City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Three points. Three stinkin’ points.

That’s all that kept Cardinal O’Hara from playing in not one but two championship games last year. A Deja Evans buzzer-beating layup in the Catholic League semifinals sent Archbishop Wood on to the Palestra by two points; a pair of Taylor Wilson foul shots with five seconds left lifting Archbishop Carroll into the PIAA Class 6A championship game by a solitary point. 

Three points. No titles, not even a chance to play for one.

That’s all that’s been on the Lions minds, all summer. 

“Nothing hurts more than losing by one in the semifinals of states and PCL playoffs,” junior wing Molly Rullo said — and yeah, it was two in the first one, but that’s not going to do much to soften the blow. 

“After winning (both) my freshman year, it was a ton of fun, and then coming out and losing in the semifinals and not even getting the chance to get there was what made us angrier coming into this year. I think a lot of us are angry and want it back.”

Winners of the 2022 Catholic League as well as the 2021 and 2022 PIAA Class 5A championships, O’Hara has its eyes on both titles once again this year. Rullo’s one of the stars on a squad that returns four starters from a team that went 23-6 (9-2 PCL) a year ago, including La Salle commit Joanie Quinn and seniors Carly Coleman and Greta Miller. Rullo’s younger sister, sophomore point guard Megan Rullo, should slide into the fifth spot after playing a big role off the bench as a freshman.

That group alone will have the Lions in one of the frontrunner spots for the PCL title: last year’s champs (Lansdale Catholic) graduated Gabby Casey (St. Joe’s) and Jaida Helm and runner-up Archbishop Wood lost Evans (Albany), Delaney Finnegan (St. Thomas Aquinas), and Kara Meredith (Holy Family) to the college ranks. 

“We’ll be a little bit advanced,” Lions sixth-year head coach Chrissie Doogan said, “[but] we’re going to be mixing in a lot of freshmen and kids that maybe didn’t have a bigger role last year.

“We always start out with the same mentality: get better every day and be ready in March compared to December. We’re going to get there: good group of seniors, who have been through it all, they have two state championships under their belt and they want to get back to Hershey. It’ll be a good group to work with.”

Quinn and Molly Rullo are both returning first team all-Catholic League honorees, the two widely expected to handle the scoring load for the Lions. Rullo’s a 5-11 wing guard who excels out of the high post; Quinn’s a 5-8 shooting guard who’s one of the best markswomen around, her cross-country running in the fall translating to her running defenders tired out on the court.

Quinn was still largely an unknown quantity this time last year, having missed her entire freshman year after back surgery which slowed her down through her sophomore season; it wasn’t until going into her junior year that she got back to herself. It showed; she hit the game-winner in a double-overtime game against Rustin in December and continued to hit big shot after big shot, helping make up for the loss of Sydni Scott (Marshall) and Maggie Doogan (Richmond) from the year before. 

“A year ago, I was still trying to prove myself to everybody,” she said. “I’m still trying to do that now, but a little bit after coming off a pretty good junior year I think my confidence level is a little higher than it was last year.”

“Joanie grew a lot last year, it was really fun to watch her improve so much,” Molly Rullo said. “She definitely got the confidence part down last year and I’m excited to see where she goes this year.”

The younger Rullo sister, who doesn’t quite have the 15+ Division I offers her sister has but is starting to pile up a list of her own, had a strong grassroots circuit with the Comets’ 15U squad, showing her abilities as a scorer and ball-handler as well as a tough defender. 

“She had a great summer, she’s really ready to step up,” Doogan said. “It’ll be fun for her to have a little more of a green light and freedom out there that she might not have had as a freshman.”

After those three, the Lions have plenty of role players ready to step up and chip in a few buckets or more. Coleman, at 6-0 the tallest member of the starting lineup, will bring back an interior presence and rebounding; Miller, a 5-8 guard, can knock down an open shot and otherwise contributes her energy and defense. 

Sophomores Natalie DiBlasi and Michelle Eburuoh both got some valuable experience as freshmen and will be in the mix, as will junior guard Bridgid MacGillivray, daughter of La Salle head coach Mountain MacGillivray, and senior Sophia Stellabotte, a third-year varsity player. There’s high hopes for a freshman class that includes several girls who could see the court right away: Brigidanne Donohue, Brezhae Davis and Carly Wakefield all have the size and skills to contribute to the varsity roster.

“We have a lot of returners, which is great,” Rullo said. “A lot of people who impacted us every day last year are looking for playing time this year. We definitely have a ton of depth to come in and help us [...] our bench this year is going to be good.”

It’s unlikely that all will be steady members of the rotation, Doogan likely to keep it to her top group as the games get tighter, but many will see the court in non-league action and even some more competitive games if they can bring value in a stretch here or there.

Doogan did stress that she doesn’t want to hold last year’s result over this year’s team too much, that she didn’t want to set expectations too high for a group that was still scattered over a couple different fall sports, plenty of work to be done before the season gets underway. Focus on steady improvement for a few months, and the results should take care of themselves.

“They know what happened last year and they know what they have to do,” she said, though she did admit “I might remind them during rebounding drills that if we got one more rebound we would have played at the Palestra last year.”