City of Basketball Love

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
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Archbishop Carroll and its dynamic senior duo of Drexel commit Grace O’Neill and Villanova commit Maggie Grant might’ve fallen short of their lofty season goals of PCL and state titles; they didn’t go down easily.

If you just focused on the final score, a 47-44 victory for Cedar Cliff, you might think it was a back-and-forth slugfest with multiple lead changes.

It was really a tale of two halves in the PIAA Class 6A second-round tilt between the District 12 champion Patriots (21-6) and District 3 third-place Colts (28-1) Friday night at Governor Mifflin Intermediate School in Shillington.

Cedar Cliff scored the first eight points of the game and jumped out to 13-point leads of 17-4 and 21-8. At halftime it was 26-16 and seemed like the Patriots’ successful season was going to come crashing to a halt.

“Obviously it’s not the outcome, especially the start, that we wanted,” O’Neill said. “They did a great job crashing the boards and getting second opportunities and we had trouble scoring in the beginning.”

“We were trying to keep positive,” Grant said. “We knew the first half wasn’t us and we wanted to come out of the half and show what Carroll basketball is. I think we did that.”

They certainly did, upping the intensity on full-court defense and making crisp passes in a run-and-gun transition offense.

The Patriots started the third quarter on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 26-21, but the Colts responded after Sydney Weyant drilled a ‘3’ and Sam Reilly hit a layup. Then Carroll head coach Renie Shields got a tech and Olivia Jones made one of two foul shots and Taylor Ferraro tacked on another free throw. It was back to a double-digit Cedar Cliff advantage.

Again, Carroll fought back. Taylor Wilson drilled a 3 and then O’Neill’s trey with 0.1 left in the quarter put the Patriots within striking distance at 38-30.

They kept clawing closer in the fourth, cutting the lead to its smallest at 42-41 with 1:24 left, but could never get that one basket to give them a lead. Multiple 3-point attempts as the clock dwindled to zero fell short.

“Our first half was not characteristic of how we play and that really shot us in the foot,” Shields said. “Early on we dug ourselves a hole and we did fight back, it just wasn’t enough.”

Carroll outscored Cedar Cliff 28-21 in the second half.

Taylor Wilson scored 12 points in the second half, led Carroll with 16 and also grabbed eight rebounds; O’Neill had 12 points and five assists; Grant had 11 points and three 3s.

Jones, Cedar Cliff’s terrific freshman, continued her tear through the state tournament with 17 points and 10 rebounds; her pinned tweet shows a picture of her with South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley for a reason. Ferraro contributed 10 points and Weyant hit three 3s for nine points.

The Colts move on to face District 1’s third-place finisher Pennsbury, a 37-28 victor over Parkland, in the quarterfinals.

Carroll’s results in the PCL and state tournaments might not have ended in a championship; an undefeated mark in regular season league play and taking a one-loss Cedar Cliff team to the brink in the second round of states is nothing to scoff at. 

“We just had an awesome team. We did a great job in the PCL. It wasn’t the outcome we wanted in that tournament or this one, but we still had a great season,” O’Neill said.

“It was very successful,” Grant said. “People don’t realize going 10-0 in the Catholic League is really difficult.”

Now O’Neill and Grant move on to the college ranks while the success of the Patriots moving forward falls into the hands of the younger players who have watched and learned so much from them.

“I’m really proud of everyone,” Grant said. “I mean it stinks to lose no matter what, but it would really stink if we continued to just let them take us over. That’s not what we’ve shown all season.”

What they’ve shown all season is a tight-knit group that continued to battle no matter the circumstances and two seniors whose leadership laid even more groundwork for the Patriots on their quest for championships.

“Our team is really close,” O’Neill said on what she’ll miss the most about Carroll. “We’d go out to breakfast after Saturday morning practices and hangout on the weekends. We are really all best friends.”

By Quarter

Cedar Cliff    8   |  18  |  12  |   9   ||  47

Carroll        3   |  13  |  14  |  14  ||  44

Scoring

Cedar Cliff: Olivia Jones 17, Taylor Ferraro 10, Sydney Weyant 9, Sam Reilly 6, Ryan Kaercher 3, Meghan Schraeder 2.

Carroll: Taylor Wilson 16, Grace O’Neill 12, Maggie Grant 11, Chloe Bleckley 3, Meg Sheridan 2.

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Galloping Ghosts girls tripped up by Central Dauphin

In the second game in Shillington, District 3 champion Central Dauphin used its noticeable size advantage to dispatch District 1’s No. 5 seed Abington 65-50 in another PIAA Class 6A second-round matchup.

Both teams were coming off convincing victories in the first round, with the Ghosts (23-7) defeating Northeast by 42 and the Rams defeating Upper Dublin by 24.

It was a crash course between two heavyweights in the first half as Central Dauphin took a 29-24 lead into the locker room.

Abington’s youth and size disadvantage began to show in the third as the Rams (22-4) built a 15-point lead heading to the final quarter, which proved to be the difference. 

Central Dauphin deployed a box-and-one and were face guarding to neutralize the Ghosts junior Cire Worley and the Rams’ inside-out game with seniors Megan Cavoli and Liberty-bound center Caroline Shiery combined for 12 points in the third quarter.

To put the size differential into perspective, Central Dauphin 5-11 guard and Niagara commit Marlie Dickerson was matched up with the 5-3 Abril Bowser. Jaida Helm, at 5-10, covered the 6-3 Shiery. 

The Rams started four seniors; the Ghosts started zero.

It never really seemed like that would keep Abington out of the game until the second half when things started to break down.

“That’s been an issue for us all year,” Marsh said about the size advantage of Central Dauphin. “It’s not something new. We played Plymouth-Whitemarsh three times, we played Haverford. I thought we did an okay job with their size. [Shiery] does an amazing time of pinning down low and you can’t really get behind her.”

Abington’s lone senior starter and Stony Brook commit Khalis Whiting tore her ACL at the beginning of the season which left the starting lineup with two freshmen, Dani Brusha and Maya Johnson, and three juniors: Worley, Helm and Bowser.

This loss can be used as a learning experience with the entire starting lineup returning next season with the hopes of making another run.

“When we hit adversity we tend to get selfish offensively and defensively,” Abington head coach Dan Marsh said. “You watch a team like Central Dauphin, who completely plays together as a team. It was about us cracking under adversity and playing as individuals rather than as a team.

“We’re lucky that we’re getting everybody back and got state experience. Hopefully we can learn when times get tough that we have to come together and not fall apart.”

Cavoli scored a game-high 21, Shiery added 18 and Amelia Green had 16 for Central Dauphin; Helm led Abington with 16, Worley and Bowser each had 11, and Brusha chipped in 10.

“This was our first time playing in the state playoffs and first time making a real run in district playoffs,” Helm said. “I think we will do a lot better next year.”

Central Dauphin moves on to face Spring-Ford in the quarterfinals.

By Quarter
Central Dauphin: 17  |  12  |  20  |  16  ||  65
Abington:             11  |  13  |  10  |  16  ||  50

Scoring
Central Dauphin: Megan Cavoli 21, Caroline Shiery 18, Amelia Green 16, Marlie Dickerson 6, Alexis Ferguson 2, Kenedy Cooper 2.

Abington: Jaida Helm 16, Abril Bowser 11, Cire Worley 11, Dani Brusha 10, Maya Johnson 2.