Archbishop Wood topples Neumann-Goretti, claims PCL title

PHILADELPHIA >> The Palestra has a long history of magic and the unexpected when it comes to basketball.

Monday night another fable was spun in the building’s storied past. Underdogs from the moment it walked in the door, the Archbishop Wood girls’ basketball team did the improbable by beating Neumann-Goretti, snapping the Saints’ 44-game PCL and 53-game overall winning streak.

As the Vikings swarmed around seniors Bailey Greenberg and Claire Bassetti at the final horn of their 40-36 win, they did so as PCL champions for the first time since 2011.

“I’m feeling nothing but happiness, it’s the best feeling ever,” Greenberg said.

“I actually, a couple of times was really taking it in,” Bassetti said. “I was listening to my music and it hit my like ‘Shoot, this is my last chance to go to the Palestra.’”

Greenberg set the tone, scoring a game-high 16 points with 10 rebounds, clearly playing to win the PCL title that has eluded her otherwise stellar career. The senior is still seeking a state title to go with it, but she’s going to take time to celebrate this one first.

Much like the semifinal round against Cardinal O’Hara, the Vikings weren’t looking to get into a scoring contest with Goretti. And that was with good reason. The Saints, led by Syracuse recruit Alisha Kebbe and James Madison signee Kamiah Smalls, thrive in transition and tempo and they can get points on the board in hurry.

So, there was Wood, running 20 then 30 and maybe even 40 seconds of clock on one offensive possession, a series of churning passes, cuts and ball movement around the perimeter. The Vikings also knew their size gave them a slight edge inside, even against Goretti’s athletic lineup.

Junior guard Cassie Sebold started the game with a driving score with contact, hitting the FT for a three-point play. Wood shot five free throws in the first and its two other made baskets came from Bailey Greenberg going to work on the blocks. With Wood limiting possessions, the Saints never really got into an offensive rhythm, but they picked things up at the tail end of the first and trailed 11-6 after one.

End of PCL title game as @WoodGirlsBball celebrates its 40-36 win over Neumann-Goretti @PaPrepLive pic.twitter.com/gLnDWrtzBE

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 23, 2016

“The refs were calling everything, so we just had to keep our body between them and the ball,” Sebold said. “As long as we protected it, we were fine. We can’t rely on 3s to save us and we’ve really worked on getting it into the post ever since (the team’s tournament in) Arizona. We have the advantage with Kate (Connolly), Bailey and Katie (May) and every time we get it in to them, something good happens.”

Goretti’s defense ramped up after the opening four minutes and it stopped Greenberg from getting the ball down low. Still, the Drexel-bound senior did find her way to a hoop on a smart cut, with Claire Bassetti providing the clinical pass. A basket by Kebbe on a strong ball fake cut the lead to 13-11 but a Connolly bucket off a post-up put Wood up 15-11 at the break.

By keeping the game at a grinder’s pace, Wood could control things far better than had it gotten sucked into Goretti’s frenetic style.

“We know they’re more athletic than us and faster than us,” Katie May said. “We had to slow it down and be smarter.”

May, just a sophomore but lauded for her hoops acumen, gave Wood a huge jolt in the third quarter. After another score by Kebbe, who had 13, cut it to 17-16, May drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Connolly followed that with a block and rebound, then 36 seconds after her first make, May hit another triple to put Wood up eight at 24-16 with 4:35 left in the frame. With 1:09 left in the third, Greenberg putback her own miss, finishing through contact and converted the foul shot to give the Vikings a seven-point edge going into the final frame.

After Shannon May put the Vikings up 30-24, Goretti came charging back, just as nearly everyone in the building expected them to. Five straight by Kebbe cut it down to 30-29 with 4:03 left to play but two free throws by Wood, sandwiched around a huge board by Sebold, helped restore some stability.

“It’s where we want the ball and we’re not letting them get another basket, another shot, another rebound,” Greenberg said. “We felt that we’re winning this game. The whole day, I had a feeling that we were going to win. When we played O’Hara, I was so confident and going into this game I was so confident, our team has just been playing so well together.”

Goretti kept coming and a bucket by Jabria Ingram with 1:24 left again cut it down to one at 34-33. But Wood, already in the double bonus, kept getting stops, kept getting rebounds and kept getting to the line. Sebold sank three out of four at 1:16 and 38.6, part of an 8-of-10 performance at the line, to slowly extend the lead back up.

Bailey Greenberg takes the rest of the championship net for @WoodGirlsBball at the Palestra @PaPrepLive pic.twitter.com/gxwONkUJuT

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 23, 2016

“You definitely feel it,” the junior said. “At the end of the game when you step up to the foul line, it’s pressure but you just need to stay focused and concentrate. We know how to make fouls, we just have to know that we’re going to make them.”

Fittingly, it was Bassetti then Greenberg that came down with the last two rebounds of the game and the seniors combined to hit on three of four freebies. The last two years, they’ve had to leave University City with a loss to Goretti and a bad feeling in the pits of their stomachs.

This time, they left with a cut-up net, a big wooden trophy and their team etched in Palestra lore.

“It’s cool that we get to leave our mark on the school,” Greenberg said. “That we did it in our senior year is an even better feeling.”