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ONE-FOR-ONE: Boccella's 3-pointer lifts Lansdale Catholic past Wood for first PCL Championship

02/27/2023, 7:15pm EST
By Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)

PHILADELPHIA – Olivia Boccella had lived it, but she hadn’t yet seen it.

The Lansdale Catholic junior had hit the biggest shot of her life, catching nothing but net on a moonball of a three with 19 seconds left to put the Crusaders ahead of Archbishop Wood. When presented with the chance to watch a clip of her big shot, Boccella was eager, as were seniors Gabby Casey and Jaida Helm seated beside her.

The three watched intently until the second Boccella released the shot, her foot practically touching the sideline, Helm finally summing it up as only she could.

“Yo, that was deep,” the forward said, spelling what everyone else had been thinking about 15 minutes earlier when it had gone up.

Boccella’s shot was the difference as top seeded Lansdale Catholic took down No. 2 Archbishop Wood 50-47 in an all-time classic Philadelphia Catholic League title game at the famed Palestra, LC winning its first ever title in the sport.

“Nothing was going through my mind,” Boccella said. “That was the most incredible feeling ever, I really don’t have the words.”

Monday’s game felt like three separate sub-games, LC dominant early, Wood taking control in the third quarter and the Crusaders putting together their own stirring rally in the fourth ending in an exchange of shots that had the rapidly filling Palestra rocking with each make.

For a quarter and a half, it looked like the second meeting between the top two teams in the league was going to be one-sided. Nadia Yemola and Casey hit back to back threes to open the game for LC and the Crusaders led 10-3 before Wood got its second shot to go in.

The Vikings, playing for their first PCL title since 2020-21 but in the Palestra for the first time since the year prior, got looks they wanted but not the results, shooting just 2-of-15 from the floor in the first eight minutes and trailing 16-5.

It didn’t get a whole lot better to start the second quarter, Lansdale Catholic building its largest lead at 24-8 on a tough drive to the rim by Casey. Wood may not have that “name” player it’s had the past decade on this roster, but it does have a lot of tough, determined and competitive players who weren’t going to roll over.

“We settled down and started to make some shots, we just weren’t making anything, the nerves were getting to us,” Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “Kids shooting better than 40 percent were throwing the ball at the rim. Once we settled down, we talked about running offense until we got something really good.”

The Lansdale Catholic girls basketball team celebrates with the PCL championship plaque following Monday's win over Archbishop Wood. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

Kara Meredith had been responsible for six of those eight Wood points to start, the last three coming on a banked-in longball early in the second. Deja Evans, who got off to a slow start, scored five straight points before Meredith sank back-to-back threes in an 11-0 run that saw the Vikings chop that big lead down to just five with 2:02 left in the first half.

Boccella’s fourth-quarter three was the highlight, but the 5-foot-5 guard had another money make to end the first half off a smart find by Sanyiah Littlejohn that made it 27-19 LC at intermission.

“This was everything I thought it would be,” Boccella said of her first experience on the Palestra floor after years of watching the PCL final from the stands.

At the break, McDonald said the Vikings looked to make a couple adjustments seeing that Helm was staying near the rim on defense. They wanted to use Evans as an off-ball option and had Ava Renninger attack the basket to draw Helm over, then dish off.

Meredith, who led all scorers with 19 points that included five makes from three, had two put-backs, Renninger made two nice dishes to Evans and then capped an 11-0 run to open the third quarter with the go-ahead three, giving Wood a 30-27 lead.

Once down 16, the Vikings had put together a 22-3 spree that had turned the tide of the game.

“We came out really strong at the beginning, hitting all our shots and that gave us a ton of confidence,” Casey said. “The second half, the momentum switching back and forth, it’s tough but we had trust in each other, we love each other so much on and off the court and that helps us so much to trust each other and make shots.”

Lansdale Catholic junior Olivia Boccella, above, hit the winning three Monday against Archbishop Wood. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

LC responded with five straight, the last three on a traditional three-point play by Boccella, but all that served to do was start a see-saw to close the quarter. Meredith answered with a three, only for Boccella to hit a three, then Renninger hit from deep.

Wood seized the last stretch of momentum in the quarter after Renninger’s second trey made it 36-35. Evans split a pair at the line, LC missed a three from the top of the key and at the horn, Emily Knouse was ice cool, stepping back, using a shot fake then drilling the buzzer-beater for a 40-35 lead.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, we talk about it all the time in that way,” McDonald said. “To come down here, it’s one of the most attended events, basketball-wise in the country, so for a high school kid to experience this, even with the pain and hurt they’re feeling right now, it’s still incredible and to come out and play as well as we did throughout the game, the way we battled, I’m just super-proud of them.”

A long two by Renninger put Wood in front 44-40 with 5:56 to play and all of a sudden, it was now Lansdale Catholic on the ropes.

“I can't say enough about this group, what a surreal feeling it was, their approach the last couple of days and how they handled themselves in preparing for this opportunity,” Crusaders coach Eric Gidney said. “We took a really big knockout punch from a really good team and to come back with that sort of composure and hit shot after shot to get back to our game plan, it’s just amazing.”

