Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls basketball eliminated in PIAA semis

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, March 24, 2018 | 7:48 PM

The Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls basketball team finally met its match Saturday afternoon at State College High School. A team that matched up so well with North Catholic that if Berks Catholic wasn't wearing its school colors, one might mistake the Saints for Trojans.

North Catholic dug itself a hole in the first half, and its second-half comeback fell short in a 56-47 at the PIAA Class 4A girls semifinals Saturday afternoon.

“I think we just had a really slow first quarter, and we struggled offensively,” North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann said. “We were not doing what we needed to be doing. To their credit, they shot really well in that first half. Better than I had seen them on any tape.”

Nothing came easy for North Catholic (25-4) in the first half. The Trojans were down by as many as 12 points in the second quarter. It was a half the WPIAL Class 4A champions would rather forget.

“It's been a little bit of an issue all year that we lose our minds offensively,” Rottmann said.

The Trojans managed a little momentum near the end of the second quarter with the help of sophomore Tess Myers and junior Dani Short. North Catholic trailed 28-23 going into halftime. Myers and Short paced the Trojans' offense all game and finished with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

“We knew that we had to knock some shots down, and we knew that we had to play some great defense,” Berks Catholic coach Bob Birmingham said. “They play inside of 3-point line for most of their defense, and we had some players step up with some shots.”

North Catholic owned the third quarter, outscoring Berks Catholic, 14-6. Short cleaned up off the glass and scored on a put back, and Myers came back down the floor to bury a 3-pointer and close in on the Saints' lead at 31-28. Kylee Lewandowksi picked the pocket of a Saints ball handler and took it the other way for an easy layup and the foul to tie score 34-34 after the free throw. Everything seemed to be going the Trojans way in the third quarter.

Sophomore guard Emma Pospisil drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Trojans their first lead at 37-34 and send the Trojans bench into a frenzy entering the final quarter.

Short added a basket to start the fourth quarter, and Myers connected on a pair of free throws and added a nice dribble-drive move to the hoop to extend the Trojans lead to 43-37.

And then the Saints made their second-half run. Abigail Gaffney scored on a put back and got the foul for a three-point play to kickstart an 11-0 run that lasted more than five minutes.

Myers went coast-to-coast on an inbounds pass to cut the Saints lead to 48-45 with 50 seconds remaining. The Saints' Molly Duncan led all scorers with 18 points.

“Berks Catholic played a great game today,” Rottmann said.

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, North Catholic