are, it’s just growing together as the year goes on. I think that happens with any young team. You expect a lot out of them, but you also have to understand they’re learning still.”

For her part, Maietta is optimistic about how much better these Bobcats can become over the next couple of months.

“Even though we got that really good win (against Waynesburg), I don’t think that was our full potential,” she said. “I think as we go on and as we see competition, it’s just going to get us better. … I think we’re going to be a very tough team to beat.”