Archbishop Wood finds its offense, tops Wyoming Valley West in PIAA 5A quarters

BETHLEHEM >> The Archbishop Wood girls basketball team wanted to get its offense back on track after averaging just 33 points in its first two state playoff games.

Mission accomplished.

Ten different Vikings scored in (12-1) Wood’s 61-35 blowout win over (2-2) Wyoming Valley West in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class-5A tournament Saturday afternoon at Freedom High School in Bethlehem.

“The last two games we were struggling and playing a little tight,” Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “We were able to play with some offense. I thought we did a really good job defensively again and it led to some offense, but we moved the ball against the zone and started putting the ball in the basket. That was the positive from today.”

The offense got going quickly. Wood scored 17 points in the first quarter and matched their second round total — 28 points — before halftime.

Cassie Sebold scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the first half and Katie May had six of her 11 in the first quarter. Nia Andrews finished with nine points.

“Teams have been playing us zone because we haven’t been particularly shooting the ball well,” Sebold said. “We knew (Wyoming Valley West was) going to come out in a zone because everyone else has been. We knew we needed to start shooting the ball well so they could come out of their zone. What we do best is run our offense, so we needed to get in our offense to generate points. We did fine against the zone. We started hitting shots, we were moving the ball well finding every player. We were focused on playing as a team more.”

Wood found success from long-distance, totalling five three-pointers — two from Sebold and one from each of Andrews, May and Shannon Kelly.

The Vikings led by 12, 17-5, after one and 21, 32-11, at the half.

Wood’s defense played a big part in the win — just as it did in the first two rounds of the state playoffs — holding its opponents to 28 and 25 points.

“I think our average on the season is 29 points or somewhere around there,” McDonald said. “Keeping teams under 30 all season long is obviously something that has carried us.”

The up-tempo defense forced 14 first-half turnovers that led to easy, fast-break buckets.

“Our defense really leads to our offense,” Sebold said. “We get stops and we either gets fast breaks or it just lets us set up our offense. Defense has always been an emphasis for us. We knew we needed to stop (Erin Gibbons) and not let her get her points. We knew their offense ran through her and we needed to stop her.”

Gibbons finished with two points. Gabby Smicherko led the Spartans with 12 points and Colleen Cwalina added eight.

Wood will continue its quest for back-to-back state titles Tuesday against (3-1) Susquehannock in the semifinals.

Archbishop Wood 61, Wyoming Valley West 35
Wyoming Valley West 5 6 12 12 — 35
Archbishop Wood 17 15 14 15 — 61
Wyoming Valley West: Gibbons 0 2-2 2, Smicherko 3 4-4 12, Cwalina 4 0-0 8, Blaski 2 1-2 7, N Gruver 0 0-2 0, Johnson 1 0-0 2, L Gruver 1 0-0 2, Boutanos 0 2-2 2. Total 11 9-12 35.
Archbishop Wood: Brown 1 0-0 2, S May 3 1-3 7, Sebold 6 4-4 18, Arcidiacono 3 0-0 6, Andrews 4 0-0 9, Tretter 0 2-2 2, K May 4 2-2 11, Neher 1 0-0 2, Brodbine 0 1-2 1, Kelly 1 0-0 3. Total 23 10-14 61.
Three-point goals: WVW: Smicherko 2, Blaski 2. AW: Sebold 2, Andrews, K May, Kelly.