LC’s comeback started when Littlejohn found Casey in the corner, the Crusaders’ all-time leading scorer burying the three to pull within four. After a stop, Casey then played passer, finding Helm at the top of the key for a straightaway three that cut the lead to one. 

Helm was scoreless in the third, most of her efforts focused on defense and rebounding but she was biggest when it mattered most with seven points or her 12 points coming in the fourth quarter.

“I played my game and I stuck to it, being aggressive instead of being too passive, sometimes when I get passive, I get stagnant,” Helm said. “I knew they needed me, so they trusted me and got me the ball and hit the shots.”

Lansdale Catholic senior Gabby Casey dribbles up the court Monday at the Palestra in the PCL championship game. (Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

Wood’s Delaney Finnegan got a tough shot to drop then Boccella knocked down two at the line to hold serve with the Vikings up 46-45. A foul sent Renninger to the line with 1:40 left, the sparkplug guard splitting the two attempts.

LC went down the floor, got Helm the ball and let the senior attack. Meredith slid in, trying to take a charge but no whistle sounded as Helm leveled the contest 47-47 with 1:19 on the clock. 

Littlejohn came up with the defensive play of the game next, going full extension to the floor to force a steal with 1:04 left, giving the Crusaders possession and a lot of options. The possession started with Littlejohn dribbling out near the coach’s box, Gidney opting not to call time even as the clock ticked past 40 seconds to play as the Vikings flipped their defensive set-up.

“They sent the girl over between Sanyiah and Gabby and they didn’t gap Liv as well so I said let’s see how this plays out, what do we have to lose beside a PCL championship,” Gidney said.

By the time the Vikings changed up, going to a 1-3-1, Littlejohn had given the ball up to Casey positioned on the left side. As a defender converged, the St. Joe’s recruit lobbed the ball to Boccella, both open and extremely far away from the basket.

It was a quick read but even as Boccella paused for a split-second, Casey still knew it was in the right hands.

“I did see her open and Liv can hit that shot all day, trusting her with the ball is so big and it went in, which is amazing,” Casey, who had 15 points plus the most important assist of the night, said. “She’s such an amazing player, an amazing shooter and that was the key to the game.”

Getting the ball out of the PCL MVP’s hands in the final seconds of a title game seemed reasonable, it just didn’t go the way Wood hoped it would have. McDonald owned the outcome on the final possession, saying his players executed his call.

“It was, obviously in hindsight, a bonehead mistake by me to go 1-3-1, I wanted to see if we could force them into something, that shot and where she shot it from, it was fortunate but the wrong kid, just the wrong kid we made shoot the ball,” McDonald said. “She was feeling it and had the hot hand. On the fly, that’s not my kids’ fault, it’s my fault and I’m going to have to live with that for a long time.”

Boccella has the distance thing down pat. As the center back for LC’s girls’ soccer team, she’s usually the one driving a long free kick back into play, often challenging a keeper to make a save on her deliveries. Her celebration game is not as refined, the junior raising both arms into the arm, twirling around and running back up the court on the making, noting postgame she really had no idea what she was doing.

All that anyone in LC’s wall of students cared about was that the shot, which seemed to try and touch the rafters of the Cathedral on its way up, had gone in.

“It’s amazing, it’s everything any kid could ever dream of,” Casey said. “Looking up and seeing all those people in the crowd, it’s crazy and the noise they make when you make a shot, it’s everything. The support from LC, it’s what our school is known for and for them to show out at every game, it means so much to us.”

The game was not over, Wood took a timeout with 11 seconds left and got a final look. It wasn’t the particular play they wanted, but even as things broke down, Evans was able to get up a long three-point attempt of her own, one that settled into the rim for a pulse-stopping second before rimming out and into Helm’s waiting hands.

“I didn’t think she was going to make it because it was too far,” Helm said. “If she missed it, I knew I was getting the rebound.”

Gidney joked that LC is running out of firsts, but there is one more thing the program hasn’t yet attained. A year ago, the Crusaders’ season ended in Hershey on the losing end of a PIAA title so once the celebration from Monday finally subsides, the goal will be set.

“We worked for it and we deserved it, next is the state championship,” Casey said.

By Quarter
Lansdale Catholic:   16  |  11  |   8   |  15  ||  50
Archbishop Wood:    5   |  14  |  21  |   7   ||  47

Shooting
Lansdale Catholic: 17-34 FG (9-15 3PT), 7-9 FT
Archbishop Wood: 18-45 FG (8-22 3PT), 3-5 FT

Scoring
Lansdale Catholic: Olivia Boccella 17, Gabby Casey 12, Jaida Helm 12, Nadia Yemola 8, Saniyah Littlejohn 1

Archbishop Wood: Kara Meredith 19, Ava Renninger 11, Deja Evans 10, Delaney Finnegan 4, Emily Knouse 3


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