City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
—

BROOMALL — It was supposed to be a layup.

Locked in a tie game already in its second overtime against West Chester Rustin, Cardinal O'Hara took a timeout with 10 seconds left. Anticipating the Golden Knights would probably go zone and collapse on Molly Rullo if she got the ball, the Lions drew one up to get Joanie Quinn something easy.

Quinn got it, but it wasn't easy, the junior guard confidently draining a step-back three with 2.3 seconds left that lifted O'Hara to a 58-55 win Thursday.

"Originally, it was supposed to be a layup for me, so I wasn't even sure if I was doing the right thing," Quinn said. "I kinda knew. Once I shot it, I knew that it was going in. I got into her and I felt like I had space."

It was one shot in a late December game, but Quinn's confidence to take and make it was noteworthy. This isn't the Lions team of the past two years that won two state titles and a PCL championship but it still has the makings of a pretty good squad.

Quinn, who played off the bench last year, wanted a bigger part of it. With starting roles and a lot of minutes up for grabs, the coaches told her what she'd have to do in order to get them.

"She’s playing defense,” Lions coach Chrissie Doogan said. “The girl she guarded is going to be dreaming about her tonight, she really frustrated them defensively. Offensively, she’s trying to be a point guard or be a scorer and I’m trying to make her see she can do both.”

An injury to Bridget Dawson going into the season meant Quinn's defense would be put to the test early and she responded.

On the offensive end, Quinn's also been working to solidify her role. She wants to be a point guard who gets her teammates the ball but the Lions also need her to score and going to the intermission of Thursday's game, she wasn't.

Quinn had just one shot in the first half - a miss - and O'Hara had a poor second quarter, going the last 7:30 without a point, trailing 23-15. In the locker room, Doogan told Quinn it was time to get going.

“I challenged her, I said ‘Joanie, we need you to score,’” Doogan said. “They were collapsing on Molly and good teams need two and three scorers. She did a great job getting to the foul line early and getting her confidence back. She played terrific.”

The guard took the message to heart, netting all 12 of her points in the second half and overtimes.

"My coach said at halftime, ‘Joanie, you need to shoot,’” Quinn said. “You can’t try to make the perfect pass every time. I went out there more loose I think knowing I had room to shoot.”

It wasn’t just Quinn who came out motivated in the second half. Rullo put on a tremendous effort, leading the Lions with 19 points while spending most defensive possessions shadowing Rustin’s Laine McGurk, forcing the Drexel recruit into plenty of tough shots.

The duel between Rullo and McGurk, who both wear jersey No. 20, was a highlight within the game. McGurk had 22 points to lead all scorers, adding 11 rebounds for a double-double and made some big plays in the fourth quarter and overtimes.

Rustin, which picked up a win over Germantown Academy on Wednesday, had plenty of other contributors as well. The Golden Knights got 13 from Elizabeth McGurk, who guarded Molly Rullo until she fouled out in the second OT, and a tough 11 from Lola Flynn that featured a critical three-point play in double overtime.

With each play Rustin made, O’Hara had a little extra will to make the next one.

“Our goal at the beginning of every season is that we don’t lose on our home court and we really felt that, especially at halftime when we were down eight,” Quinn said. “We knew we needed to step it up and needed to want it more than they did and eventually, we did. That second half, we came out and fought for it.”

Quinn did all her damage in the third at the foul line, hitting five of six tries as O’Hara closed on an 8-0 run to go into the fourth with a 34-33 lead. It was her defense that would stand out from there, the junior poking the ball away on Rustin’s first fourth quarter possession and finding Rullo for a bucket and foul early on.

The guard, who plays her summer ball with the Comets program, said a lot of her improvement on the defensive end comes from what happens before she even gets on the floor. Quinn has put a lot of time into studying upcoming opponents and said it carries into games, where she pays attention to tendencies and plays that she may be able to take advantage of later on.

“My defense wasn’t where it needed to be to get meaningful minutes, as much as I wanted to so I knew I needed to step it up, especially in AAU,” Quinn said. “Coming back, I knew I had to step up my defense, I mean I also worked on my handle and my shot but everything defensively is what I really focused on.”

Against Rustin, knowing the Golden Knights were probably going to look for Laine McGurk on offense, Quinn pounced on a few opportunities and racked up three steals between the fourth quarter and first overtime that all led to scorers.

At the moment, she doesn’t have any college offers but some programs are starting to hover around with interest. All Quinn is worried about in the present is continuing to help her team and also reward the coaches for all the trust they’ve put in her on both sides of the court this season.

“It took a few games to really settle in but I know now they have the confidence in me,” Quinn said. “It helps me immensely to know I can take that end of the game shot and they trust me with that.”

Doogan lauded the collective group of players for their efforts so far this season. The fifth-year head coach said when she ends practice, most every player wants to stay after to put more shots up or work on something, a hallmark of a group committed to improvement.

Molly Rullo added nine rebounds to her other feats on Thursday while her younger sister Megan, a freshman guard, was pressed into big minutes late in the game and came through with 14 points and a couple big-time shots. Carly Coleman had all six of her points in the third, helping kickstart O’Hara’s comeback bid.

“They’re fighters,” Doogan said. “We got on them a little bit at halftime and challenged them. Rustin is a good team, terrific coach and they came in here wanting to upset us on our home court. They came in with a nothing to lose attitude and we were putting too much pressure on our shoulders. Once we breathed a little bit, we got back into it and I was proud of that response.”

Quinn couldn’t hide a big smile when the start of PCL play came up. With the league slate starting next week, the junior is looking forward to the nightly battles that come with it and going up against some familiar foes for a third time.

If she plays good defense, she’ll stay on the floor. If she stays on the floor, she’ll take care of the ball running point. If she takes care of the ball, she feels more confident shooting the ball, even if it’s a stepback three when it was meant to be a layup.

Nobody on the Cardinal O’Hara bench seemed to mind when the final horn sounded.

“It was just crazy, it’s what I’ve dreamed of,” Quinn said. “It was just a Christmas tournament game but it really was like everything in my dreams.”

By Quarter
O’Hara: 12  |   3   |  17  |  10  |   4   |  12  ||  58
Rustin:  12  |  11  |  11  |   8   |   4   |   8   ||  55

Scoring
O'Hara: Mo. Rullo 19, Me. Rullo 14, Quinn 12, Coleman 6, Miller 5, Dawson 2

Rustin: McGurk 22, McGurk 13, Flynn 11, Panetta 6, Stackhouse 4