Norwin girls eliminated in PIAA quarterfinals

By: Paul Schofield
Friday, March 15, 2024 | 8:57 PM

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STATE COLLEGE — When the Spring-Ford girls basketball team defeated Norwin in third game of the season, the Rams got off to a quick start.

Friday in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals, they did it again.

Spring-Ford, the District 1 runner-up from north of Philadelphia, scored the first two baskets of the game and never looked back, defeating the Knights, 60-47, at State College.

“We are always looking to get off to quick starts,” Spring-Ford coach Mickey McDaniel said. “We like to sting our opponent. But Norwin, like the in the first meeting, came back against us.”

Spring-Ford (24-5) raced out to 4-0 and 10-2 leads thanks to 3-pointers by Aaliyah Solliday and Katie Tiffan.

Norwin, the WPIAL champion, went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 10-7. Bella Furno’s 3-pointer started the run. That was followed by buckets by Kendell Berger and Ava Kobus.

But a 3-pointer by Solliday with 4 seconds left in the quarter gave the Rams a 13-9 lead. They led 24-10 in the first meeting after one quarter.

They quickly stretched that lead to 21-11 in the first two minutes of the second frame Friday.

“They are a good team and well coached,” Norwin coach Brian Brozeski said. “They take advantage of opportunities, and they are deadly shooters. They don’t have a weakness. They did a nice job moving the ball.

“They shot the three well. That’s the beauty of this game: Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t. Today they had it.”

But Berger, who finished with a game-high 20 points, scored six points as the Knights went on a 10-5 run to close within 26-21. Spring-Ford, however, scored the final four points of the quarter and led 30-21 at halftime.

“We did a good job driving to the hoop and kicking it out,” McDaniel said. “We knew if we did that we’d be OK.”

Norwin (23-4) opened the third quarter with a bucket by Ava Christopher and a 3-pointer by Bailey Snowberger to trim the lead to 30-26, but Spring-Ford responded with a 12-3 run to push the lead to 42-29.

Kareena Preuss and Tiffan each scored five points for the Rams. They led 44-34 after three quarters.

Norwin got to within 44-38 on buckets by Berger and Kobus, but consecutive buckets by Tiffan ended the Knights’ hopes.

Spring-Ford only had four players score, and all reached double figures. Tiffan had 19, Preuss 15 and Solliday and Anna Azzara had 13 each.

Norwin got 11 points from Kobus.

“They are hurting now, but they have to realize they had a great season,” Brozeski said. “It’s a season I’ll always remember. It’s unfair to call this the best season ever.

“It stings, but when you sit down and lock back, we had a special season and all that hard work paid off.”

Norwin graduates four seniors and returns a good nucleus next season.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

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