City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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NORTHAMPTON >> The victors write the history, so that’s what Central Columbia got to do Wednesday.

The Bluejays, winners of four straight District 4 titles, hadn’t made it past the second round of the PIAA tournament. In their way was a Nazareth Academy team looking to make some history of its own following a debut season in District 12 and the Philadelphia Catholic League.

Central Columbia got to make history, downing Nazareth Academy 50-37 at Catasauqua High School in the Class 4A second round Wednesday night.

“It feels awesome,” Bluejays senior Madelyn Burke, who had 23 points, said. “Going into the season, we really didn’t know what to expect. We graduated three seniors last year, we didn’t know how this was going to go, but we’ve really exceeded expectations.”

Bluejays coach Ryan Novak had a simple strategy on Wednesday. He wanted to keep the game close for three quarters then go for the win in the fourth.

It didn’t play out exactly that way, Central Columbia taking the lead for good in the second quarter, but it didn’t mean it was easy either.  

 The Bluejays defense swarmed on drivers, putting bodies and hands around the ball. That made it tough for Nazareth Academy to finish inside and even tougher to kick back out and when the Pandas did, a Bluejay was sprinting out at them.

“We knew we needed to have a lead at halftime,” Novak said. “We thought we could jump on them early when we were fresh, we don’t play a lot of bodies. The challenge with them is they can all shoot it and they can all get to the basket so we wanted to avoid foul trouble.”

Nazareth Academy’s season ends the same place it did a year ago in the second round of states. Given all the changes the Pandas had to make this year, leaving District 1 for the PCL, they still had a strong season. They made the Catholic League semifinals in their first season in the league but coach Mary Kate Magagna understandably wanted more.

“That was something we talked about postgame, nobody expected us to be here at all,” Magagna said. “Coming through the Catholic League, we had a lot of huge accomplishments but it’s a shame we didn’t get past our one goal of taking one step further than last year.”

Bluejays only trailed 10-4 after a quarter following a slow start. Back to back hoops by Caitlyn Weatherill and Burke sparked the District 4 champs and a putback by Burke a few plays later tied it 12-12.

A three by Weatherill gave Central Columbia its first lead, 15-14, with 3:57 left in the half. More importantly, combined with the defense digging it, it sparked an 8-2 run to close the half with that coveted lead at 21-16.

“We don’t particularly have that (size) so we have to keep the score nice and low,” Burke said. “When we play good defense, our defense turns into offense and we’re able to pull away.

“It gave us confidence we could win this game. We just had to keep composed.”

The struggle to score never really escaped Nazareth Academy. Reese Power was aggressive attacking the basket, but the junior often found extra bodies in her path and the Pandas couldn’t seem to knock anything down inside or out on the perimeter.

Rileigh Donohoe, who tied with Power for a team-best nine, and Alyssa Browning did provide constant hustle and energy. 

“Central Columbia did a great job stopping our penetration and our shots weren’t falling for us,” Magagna said. “It was an unfortunate night for us but Central Columbia played a great game and shot the lights out.”

The Pandas will return four of their five starters on Wednesday from a team loaded with juniors and sophomores. Magagna thanked the seniors - Anna Kane, Grace Giordano and Sophie Maher - and is eager to see what her team does to use the loss as motivation.

“It will be a true reminder,” Magagna said. “I think seeing the emotion of our seniors knowing it’s over, they’ll have that and want to go further.”

Nazareth Academy went all-out in the second half to try and get going, employing a full-court pressure defense. It had its moments, but some big shots by CC’s Haley Bull helped negate any advantage in a 10-10 third.

Bull added another big three in the fourth and it was Burke putting the game away when she broke free behind the press for a pair of runout layups after the Pandas had cut the lead to 44-37 with 1:44 to play.

“We’re just so excited to be the first team in school history to get to an elite eight game,” Burke said. “Hopefully it’s close by, we never had high expectations going into states because we’d never gotten this far but now we’re playing just to play and having a really good time.”

