City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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SPRINGFIELD — It’s that gritty time of the season when gritty matters. The Cardinal O’Hara girls’ basketball team knows that they’ll need more than talented sophomore Molly Rullo and gifted junior Joanie Quinn to carry them to another Catholic League and PIAA Class 5A state championship.

This is the time of year where the invisible work of supporting players like 5-foot-6 senior Greta Miller and 5-10 junior Carly Coleman comes into play. The tandem are coach’s-eye players, meaning only the trained eye of a coach can appreciate all of the little work they do that doesn’t show up in a scorebook.

Miller and Coleman combined to score 11 points in O’Hara’s easy 54-29 victory over West Catholic in the quarterfinal round of the Catholic League playoffs on Thursday night.

O’Hara (19-4) now advances to the semifinals to play Archbishop Wood, the only team to beat the Lions during the Catholic League regular season, on Tuesday at what used to be the University of the Sciences (the ARC on 42nd Street, NOT the Hagan Arena on City Avenue), now called Saint Joseph’s, after the schools merged.

“We did not have a good shooting night and it’s something we’re hoping to correct by Tuesday night when we meet Wood,” Lions’ coach Chrissie Doogan said. “But we’re not going anywhere with everyone playing well. We need that third scorer, and there are a few people we’ll look to. Carly Coleman is a scrappy kid who does everything.

“She can defend one through five, she can get to the rim because people are falling asleep on her a little bit and she’s our second-leading rebound. Greta and Carly do a lot of those little things that you don’t see in the scorebook. Greta hit three threes that helped us beat Lansdale Catholic, because people fell asleep on her. We’re going need that third scorer and either of them are capable of being that scorer if we’re going to go far. We’ll see.”

Doogan had one word to describe them both — “guts.” They’re not afraid to do the dirty work, play tough interior defense, dive for loose balls, rebound, and keep the ball moving.

Miller, who is getting Division III attention from schools like Scranton and Gettysburg, has set her postseason goals on playing strong defense, regardless of whether her shot is falling.

“I just know I have to be a leader in this team, play defense and shoot when I’m open,” she said.

Coleman has bruises and scratches on her arms after games from scrambling under the boards for rebounds.

“I like to do the little things, get on the floor, box out, make the extra pass, while contributing 6 to 8 points and keep doing the little things on the side,” Coleman said. “My defense has to stay the same. I do take pride in that. I like to box out, get rebounds and dive for loose balls.

“Our biggest goal here is defending the title in the state and the PCL.”

As for the game, O’Hara got out to a 12-0 start and West Catholic was never to get within double figures, even though the Lions had an uncharacteristically off shooting night.

Burrs’ coach Messiah Reames started four freshmen: Jalyn Moore, Ciana Blake, Laila Farmer, Jasmine Butler and Ciani Scott, and one senior, Amina Reid. Moore led West with 10 points, and if anyone is going to get West, now is the time while Reames’ patiently works on their skill levels and rising maturity.

“I started four freshmen for the bulk of the season,” Reames said. “We’re young and we took our lumps last year and we’re younger and we got in the gym and have learned and we’re growing. We’re not done. We’re the one Catholic League team going to the District 12 Class 3A playoffs.

“Playing O’Hara and teams like O’Hara, and I might be biased, and we play in one of the best basketball leagues on the East Coast and it makes us better. They’re a great team, well coached, and it’s good to be here.

“Jalyn Moore is our engine. She’s not the most skilled player, yet, but we’ll get her there. Her effort is top notch in every single game and every single practice. We’re going to continue to progress and grow. Once these kids get a hold of what we’re doing, I think we’re going to be problem.”  

The Burrs got out and defended well against O’Hara. They may be a problem right now for any Class 3A team in the District 12 playoffs.

By Quarter
West Catholic:     15  |   9   |   4   |   8   ||  29
Cardinal O’Hara: 19  |  10  |  13  |  12  ||  54

Scoring
West: Jalyn Moore 10, Ciana Blake 8, Amina Reid 5, Laila Farmer 4, Jasmine Butler 2.

O’Hara: Molly Rullo 23, Joanie Quinn 7, Carly Coleman 6, Natalie DiBlasi 5, Greta Miller 5, Bridget Dawson 4, Maria McCallen 2, Megan Rullo 2.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.