When the final buzzer sounded following the Point Park women’s basketball victory Nov. 24 versus Washington Adventist, it marked a special milestone for coach Tony Grenek.
The 65-42 win meant that Grenek passed Ed Meena for the most wins in program history. Grenek is in his fourth season with the Pioneers and has an 82-20 record and .804 winning percentage.
“Point Park University is one of my most favorite places in the world,” Grenek said. “I love the players that represent this great university, my co-workers and the whole student body in general. I am forever grateful for Point Park University giving me the opportunity to be its women’s basketball coach.”
Meena is pleased to see Grenek pass him and believes he has the program going in the right direction.
“Tony is dedicated to this program and the thing he does really well is recruiting, and that’s the secret in women’s basketball these days,” Meena said. “His record speaks for itself and I think he represents the school at a high level.”
The victory came nine days after the team’s 17 game non-conference winning streak came to an end and now Point Park’s record stands at 5-1 for the season.
Point Park was without center Sam Weir for the game due to injury and the timetable for her return is unknown. Weir was named to the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic All-Conference Team last year, and was the only Pioneer selected. She has over 550 points and was a block away from tying Annette Etzel’s 110, which is fourth best in program history.
In her absence, the Pioneers needed someone to step up and against Washington Adventist that was guard Carly Corcoran.
“It was definitely an adjustment coming into the game since it was our first time playing without one of our best players, Sam, but I was focused more than ever on playing as a team,” Corcoran said. “When you lose an important player, everyone needs to step up and work a little harder.”
Corcoran’s biggest impact was in the first half when she had 10 of her career high 13 points. Corcoran made all four of her shots in the first half, two of which were from three point range. Corcoran’s previous high total was nine which was achieved last season.
“I was happy to finally have my hard work pay off and get some shots to fall,” Corcoran said. “It was nice bringing positive energy to the floor, since it was something we needed after our road loss in West Virginia. Now, I’m more focused on carrying it over to the rest of the season.”
Point Park led the contest 40-15 at halftime and Washington Adventist had as many made shots as free throws at five apiece. The Pioneers forced their opponent to shoot 18.5 percent from the field. For the game, Point Park had 21 assists led by five from guard Kelly Johnson while forcing 17 turnovers.
Additional contributions came from Johnson, guard/forward Ja’Nia McPhatter and forward Natasha Moss who each scored eight points.
The Pioneers had 10 days before it would have a rematch against Washington Adventist. The home game will be played Thursday at 5:30 p.m. and then will conclude the week with a road game against Daemen in Amherst, NY Saturday at 2 p.m. For the remainder of team’s winter break schedule go to www.pointpark.edu/athletics.
