City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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BROOMALL >> Sometimes, it can feel pretty liberating to just take a drive.

With Cardinal O’Hara’s first major test of the PCL season against visiting Archbishop Wood unfolding into one of those grinders where every basket felt big, Lions senior Megan Rullo opted to do some driving. Wood’s defense was tough, as was O’Hara’s, and the difference was Rullo’s ability to drive with a destination in mind and get there.

Strong defense and Rullo’s drive got the Lions past the Vikings 46-37 on Thursday .

“It’s definitely something where I’ve been working on my first step and getting past defenders,” Rullo said. “I feel like more so that’s what they gave me tonight, I didn’t really have the opportunity to shoot, so that’s what I took.”

Thursday’s win was a big one for the Lions in a few ways. Firstly, it bumped them to 10-0 on the season and 2-0 in the league with a massive showdown against Archbishop Carroll next Tuesday in an early clash of league title contenders. The Patriots are also 2-0 in the PCL after a 54-30 win at Lansdale Catholic. 

Second, it was the first time any of the current O’Hara players beat Archbishop Wood. The Lions’ last win over the Vikings came on February 22, 2022 in the PCL semifinals when Megan Rullo’s sister Molly was in her freshman year at O’Hara.

It was something Megan was quite aware of.

“We haven’t beaten Wood in my first three years here so there was a lot of motivation to get by them,” Rullo said. “We knew they’d lost a lot of players, but they’re a foundation offense so they were still going to run every play hard. We prepared ourselves in practice on the simple fundamentals of basketball and I was very happy with our performance tonight.”

Rullo turned in an all-around strong effort to build off what’s been an excellent return season after missing her junior year with a knee injury. The senior Drexel recruit led all scorers with 18 points - almost all of them coming within immediate vicinity of the rim or at the line after drawing contact on one of her drives - adding seven rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block when she tipped a Vikings’ three-point attempt.

With Wood’s defense, led by Makayla Finnegan and Sophia McDonald on the perimeter and Casey Thompson inside, keyed in on not letting O’Hara’s Brigidanne Donahue, Leah Hudak and Catie Doogan get rolling from 3-point range, there were opportunities for Rullo to go driving. Lions coach Chrissie Doogan said the guard’s execution on those drives is a result of the work she did during her rehab season and has rounded out her scoring 

“She can do both, she’s a three-level scorer,” Doogan said. “They really keyed on taking away Brigidanne’s drives, Leah’s shooting and Catie’s shooting, it opened up the lane and Megan’s the one kid who really can do it. The thing she did in her year off was get stronger so to her in the lane and getting the finishes and the and-one’s is huge.”

The Vikings dropped to 3-6, although they have played a difficult schedule as they do every year early in the season. With an inexperienced team that started three sophomores and had a fourth come in as its first player off the bench, Wood has been taking strides each time out and the Vikings were right in Thursday’s game until the final stretch of the fourth quarter.

Abbie Kelly led Wood with 11 points off the bench while Addison Payne played a confident game on both ends with seven points, seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal and senior co-captain Emma Yogis chipped in eight off the bench. Vikings coach Mike McDonald felt like it was his group’s strongest showing of the season, especially given O’Hara’s always sound defensive efforts, and added the next stage is helping his team slow the game down in those final stages.

“I told them, it’s frustrating to lose but that was the most I’ve felt like I was coaching a Wood team, one that was playing the right way, getting good shots, moving the basketball and defending at a great level,” McDonald said. “In the fourth quarter, we just have to become a better team that can execute and finish plays down the stretch. When people talk about a young team, that’s what it is.

“For right now, against that team which is going to be fighting with Neumann-Goretti and (Archbishop) Carroll for that top spot, I thought we did a great job until the end. And part of that’s on me, I need to do a better job getting them ready to execute at the end of a game.”

Most of the game was played within a basket or two. Wood hit a trio of threes in the first quarter, building a 13-7 lead, but O’Hara responded with a 6-0 run in the second quarter to take a brief 19-18 advantage that set up the sides to essentially trade hard-earned baskets until the final few minutes.

Cardinal O’Hara trailed 31-30 at the start of the fourth but on their possession of the final frame, Rullo drove into the lane and dished out to Leah Hudak who proceeded to swish the go-ahead three. The Lions wouldn’t trail again after Rullo drove again, this time drawing contact and netting both of her free throws for a four-point lead, which held up after Wood’s Kelly nailed a three in response.

The Lions only sank two three-pointers in Thursday’s win and nobody else scored more than six points but their defense made things just as challenging for the Vikings.

“The thing I love about this team is you just don’t know who is going to carry you on any given night, anyone can step up,” Doogan said. “To hold that team to 37 is really good. We tried to tell our kids to not give up threes but for a lot of them, it’s their first time defending an offense like that so you can watch film all you want but until you get into that live situation, I thought we really buckled down in the fourth quarter and locked in on defense.”

Two major components in that defensive effort were the duo of juniors Carly Wakefield and Bre Davis off the Lions’ bench. Both forwards caused a five-second turnover on defense while Wakefield also chipped in four important points in the second quarter and Davis kept several possessions alive with offensive rebounds as they impacted the game in several ways.

Doogan has tasked the two with just going all-out with their effort when she subs either or both of them in. They’re both starting-caliber players but as they embrace the role of spark off the bench, they’ll be on the court at pivotal times.

“I tell Bre and Carly all the time, it’s not who starts, it’s who ends the game,” Rullo said. “You learn so much coming off the bench and sometimes it’s better for players like that. Bre impacted the game so much with her offensive rebounds and Carly hitting the midrange, they impacted the game so much and got us over the hump.”

Rullo scored 12 of her 18 in the first half then rose to the moment to help close out the game in the fourth quarter. Her finish - on a drive, of course - with 1:56 left gave the Lions a six-point lead and O’Hara was able to close out the win by combining defensive stops and enough makes at the foul line.

“What they gave, we took, and that’s just how we had to play tonight,” Rullo said. “We’re not settling with where we are right now. We’re playing really hard and we’re really excited to see what next week brings.”

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By Quarter

CARDINAL O’HARA 11 | 10 | 9 | 16 || 46

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 13 | 9 | 9 | 6 || 37

Scoring

CO: Megan Rullo 18, Brigidanne Donahue 6, Leah Hudak 5, Olivia Craft 5, Bre Davis 5, Carly Wakefield 4, Catie Doogan 3

AW: Abbie Kelly 11, Emma Yogis 8, Addison Payne 7, Zoey Whalen 4, Sophia McDonald 3, Makayla Finnegan 2, Casey Thompson 2