Trib HSSN girls basketball player of the week for Jan. 26, 2025

By: Don Rebel
Sunday, January 26, 2025 | 7:09 PM

Trib HSSN girls basketball player of the week: Emma Larkin

School: Geibel Catholic

Class: Junior

Height: 5-foot-5

Position: Guard

What coach says: “Her leadership and hustle,” Geibel Catholic coach Sara Larkin said when asked what stood out about her daughter’s performance in a big section win over Clairton on Monday. “Emma is a natural leader, but this season has been a little different. She holds her teammates accountable on and off the court, and that has driven the team to be stronger together. We knew going into that game that we could get the win. The team as a whole did not execute earlier in the season at Clairton. Emma stepped up when we needed her most, and she used her voice throughout the game to encourage her teammates and ensure everyone was on the same page. They executed as planned. Her grit and desire to compete impresses me more and more with every game we play.

“Emma plays with a chip on her shoulder,” Coach Larkin said about going up against Clairton great Iyanna Wade. “She hates to hear that her size will limit her or that single-A basketball is weak. In the days leading up to the game, I could tell that she was locked in and prepared, mentally, physically and emotionally. She mentioned to me a few times that so many spectators were coming to see Iyanna and that just fueled her fire. Iyanna is a great player, but so is Emma, so she wanted to use that game to shine the light on Geibel. She always gives 100% on both ends of the floor, but she hit an all new level in the Clairton game. At one point in overtime, she thought she was going to puke. I had to use a timeout to get her settled. That’s never happened before.

“This season, Emma has been able to demonstrate more of her strengths than in the first two seasons. She has a high basketball IQ and sees the floor really well. Her assists and steals are both up. We play a fast game and get a lot of points in transition where it’s not always Emma getting layups, but she’s feeding her teammates in the open court. It helps that her teammates shoot the ball well and finish on those assists. Defensively, she provides so many options for me as a coach: on ball, off ball, press, zone, whatever strategy we need on any given night. This year, she’s started creating her own game plan to see how close she is to mine, and she’s usually spot on. She’s also physically stronger from more time in the weight room.

“Only Emma and fellow junior Ava Henderson are returning starters. 6-1” freshman Mallory Clemmer gives the team an offensive threat inside. She’s averaging a double-double for us with scoring and rebounds, and her ability to block inside forces teams to rethink their offensive approach. Sophomore Janiah Darnell is a rebounding machine as well, averaging 10 rebounds a game, and her defense is strong. Madison Waggett played one game her freshman season before suffering a knee injury that kept her away from the game until this season. She’s gaining confidence as the season goes on. Ava continues to do what she does best: She’s a pest defensively and shoots the ball well. Our players coming off the bench understand their role and give us quality minutes to keep legs fresh.”

#Earned: It was another big week of points for the second-leading scorer in the WPIAL, including a key section victory in a head-to-head matchup with the WPIAL’s scoring ace. Emma Larkin is enjoying another sensational season that continued this past week in which she scored 71 points while the Gators picked up two section wins to move into a tie for first place in Section 2-A. In a section showdown on Monday pitting first-place Clairton at second-place Geibel Catholic and the head-to-head clash between WPIAL leading scorer Iyanna Wade of the Bears and Larkin of the Gators, the two stars nearly matched bucket for bucket and point for point as Wade scored 39 points and Larkin had 38, but Geibel Catholic got the last laugh by beating visiting Clairton in overtime 65-62 to force a tie for first place. On Thursday, the Gators picked up their ninth consecutive victory to improve to 16-1 for the season when they rolled past host Bishop Canevin, 67-47. Larkin again led all scorers with almost half of her teams point total with 33.

Background: Larkin recently moved into second place on the Geibel Catholic all-time scoring list, passing Allison Watts at 1,609. She is closing in on the Gators’ all-time leading scorer in Shelley Bortz, who scored 1,977 points and graduated in 1992. The junior guard averaged 22.9 points per game as a freshman, 29.7 points ppg as a sophomore and this season, is averaging 28.1 points per game. She is not just a scorer as she had 310 rebounds, 152 assists and 182 steals in her first two high school seasons. Larkin, who was in the Albert Gallatin School District through middle school, is a member of the Gators volleyball and cross-country teams in the fall, basketball in the winter and track and field and softball teams in the spring. Her mom not only coaches Emma in basketball, she is the Geibel Catholic cross country coach and helps with track and field in the spring.

2025 Trib HSSN Girls Basketball Players of the Week

Week 3: Rylee Kalocay, Upper St. Clair

Week 2: Iyanna Wade, Clairton

Week 1: Oumou “Mimi” Thiero, Quaker Valley

Tags: Geibel