City of Basketball Love

Matt Gaffney (@GaffReports)
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READING — Some teams just know how to win in March. If you win in the postseason as often as Cardinal O’Hara, it starts to become a habit. After all, tradition never graduates.

The post-season winning tradition continued for the Lions Tuesday night in the second round of the PIAA 6A playoffs at the Geigle Complex as they held off a late and furious Spring-Ford rally for a 42-39 win.

Tenacity and grit fueled the defending 5A state champions as they survived to advance to the quarterfinals against Central York on Friday at a site to be determined. 

“They gutted it out – we almost let it slip away but give Spring-Ford a lot of credit for just leaving it all on the floor,” O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan said.  “That’s what you have to do at this stage - leave it all out on the floor. It’s do or die.”

The Lions seemed to be cruising to the next round, holding a 34-18 lead with 2:06 left in the third quarter. The Rams though made a game of it by going on a 15-2 run to cut the lead to 36-33 on a Sophia Allocca (6 points) basket with 3:20 left in the fourth quarter. A Molly Rullo basket gave O'Hara (22-5) some breathing room momentarily by pushing the lead back up to five, but after another Allocca bucket, it remained a three-point game the rest of the way. 

Junior guard Joanie Quinn led that tenacious, gutsy effort on both ends of the floor for O’Hara. Her scrappy defense helped stymie the Spring-Ford offense, limiting the Rams to their fourth-lowest scoring effort of the season. Only Anna Azzara was able to hit double digits (10 points) in scoring for Spring-Ford (25-6).

On the offensive end, Quinn had a game-high 17-points, including 10 of 14 from the foul line. Her four free throws late in the fourth quarter sealed the victory for the Lions.  

She made impactful plays throughout the game to spearhead the Lions. Her driving, twisting layup in traffic in the closing seconds of the first quarter gave O’Hara 14-10 lead while a foul shot late in the first half extended the Lions lead to six. A banked-in three early in the third quarter by Quinn extended O’Hara’s lead to 11 points in the middle of a 14-4 run.

Doogan was very pleased with the play of Quinn, who picked up her first Division I offer from La Salle last month.

“I thought Joanie did a nice job handling pressure and knocking down foul shots at the end of the game,” Doogan said. “The banked-in three was a huge shot for her as well.”

Quinn’s basketball bloodlines run deep. Her mom played for Boston College, her aunt played for La Salle and an uncle played for St. Joe’s. The family pedigree was on full display tonight with Joanie’s play.

“She comes from a family of competitors. I grew up with her mom and her aunt and they’re just a really competitive family,” Doogan said. “She’s a kid you want on the foul line at the end of the games.”

Rullo (12 points) and Carly Coleman (11 points) played crucial roles for the Lions as they along with Quinn scored about two of O’Hara’s points.

“Molly stayed composed and they played defense and Bridget (Dawson) always defends her butt off against Mac (Spring-Ford’s Mackenzie Pettinelli) and Carly really stepped up,” added Doogan. “We always say to be good you need that third scorer and Carly was our third scorer tonight and it was just a really nice team win.”

While a winning tradition certainly helps this time of year, O’Hara also has a bit of an “iron sharpens iron” edge based on the level of players they’ve had in their program.

“Our girls are well prepared. They practiced against Division I players all of last year and they’ve been waiting for their time,” Doogan said. “They’ve been to Hershey for two years, but they want to be on the court and experience it themselves, so I think they are embracing the moment right now.”

For Quinn, like her predecessors before her at O’Hara, she expects the winning tradition to continue as she and her teammates look to defend their state title.

“I have it on my schedule to have practice from 4:30 to 6:00 up until March 23rd which would be the day before the state championship,” Quinn said. “That’s what we are all banking for, what we’re all going for. It’s our goal.”

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By Quarter
CO:  14  |   6   |  14  |   8   ||  42
SF:   10  |   4   |   8   |  17   ||  39

Scoring
O’Hara:  Joanie Quinn 17, Molly Rullo 12, Carly Coleman 11, Bridget Dawson 2

Spring-Ford: Anna Azzara 10, Mac Pettinelli 8, Sophia Allocca 6, Katie Tiffan 5, Siena Miller 4, Megan Robbins 4, Kareena Preuss 2

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Girls 6A
(3-1) Cedar Cliff 39, (1-6) Upper Dublin 26
(7-2) Upper St. Clair 42, (1-4) Pennsbury 31
(1-9) Abington 40, (1-8) Springfield-Delco 35
(12-1) Cardinal O’Hara 42, (1-3) Spring-Ford 39
(12-3) Archbishop Carroll 41, (1-1) Perkiomen Valley 38 (OT)

Boys 5A
(1-1) Radnor 75, (12-3) West Philadelphia 61
(12-2) Archbishop Ryan 59, (1-5) West Chester East 46
(12-1) Imhotep Charter 68, (3-5) Muhlenberg 32

Boys 4A
(3-5) Eastern York 75, (12-2) Overbrook 54
(11-1) Allentown Central Catholic 49, (12-3) Cardinal O’Hara 46
(12-1) Neumann-Goretti 74, (11-2) Bethlehem Catholic 49

Girls 3A
(4-1) Mt. Carmel Area 48, (12-2) West Catholic 38
(3-1) Lancaster Catholic 64, (1-1) New Hope-Solebury 54

Girls 2A
(1-1) Faith Christian 35, (4-1) South Williamsport 28
(1-2) Sacred Heart Acad. 42, (4-2) Line Mountain 40

Boys 1A
(1-1) Chester Charter 56, (4-2) Northumberland Christian 38
(3-1) Linville Hill 50, (12-1) City School 42
(1-2) Phil-Mont Christian 57, (3-5) Mount Calvary Christian 46