Orihel’s strong finish sends Archbishop Wood to PIAA-5A quarterfinals
LOWER MERION >> Kaitlyn Orihel went to the rim, determined to make something happen.
The Archbishop Wood freshman was looking to re-ignite the spark that had fueled a hot start and she found it by getting fouled early in the fourth quarter. Not only did Orihel sink a pair of foul shots, she built on that momentum in a big way.
Led by Orihel’s 19 points, with 13 coming in the fourth quarter and a strong defensive effort, Wood topped Twin Valley 48-35 Wednesday night in the second round of the PIAA 5A girls basketball tournament at Harriton.
“Once we realized they were over-playing, we saw the backdoor cuts were open,” Orihel said. “When I cut, I trust my teammates are going to get me the ball.”
Orihel started great, as did the rest of the Vikings. Twin Valley, the third seed out of District 3, could not have started much worse. Katie May and Orihel knocked down 3-pointers to open the game, Orihel converted a three-point play and May found Ryleigh Parsons for a three.
After eight minutes, despite going into a late funk, the Vikings led 12-0. The Raiders, who had a size advantage and a couple of great shooters in Taylor Blunt and Peyton McDaniel, were out of their element.
“(Wood) is a great team, they’ve proven it the last two years and we knew we were going to have to come out ready and they hit two threes in a row and you could see we started getting on our heels a little bit,” Raiders coach Mark Morrow said. “We’re taking layups from outside the box instead of finishing at the rim. We got beat by a better team but I still think we can play with them and we showed it a little bit.”
Twin Valley certainly did show it. The Raiders cut Wood’s lead down to 12-5 as they started to push Wood shooters off the line or at least make them think about shooting, which led to a cold spell for the back-to-back state champions.
Wood’s first points of the second quarter came when May scored with 3:10 left, it got two foul shots from Lindsay Tretter and an NBA three from Annie Whalen just before the horn to salvage a 19-7 advantage at the break. Twin Valley continued to press the issue after the break and finally got going in the third quarter.
GIRLS BASKETBALL: @WoodGirlsBball @kaitlynorihel finds Bridget Arcidiacono for a Q3 and-1 against Twin Valley. Arcidiacono scored all five of her points in the frame pic.twitter.com/CRX4wxeS2t
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 15, 2018
Vikings coach Mike McDonald the presence of the Raiders’ two shooters as something that helped Twin Valley find some scoring.
“They can really light it up from deep, you can’t lose them for a second but I thought we did a good enough job to win the game by double-digits,” McDonald said. “They did a nice job getting out of our double-teams, they’d get out of the double to find a kid then find the next kid under the basket. That is another credit to those kids, we didn’t want to leave them.”
McDaniel hit two threes as part of a 17-point Twin Valley third quarter, a high total for any team in a single quarter against Wood’s defense. Bridget Arcidiacono and Erin Morgan, who had six rebounds, helped keep Wood afloat in the third.
Morgan hit a three in response to a McDaniel three while Arcidiacono scored all five of her points in the game in the frame. The senior converted a three-point play off a cut with a gorgeous feed coming from Orihel.
“We have a lot of kids who have been here before and that helps,” McDonald said. “The other thing is we don’t anybody not to shoot. They’re offensive-minded and if they’re open they shoot it or if the opportunity is there, they attack.”
While Twin Valley loses four seniors, most of its core players will return next season. It sets a good foundation for the Raiders to try and build on.
“My philosophy is every year we have to do better than the last,” Morrow said. “We’re going to break through that bubble. I hoped it would be this year, it didn’t work out for those seniors but we have a lot coming back and I know we’re going to be there.”
Blunt, who pulled up several feet behind the line with confidence, hit a fall-away three from the left corner to start the fourth, slicing Wood’s lead down to 31-27.
From there, Orihel took over the game. The freshman drew fouls on consecutive strong takes to the rim, sinking three of the four foul shots, May scored then Orihel finished a crisp bounce-pass from Arcidiacono on a backdoor cut to cap a 7-0 run.
May also had a strong game and a very efficient one. The Northeastern recruit scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and ripped a team-high nine rebounds with two blocks.
“I know if I have to make something happen,” Orihel said. “They were either going to play us on the outside or take away the drive. They couldn’t cover both, so I saw the openings and went for it. The energy from the bench boosts you and makes you want to do it even more every time down.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL: @WoodGirlsBball @kaitlynorihel drives and finishes through contact Q1 against Twin Valley. FT gave Wood a 9-0 lead. Orihel led the Vikings with 19 points pic.twitter.com/0iHXTkfCRi
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 15, 2018
Wood may be a team well-versed in the state playoffs, but Wednesday was just Orihel’s second state game. It was hard to tell with the emphatic way she finished it off, scoring eight of the team’s last 10 points with all of them coming at the rim or the foul line.
Thanks to that, the Vikings will face District I champion West Chester Henderson in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“It’s definitely different,” Orihel said. “If we lose, we’re done so we’re playing like it’s not over until the last buzzer goes off.”
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 48, TWIN VALLEY 35
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 12 7 12 17 – 48
TWIN VALLEY 0 7 17 9 – 35
AW: Kaitlyn Orihel 6 6-10 19, Bridget Arcidiacono 1 3-3 5, Erin Morgan 1 0-0 3, Annie Whalen 1 0-0 3, Katie May 5 2-2 13, Ryleigh Parsons 1 0-0 3, Linday Tretter 0 2-2 2. Nonscoring: Mia Andrews, Nicole Greenberg. Totals: 15 13-17 48
TV: Taylor Blunt 5 1-3 14, Peyton McDaniel 2 0-2 6, Anna Morrow 2 0-0 5, Ashlynn Lennon 2 2-2 6, Camryn Jamison 2 0-0 4. Nonscoring: Alyssa Gibson, Julia Danliak. Totals: 13 3-7 35
3-pointers: AW – Orihel, May, Parsons, Whalen, Morgan; TV – Blunt 3, McDaniel 2, Morrow.
