Star senior guards Emma Theodorsson and Reilly Sunday have Moon Area off to hot start

MOON TWP. — With a key game on the line in the final minutes, any coach would be pleased to have a senior, NCAA Division I-bound point guard running the offense.

For Moon Area girls’ basketball coach Meghan Abbenante, though, she doesn’t have just one – she has two in Bucknell-bound Emma Theodorsson and Duquesne-bound Reilly Sunday. The good news is that has led to a perfect 9-0 record. The flip side of that coin, though, is that she’ll need all that ability and experience because the Tigers play in Section 5A-1, in which all six teams have combined for a non-conference record of 38-7 (.844 winning percentage) so far.

“We put a tremendous amount of trust in them,” said Abbenante after a 46-43 section-opening win over South Fayette in which the Tigers clinched the come-from-behind victory with a 12-4 run in the game’s final three minutes.

Theodorsson scored eight of her game-high 20 points in the final frame, including six straight free throws in the final minute. Sunday finished with seven assists on the 14 field goals her teammates made.

“We’ve had other players step up and fill their roles, too — seniors Sarah Santicola and Olivia Logan also scored in double figures,” Abbenante said. “But every night in this section, we know the other team and they know us.”

This year’s Tigers team isn’t exactly the one teams know from the past, though. Two years ago, Sunday was the starting point guard as a sophomore. But she missed all last season with a knee injury. In her absence, Theodorsson, listed at 6-foot, filled her role as the point guard.

Now, both are back and the point guard position is shared — to a degree — and opposing defenses are forced to adjust.

“It’s nice that either of us can bring the ball up the floor,” said Sunday, listed as 5-9. “We play well together, too. If one of us isn’t hitting, the other one is.”

“We didn’t play together last year," added Theodorsson. “But we’ve been playing together since fifth grade and travel ball, so that didn’t make much of a difference.

“We started out in the fall again and it didn’t take long to get the chemistry back.”

Now all of Section 5A-1 will get to see that chemistry in action. It will be a grueling section schedule, starting Thursday night with a road game against Oakland Catholic (6-2 outside of section play).

“I think we play in the toughest section in the WPIAL — boys or girls, 1A through 6A,” said Theodorsson. “Every team we play is tough in section, but every team we’ve played so far has come out in some sort of triangle-and-two defense or something against us. They know we have two Division I girls.”

Theodorsson and Sunday have handled that defensive pressure the way one would expect seasoned point guards to do so — with ease.

“It’s not nerve wracking at all,” said Sunday. “We just want to play. I’m all the way back from my knee injury, so we just want to play.”

The Tigers are hoping to play even longer than they did last year with their duo of star senior point guards and supporting cast.

“The season has to be a grind,” said Abbenante. “But we’ve talked about our season-long goals and where we want to be.

“Our focus has to be on defense — every one of our wins has been different in some way — but we’ve always had to play defense. We’ve got to play hard every possession.”

And possessions seem just a little easier with the ball in the hands of experienced, veteran point guards.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Star senior guards Emma Theodorsson and Reilly Sunday lead Moon Area