City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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WARMINSTER — It was gut-check time.

Archbishop Wood girls’ basketball coach Mike McDonald sent Emily Knouse to check in with a little less than four minutes to play and the Vikings trailing by 11 against Archbishop Carroll. He was going to give Knouse and the group on the floor a last chance to find themselves and if it didn’t work, he was ready to call in the subs.

Knouse certainly found herself, Makayla Finnegan found herself on the right end of two of the game’s biggest plays and somehow Wood found itself a 51-46 winner over the Patriots thanks to a 16-0 game-ending run Saturday night.

“I’m in disbelief almost with that just happening, it felt like a playoff game at the end there,” McDonald said. “Gutsy, gutsy stuff from our kids. I thought Makayla Finnegan was our player of the game in many ways, putting the ball in the basket and drawing a charge at the end was huge, that was the biggest one of the season so far.”

Knouse scored nine of her 17 points in the final stanza, adding two steals and two blocks as Wood turned to its pressure defense for the final 3:46. 

“Coach Mike just said ‘we need more out of you, you can’t just float around the three point line,’ I’m pretty sure he said to me a couple times,” Knouse said. “I knew he was right and this was a time where it was really hurting us. I thought there’s only three or so minutes left, I’ve got to give everything I can.”

Finnegan had 10 in the game, including the go-ahead layup with 1:15 left after drawing a charge for an offensive foul a few possessions earlier. Ava Renninger tallied 16 including a 10-of-10 effort at the line with the senior tallying six points in the fourth.

For three and a half quarters in the clash of PCL titans, it seemed Carroll could do no wrong. The Patriots spun the dial on their starting lineup, inserting junior Maddie McFillin into the first five and the move paid immediate dividends with McFillin scoring 13 points.

With Wood paying the usual defensive attention to Brooke Wilson and Alexis Eberz, who led Carroll with 15, Maddie and her sister Felicity, a senior, took advantage. Carroll got plenty of good looks in the middle spaces of the floor and it was Maddie, Felicity and the third McFillin sister in freshman Abbie combining for 13 of the Patriots’ 19 second quarter points en route to a 30-25 halftime lead.

The Vikings also endured two long cold spells in the first half - it took them four minutes to score their first points and they only had two points over the first three minutes of the second quarter - the team’s energy seemed to dip with it.

“We had this collective feeling like ‘dang, our shots aren’t falling’ and they seemed to be hitting everything so we realized we had nothing to lose and let’s go all-out,” Knouse said. “We did. We toughed through everything and pulled it out.”

It didn’t get much better in the third, the hosts starting 0-of-5 and again taking four minutes to score their first points of the second half. Carroll didn’t immediately get going in the half either, but took a 37-33 lead to the fourth and seemed ready to put the game away.

Felicity McFillin found Eberz for a hoop then scored herself, Eberz got another bucket and Maddie McFillin drove the lane for a layup, and-one, hitting the FT for a 46-35 lead with 3:46 to play. Eberz led the Patriots with 15 points, Felicity McFillin scored 10 and senior Brooke Wilson was a force on the glass with 12 rebounds to go with six points.

Wood’s press defense had mixed results a couple weeks ago, it gave the Vikings a jolt in a win over Conwell-Egan but Friends Central ate it up in a loss. Still, McDonald figured if there was any chance to cut into the lead, his team couldn’t let Carroll get set up in halfcourt sets.

“We brought a lot of energy and used teamwork,” Finnegan said. “Even though our shots weren’t falling, we still hustled, got back and played stout defense.”

“We had to try something different,” McDonald said. “It was just gutsy, the kids made enough plays the whole night.”

Knouse, who was just 3-of-11 over the first three quarters, checked in, plugged in and got the run started by scoring inside through a feed from Lauren Greer. Greer, who didn’t score, was also instrumental in the comeback effort with a steal and three assists in the run that included the dish on Finnegan’s go-ahead layup.

Greer came up with a quick steal in the full-court press, then went right back to Knouse with the junior wing draining a three. Wood came up with another steal around midcourt, Knouse ending up with the ball and giving it to Renninger who went into attack mode, got into the lane and finished.

With the lead cut to four, Carroll seemed to have a lane to a bucket when Finnegan stepped in. The freshman slid over and set in time to draw the charge, giving Wood the ball back as her teammates hoisted her off the floor.

“I’m just going to play hard and do whatever I can to help the team. If I can get a pass or score, of if I can get a steal or just stop the lay-up from happening, that’s what I’ll do,” Finnegan said. “I think it brought a lot of energy and helped the team to pick up their energy.”

Knouse, who already felt reinvigorated when she subbed in ahead of starting the run, knew the impact Finnegan’s defensive play had.

“It was just amazing, we’d had one or two layups and thought ‘maybe we’ve got this,’ and she steps up as not many freshmen do and took a huge charge,” Knouse said. “That just sent us over the edge energy-wise.”

Going baseline on the following trip down, Renninger was in trouble until she wasn’t, the senior finding Knouse in the corner for another three that sliced the lead to one. Knouse would get a block defensively and got fouled to put Wood in the bonus as she split the bill at the line to level the score.

Carroll turned the ball over with 1:32 to play, giving Wood possession again. Finnegan passed the ball inside to Greer off the wing then immediately cut to the basket, Greer hitting her right back with the freshman getting the finish for a 48-46 lead.

Finnegan, who had five points in the second quarter, also hit a late three in the third to keep a four-point deficit and the freshman hasn’t hesitated when the ball has come her way this season.

“It helps the team, it’s the same as a turnover if you don’t take the right shot,” Finnegan said. “(Greer) just saw me, she’s really good at those passes.”

Knouse came up with a steal, leading to a pair of Renninger free throws, then Knouse got another block as part of a last defensive stand that saw Carroll give its all to try and get something in the last 30 seconds.

“I was hoping to get something out of her,” McDonald said. “Once we went down 11, I knew we weren’t going to score unless we got Em back in. Our defense led to some of that offense and she was huge down the stretch.”

Two years ago in the same gym, Wood was on the other end of a finish like this as Carroll erased a late double-digit lead to rally for the win. Knouse remembered that particular game well and McDonald brought it up to the team afterward as evidence of just how hard it is to win in that situation.

The win keeps Wood unbeaten in the PCL with a big league week looming for the Vikings. starting with Tuesday’s visit to Lansdale Catholic in a rematch of last year’s title game. It also broke a bit of a losing skid when it came to weekend fixtures.

“For whatever reason, we just haven’t been playing well on the weekend and when this game moved to the weekend, we all said we’re not losing this one,” Knouse said. “It was in our house against a great in-league team, we were giving it everything.”

~~~

By Quarter
Archbishop Wood: 9 | 16 | 8 | 18 || 51
Archbishop Carroll 11 | 19 | 7 | 9 || 46

Scoring
AW: Emily Knouse 17, Ava Renninger 16, Makayla Finnegan 10, Alexa Windish 4, Sophia Topakas 4

AC: Alexis Eberz 15, Maddie McFillin 13, Felicity McFillin 10, Brooke Wilson 6, Abbie McFillin 2