Oakland Catholic outduels Blackhawk in tense Class 4A championship game

By: Antonio Rossetti
Saturday, March 1, 2025 | 4:42 PM

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The Oakland Catholic Eagles defeated the Blackhawk Cougars, 52-50, in the Class 4A finals Saturday at Petersen Events Center, taking home their seventh WPIAL title and first since 2006.

The Cougars trailed 39-32 halfway through the third quarter. Nevertheless, Blackhawk battled back and took the lead early in the fourth quarter, going on a 9-0 run.

This led to a tense fourth quarter which featured six lead changes and five ties.

The Eagles broke a 46-46 tie at the charity stripe and Zephaniah Troxler-Scott made a contested layup to go up 50-46.

Down 50-46, a Blackhawk 3-pointer from Olivia Rabick and a Mia Sheesley free throw tied it up.

Blackhawk’s Aubree Hupp drove to the hole and made the shot, but a controversial charge call gave Oakland Catholic the ball.

This led to Alayla Bivins coming around a screen and downing a layup to go up 52-50 with 6.1 seconds left to play.

The Eagles forced a stop on a deep 3 from Andrea Kinger that was wide right at the buzzer, earning the Eagles the win.

“We were talking about our goals at the beginning of the year,” Eagles coach Henry Schecter said. “We have a board up there. We were working our way down through them. We want a section. Another goal was to win the WPIAL. …

“They made history today. Last time Oakland Catholic won a championship was ‘06. I get the most joy when I see them jumping up and down, smiling, having a great time celebrating with each other.”

Oakland Catholic lost the lead for the first time in the game in the fourth quarter. Blackhawk continued to make plays to keep it close. Nonetheless, Schecter had confidence that the Eagles were going to prevail.

“I really never doubted that we would be able to pull it out,” Schecter said. “We hate to see them going around on a run and getting some confidence, but it was just a matter of stepping up and making a big play. Whether it’s (Bivins) going for the game winner or dishing it to Josie (Fontana) or Madi (Pullen) taking the charge …we had a lot of players willing to step up and make a big play.”

The Eagles were spearheaded by London Creach, who tallied 12 points and six rebounds.

Creach sparked the Eagles. She missed the end of last season and a portion of this season with an ACL injury. However, she made the comeback and capped it off with a WPIAL title.

“I feel like last year we were guaranteed to win,” Creach said. “To come back and win, it’s a good comeback, for sure.”

Pullen added 11 points and Bivins notched 10 points and six rebounds. Troxler-Scott tallied eight points and four assists.

Bivins commented on the complete team effort.

“Effort goes from the first person on the floor to the last person on the bench,” Bivins said. “Everybody on the floor contributes. Everybody on defense contributes. Even the people whose stats may not be the largest, everybody’s a great teammate on the floor. Off the floor is a team effort — everybody from the manager to just everybody that invests into this.”

Fontana, who tallied six points and four rebounds, fighting through a nosebleed, was happy to win it all with this group of girls.

“It’s been great,” Fontana said. “Everyone that’s here now has invested a lot of time and effort into being the best they can.”

Oakland Catholic’s six previous titles came from 1999-2002 under coach Suzie McConnell Serio and in 2005-2006 under coach Rich Irr.

As for Blackhawk, Hupp tallied a game-high 20 points to go with eight rebounds. Kinger tallied 10 points and five rebounds.

This was Blackhawk’s fourth straight WPIAL title appearance, with a WPIAL title win in 2022 and three consecutive losses.

“This group just won’t quit,” Blackhawk coach Greg Huston said. “We played some tough games this year. We went down to Maryland and played a really good team in Southern Garrett, and had a similar game to this, and pulled it out in the end. We’ve had several games like that this year, but this team’s never going to give up, never going to quit.”

Last season, the Cougars went into the PIAA playoffs after a WPIAL loss and won the state title. He sees the commitment and has no doubts they will rebound from the loss.

“Every time out, every quarter break, they come over and they’re just saying, ‘Hey, we’re not losing, we’re not losing, we’re not losing, because nobody was going to quit, nobody was going to stop,’” Huston said. “The fight in this group is something special.”

As for the Eagles, Schecter loved the compete level from his players.

“These kids compete so hard,” Schecter said. “Every kid on the team competes for so long in practice and in games. We prepare really hard. Our coaching staff does an excellent job, and we got great people on the coaching staff who are all in it for the right reasons. Everybody works so hard with the coaches. We compete so hard. We anticipate we’re gonna win. We’re really happy we won, but this is what we prepared for.”

Tags: Blackhawk, Oakland Catholic