COAL CENTER - Senior Molly Stuvek scored 23 points and grabbed 18 rebounds en route to Carmichaels' 46-28 victory over California in a Section 3-A contest on Monday, Feb. 1.

The Lady Mikes (13-4, 8-1) have won five of their last six, and swept the season series against the Lady Trojans (10-7, 7-3).

"I cannot be more proud of the defensive effort my basketball team showed tonight," Carmichaels coach Jim Lane said. "We gave up 12 points in that first quarter, but we fought back and played hard on defense the rest of the way. Everything came from the defense. California is a good basketball team and we knew that this was going to be a tough environment to play in tonight. We showed a lot of grit."

With the win, Carmichaels clinched a WPIAL playoff berth and remains in contention for the section crown.

"I know we clinched a playoff spot, but our goal is to win the section," Lane said. "We have only won one in our school's history, and I would love to see this group pull it out. We are one step closer to doing that and we still have tough games against Geibel Catholic (Feb. 4) and Monessen (Feb. 9) left on the schedule."

California started out quick as it held a 9-2 lead with 3:36 left in the opening quarter. Senior Morgan Moluski contributed eight points in the first as the Lady Trojans were up 12-6 at the end of one.

The Lady Mikes' offense started to click in the second and they rallied with a 10-4 run for a 16-16 tie. The defense also matched that intensity by giving up only five points in the second quarter.

Following two missed free throws by the Lady Trojans, the Lady Mikes got a basket from Stuvek and another two points by freshmen Morgan Berardi to go up 20-17 at halftime.

"We talked about keeping our composure at the beginning of the game," Lane said. "We knew this was going to be a hostile environment and that California would feed off of that. We told them to play a full 32-minute game. California started out hot and was hitting from the outside, but we held on and played a physical, defensive game to pick up the win."

Stuvek was on a mission at the start of the third, as she tallied Carmichaels' first eight points of the quarter. The Lady Mikes outscored the Lady Trojans, 12-6, and held a 32-23 lead with eight minutes left in the game.

Carmichaels' defense played a significant part in the fourth, as it held California to five points. The Lady Mikes' offense, meanwhile, tallied 14 points and ended the game on an 8-2 run.

Stuvek scored 15 points in the final 16 minutes. She injured her ankle at the 4:49 mark of the fourth quarter, but returned.

"Molly is a senior, one of our captains and she knows its crunch time," Lane said. "After that loss to Beth-Center on Thursday, we said in practice that this week is going to be crunch time and extremely important to us. She wanted it tonight and she was huge for us in all facets of the game."

Berardi scored eight points as junior Erica Britner scored four points and snagged 15 rebounds. Freshman Courtney McMasters tallied eight points for California.