By Quarter
Central Columbia:      4   |  17  |  10  |  19  ||  50
Nazareth Academy:  10  |   6   |  10  |   9   ||  37

Scoring
CC: Madelyn Burke 23, Haley Bull 12, Caitlyn Weatherill 12, Avery Kissinger 2, Ava Klingerman 1

NA: Reese Power 9, Riliegh Donohoe 9, Abby Rock 8, Alyssa Browning 7, Gracie Sullivan 4

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5A: Archbishop Wood cruises into quarterfinals

It really wasn’t that great of a shooting night for the Vikings, at least not on their first attempts.

However, when a team has 17 offensive rebounds like Wood did on Wednesday, it makes the shots that go down on the second or third try look just as good. Wood hit the glass hard led by the efforts of Sophia Topakas and Lauren Greer to roll past Dallas 60-32 and into the 5A quarterfinals.

“If you’re not hitting shots, the next best thing you can do is drive,” Topakas said. “Anything I can do to help out my team.”

Greer had seven offensive rebounds, Topakas adding four as Wood never trailed but just kept adding on through effort and attrition. Topakas, a sophomore guard, had a nice all-around game with nine points, five total rebounds and four assists.

Wood was paced by Greer, Emily Knouse and freshman Sophia Topakas, who all had 12 points. McDonald and fellow freshmen Makayla Finnegan and Regan Przepioski led a strong showing by the bench unit. Last year, Topakas was one of those freshmen coming off the bench so she knows as well as anyone the value of any minutes in a state playoff game, no matter the score.

“It does help, it’s experience playing now but also next year, they’ll have the benefit of getting to play now,” Topakas said. “You know how it feels so when you do get in and start playing more minutes, you understand that feeling.”

Wood advances to Saturday’s quarterfinal where it will face District 2 champion Scranton and their standout freshman forward Zya Small.

By Quarter
Wood:  17  |  18  |  13  |  18  ||  66
Dallas:  4   |   9   |  14  |   5   ||  32

Scoring
AW: Emily Knouse 12, Lauren Greer 12, Sophia McDonald 12, Sophia Topakas 9, Emma Yogis 6, Ava Renninger 5, Alexa Windish 4, Mackenzie Rogers 3, Regan Przepioski 2, Makayla Finnegan 2

D: Molly Walsh 14, Elizabeth Viglone 10, Mia Delgaudio 4, Brianna Casey 2, Caitlyn Mizzer 2

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PIAA 4A Girls (local games)

First Round (Sat., March 9)
1-1 Villa Joseph Marie 54, 12-4 Prep Charter 22
3-2 Delone Catholic 53, 1-2 Pope John Paul II 19
3-1 Wyomissing 43, 12-5 Engineering & Science 22
12-1 Audenried 75, 3-6 Eastern York 34
12-2 Nazareth Academy 55, 3-3 Bishop McDevitt 39
12-3 Neumann-Goretti 65, 11-2 Blue Mountain 43

Second Round (Wed., March 13)
2-2 Valley View 64, 12-1 Audenried 46
2-1 Scranton Prep 58, 1-1 Villa Joseph Marie 39
4-1 Central Columbia 50, 12-2 Nazareth Academy 37
3-1 Wyomissing 62, 12-3 Neumann-Goretti 52

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PIAA 5A Girls (local games)

First Round (Sat., March 9)
1-4 West Chester East 57, 12-2 Freire Charter 30
12-3 Dallas 43, 1-2 Villa Maria 41
2-2 Abington Heights 64, 12-3 Archbishop Ryan 26
2-1 Scranton 55, 12-4 Palumbo 20
11-1 Bethlehem Catholic 41, 1-5 Gwynedd Mercy 35
1-3 West Chester Rustin 40, 11-2 Whitehall 10
12-1 Archbishop Wood 55, 1-6 Radnor 43
1-1 Bishop Shanahan 38, 3-7 Mechanicsburg 27

Second Round (Wed., March 13)
2-2 Abington Heights 40, 1-1 Bishop Shanahan 35
11-1 Bethlehem Catholic 46, 1-4 West Chester East 28
2-1 Scranton 58, 1-3 West Chester Rustin 49
12-1 Archbishop Wood 66, 12-3 Dallas 32

Quarterfinals (Sat., March 16)
2-1 Scranton vs. 12-1 Archbishop Wood