OLSH girls turn tables on Greensburg Central Catholic, advance to PIAA quarterfinals
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Tuesday, March 11, 2025 | 8:39 PM
OLSH’s Leah Parker fights for a rebound with Greensburg Central Catholic’s Avery Jones during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Claudia Ierullo and Elizabeth Gallick guard Greensburg Central Catholic’s Erica Gribble during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Lola Garner guards Greensburg Central Catholic’s Nolan Althof during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Claudia Ierullo intercepts a pass after she made a free throw to put OLSH up for good over Greensburg Central Catholic during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
Greensburg Central Catholic’s Morgan Skoloda grabs a loose ball from OLSH’s Lola Garner during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Elizabeth Gallick fights for a rebound with Greensburg Central Catholic’s Avery Jones during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Lola Garner guards Greensburg Central Catholic’s Erica Gribble during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
OLSH’s Claudia Ierullo scores past Greensburg Central Catholic’s Erica Gribble during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
Greensburg Central Catholic’s Erica Gribble drives on OLSH’s Sara Daeschner during their PIAA Class 2A second-round game Tuesday.
This was not the same Our Lady of the Sacred Heart team that Greensburg Central Catholic beat to advance to the WPIAL finals 18 days earlier.
No, this was an entirely different opponent from the tip to the final horn, and this version will go down as the team that sent the Centurions packing in the girls basketball state playoffs.
Forget the 20-plus-minute scoring drought from a WPIAL semifinal loss that saw the Chargers produce only 18 points on the same floor.
OLSH had 18 points by halftime Tuesday night in a much tighter matchup as Claudia Ierullo powered her team to a 36-34 win over the WPIAL champion Centurions in a PIAA Class 3A second-round game at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
“We talked about how the girls gotta believe that we can beat that team,” OLSH coach Don Eckerle said. “We thought if we could get our pace and make some baskets early we had a chance.”
OLSH lost to GCC, 41-18, in the district semis, producing only five field goals.
This time, it matched the Centurions, who also had beaten the Chargers, 40-30, in the regular season.
“I thought we had a great chance against them,” said Eckerle, who has 416 career wins. “There were six or seven quarters where we played them really competitively.”
Ierullo scored 11 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter and made the defensive play of the night to essentially seal it for the Chargers (24-4), who advance to the quarterfinals Friday to play the winner of Central Cambria (18-8) and Karns City (23-3).
GCC is done at 22-6. The Centurions made the 2A semifinals the last two years.
“We didn’t play well,” GCC coach Chris Skatell said. “We didn’t shoot it well. We were very impatient, and our younger kids didn’t show up. OLSH played well, but it’s not a surprise.”
Ierullo, a Slippery Rock commit who grabbed her own long rebound and banked in a 3-pointer to beat the third-quarter buzzer and tie it 23-23, went basket-for-basket in the fourth with Erica Gribble, the Centurions’ Richmond commit who finished with 19 points.
Gribble made a 3 to give GCC a 30-27 lead and then banked in a shot on a drive to make it 32-29.
But Ierullo connected on another 3 to tie it 32-32 with 3 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in the final quarter.
Two minutes later, she scored again off a steal to put the Chargers up by two with 1:01 left.
Erica Rodriguez, though, tied it for GCC (34-34) on a short jumper.
After a block call on Jayla Peterson, Ierullo went to the free-throw line with 7.4 seconds left and made 1 of 2 for a 35-34 edge.
When the second attempt missed off the front of the rim, Avery Jones grabbed the rebound for GCC, but her outlet pass was picked off by Ierullo, who made 1 of 2 free throws for a 36-34 lead.
“Claudia is the player who you want to have the ball in her hands in the fourth quarter,” Eckerle said. “She has great instincts. She willed it.”
Gribble threw up a halfcourt heave in the closing seconds, attempting to draw contact, but the officials said she stepped out of bounds near the midcourt stripe.
OLSH inbounded and celebrated their second quarterfinal trip in three seasons.
“We didn’t guard (Ierullo) well,” Skatell said. “She played her butt off.”
OLSH played a triangle-and-2 defense on Gribble and Peterson, holding the latter to five points.
Both are juniors and will try to lead GCC to a WPIAL three-peat next winter.
Ierullo had nearly 70% of her team’s points. Lola Garner scored six.
GCC’s second-leading scorer was Jones with six. She had 14 in the previous matchup with OLSH.
It was 9-9 after the first quarter, and OLSH led 18-16 at halftime.
OLSH’s Sara Daeschner was injured early in the fourth quarter and was carried off by trainers. After the game, two teammates carried her to the bus.
OLSH made the state semis in 2023.
Gribble now has 1,714 points, second all-time on the program scoring list. She needs 12 points to break Ashley Henderson’s career scoring mark of 1,725 points. The school record of 1,751 points in held by Franco Sebastiani.
Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.
Tags: Greensburg C.C., Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
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