City of Basketball Love

Rob Rose (@RobRoseSports)
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For the first eight minutes of Tuesday’s rematch between Archbishop Carroll and Neumann-Goretti, it played out similar to the first showdown.

Carroll sophomore Brooke Wilson clamped down on Neumann-Goretti senior Mihjae Hayes while her sister, junior Taylor Wilson took control of the offense. The sisters combined for 40 points the first time the teams played and it appeared like the game plan would be just as good the second time.

That was, until Brooke Wilson landed awkwardly on her ankle after she leaped for a rebound and was removed from the game after she spent a few minutes on the floor in pain.

Down one of their best backcourt players, senior Grace O’Neill was dominant and switched up the script in this PCL semifinal. O’Neill scored nine points in that second quarter to help her team build up a big lead and never let it go. The senior and Drexel commit scored 28 points and sent Carroll to the PCL championship with a 50-35 win over Neumann-Goretti.

“I think we just continued to move the ball really well,” O’Neill said. ”Obviously Brooke will run the one sometimes so, I knew I had to step up and run the one… I don't think that it really set us back. I mean, obviously without Brooke it’s definitely a setback, but I think we came together and were able to push through and finish off the quarter.”

Even without Brooke Wilson, Carroll was able to limit Hayes’ production. The team deployed a box-and-one scheme to slow down the senior scorer and it worked. Hayes was held to 11 points, largely by Chloe Bleckley, who filled in once Wilson was injured and never returned to the game despite being very mobile behind the bench at multiple times during the night.

Hayes seemed frustrated by being Carroll’s defensive focus and at times floated around on the perimeter while her teammates played four-on-four, which made Carroll head coach Renie Shields happy.

“We realized we couldn't have Mihjae go off. We just knew that,” Shields said. “She's a catalyst for what they want to do offensively and when she gets the ball they have two players that rebound the ball really well so keeping it out of her hands really helped us in the rebounding aspect as well.”

While Hayes was hindered by the constant Carroll pressure, one of her teammates took advantage of open opportunities. D’Ayzha Atkinson had a team-high 15 points and showed she could score inside and shoot with a mixture of field goals and free throws.

Neumann-Goretti gave Carroll all they could in the third quarter, but it wasn’t enough. Hayes opened the second half with four points and got her team fired up after a steal.

Late in the quarter, Carroll’s lead had been cut in half before a perfectly executed inbounds play ended in a 3-pointer by Villanova commit Maggie Grant.

Once the final eight minutes began, Neumann-Goretti couldn’t get it under single digits and O’Neill ended the night with a slew of free throws as she hit 8 of 11 attempts to close out the win.

The victory sent the top-seeded Carroll team to the PCL championship game against Cardinal O’Hara. Carroll went undefeated during the season, but O’Hara returns to the title game after it was the runner-up in 2021.

Grant was a freshman on the 2019 team that won a PCL championship and was excited at the thought of a return to the Palestra and a chance to win it again.

“I was just saying there's no other place like it. Just the atmosphere. It's awesome and I’m so excited that we're able to go there with such a great team,” O’Neill said.

Shields was equally ecstatic about the next game on their schedule, but wanted to push the praise onto the players who won the games and now get a chance to experience what their standout senior scorer felt years ago for themselves.

“Obviously excited for the girls because they put in the work and we just kind of hang around,” Shields said. “So it's exciting for them. They never had a chance to be there, actually Grace had the chance to be there but the other kids did not, so I think it's a great atmosphere to be in and I’m really excited for them.”

By Quarter
AC: 13 | 18 | 7 | 12 | 50
NG:  8 |  8  | 12 | 7 | 35

Scoring
AC: Grace O’Neill 28, Taylor Wilson 12, Maggie Grant 6, Cortland Schumacher 3, Brooke Wilson 1.

NG: D’Ayzha Atkinson 15, Mihjae Hayes 11, Brooke Banks 4, Carryn Easley 3, Amirah Hackney 2.