Lansdale Catholic edges Bishop McDevitt, advances to PCL quarterfinals

LANSDALE >> Jenna Babb’s tying basket late in the fourth quarter came with a bit of unintended flair.

“I don’t really know how I did that spin but I just knew we needed a bucket,” the Lansdale Catholic senior said. “So I knew I would either get fouled or make the layup.”

Babb pirouetting past a Bishop McDevitt defender to reach the hoop for a layin that knotted the Philadelphia Catholic League first-round contest at 42. Shortly after, Babb put the Crusaders girls basketball team ahead more conventionally — taking a bounce pass from Mia Rosenberger in transition for an uncontested layup.

“I saw it was a two-on-one and I had my teammate who was carrying the ball up and there was one defender, so I just cut towards the basket and it worked out,” Babb said.

While the styles were different, the two baskets both had the same starting point — steals by Rosenberger. Eighth-seeded Lansdale Catholic stepped up its defense down the stretch, keying a 7-0 run to erase a three-point deficit and then held on to edge the No. 9 Royal Lancers 49-46 Wednesday night.

“We were really focusing on defense cause we knew to win this game, we had to get stops,” Babb said. “We we focused on locking down on their key players and just helping in the paint.”

Emily Smith was one of three Crusaders in double figures, scoring a team-high 12 points — the last two coming on a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left to put LC up 48-44.

A Caroline Cunnane jumpers had McDevitt within 48-46 at 22 second. Lansdale Catholic proceeded to work 13 seconds off the clock before Caitlin Rosenberger was fouled and made the second of two from the line.

The Lancers moved the ball upcourt before calling a time out with four seconds left. Off a sideline inbounds, Johnson put up a 3-pointer to tie from the corner, but the shot was short and LC found away to knock out Bishop McDevitt in the PCL first round for the second straight year.

“It’s hard to beat a team two times in a season. And to McDevitt’s credit, I saw a quote the other day that they feel like they didn’t have anything to lose and they played like that,” Lansdale Catholic coach Eric Gidney said. “We were uncharacteristically taking shots that aren’t really part of our system there for a while. Stuff wasn’t falling.

“We were really, really at a disadvantage on the boards. We would give them second, third, fourth chances and possessions. But once we tidied that up and our shot selection improved, obviously the scoreboard tilted the other way for us.”

Riley DeVitis finished with 11 points while Timaya Lewis-Eutsey added 10 points for the Crusaders (14-9), who advance to visit top-seeded Archbishop Carroll in the Catholic League quarterfinals 6 p.m. Thursday. In their regular-season meeting Dec. 14, LC fell at home to the Patriots 54-52.

“Carroll’s got to face us, too, that’s how we look at it,” Gidney said. “It was a early in the season but that was a two-point game. So, they’re ready for us, they’ve had some time, we don’t know if that’s to their advantage or disadvantage but we’ll find out in a few hours.”

Nyah Johnson paced Bishop McDevitt with a game-high 18 points while Dana Mizelle collected nine of her 13 points in the first half.

The Royal Lancers lost to LC 62-36 on Jan. 15 but from the start of Wednesday’s matchup things were going to be different — leading 9-8 after a quarter on a Kaisira Bibbs buzzer-beater and pushed its advantage to as large as six in the first half before going into the break up 24-20.

“It was really tough to keep them off the boards,” Babb said. “When we went in in halftime, our coach really stressed boxing out so we came out ready to get, only give them one shot and really focus on boxing out.

Lansdale Catholic opened the third quarter with an 8-2 run capped by a Smith runner for a 29-26 lead. Johnson’s 3-point play at 4:18 had McDevitt even at 29. The teams were tied again at 31 before Caitlin Rosenberger’s two free throws at 2:49 put LC ahead 33-31.

The Crusaders could only extend the lead to four twice early in the fourth — the second time at 37-33 — with McDevitt rallying to tie the contest at 40 on a Johnson triple then taking a 42-40 lead on Shamira Gadson’s second-effort basket inside.

Lewis-Eutsey hit the front end of a 1-and-1 at 2:21 to cut the margin to 42-41 before Gadson again scored inside, putting the Lancers up three.

A Kristina Finkelston free throw made it 44-42 with 1:52 remaining. After coming up with a steal, Mia Rosenberger fed Babb ahead for her spinning fast-break lay-in to tie things up.

McDevitt came up with on offensive rebound off a missed jumper, but a strip by Smith went right Mia Rosenberger, who pushed the ball upcourt before finding an open Babb for the go-ahead layup.

“We often make adjustments from a personnel standpoint and not necessarily from a strategic standpoint,” Gidney said. “I feel like we are who we are, we got certain strategies that we run, we practice them every day and that’s what we’re going to typically do during a game. I’m not one to throw out something new that we haven’t done before. So I thought at that point — and because of Timaya’s foul trouble — we switched things up and moved Jenna onto their point guard, to No. 4 (Nyah Johnson). And to Jenna’s credit, she really stepped it up.”

The Lancers missed a three to grab the lead and Smith grabbed the rebound and was fouled — hitting both at the line to make it 48-44 LC at 30 seconds.

A DeVitis 3-pointer gave LC an 8-5 advantage in the first quarter before Bishop McDevitt scored the period’s last four points — Bibbs banking in a buzzer-beater for a 9-8 edge.

After Lewis-Eutsey’s free throw tied the score at 17 at 3:37 in the second quarter, the Royal Lancers ran off six straight points — four by Mizelle — to go up 23-17. Two DeVitis free throws with 37 seconds left followed by a Lewis-Eutsey basket had LC within 23-21. Mizelle, however was fouled at two seconds and made one from the line for a three-point McDevitt lead at halftime.

Lansdale Catholic 49, Bishop McDevitt 46
Bishop McDevitt               9 15   7 15 — 46
Lansdale Catholic             8 13 12 16 — 49
Bishop McDevitt: Nyah Johnson 6 3-3 18; Dana Mizelle 6 1-3 13; Shamira Gadson 3 1-2 7; Kaisira Bibbs 2 0-0 4; Caroline Cunnane 1 0-0 2; Amiyah Dixon 1 0-0 2; Ashley Wiggins 0 0-2 0; Totals 19 5-8 46.
Lansdale Catholic: Emily Smith 4 2-2 12; Riley DeVitis 3 4-6 11; Timaya Lewis-Eutsey 4 2-4 10; Jenna Babb 3 0-0 6; Caitlin Rosenberger 1 3-4 5; Kristina Finkelston 1 1-4 3; Maile Erwin 1 0-0 2; Totals 17 12-20 49.
3-pointers: BM-Johnson 3; LC-Smith 2, DeVitis.