Orihel’s shot pushes Archbishop Wood past Cardinal O’Hara in PCL quarterfinals

WARMINSTER >> Going left worked out all right for Kaitlyn Orihel.

The Archbishop Wood sophomore stood at the top of the key, dribbling the ball until she felt there was just enough time left to make her move. Yet another Philadelphia Catholic League playoff meeting between the Vikings and Cardinal O’Hara was coming down to the wire and the ball was with the player Wood most wanted to have it.

Orihel’s drive and tough finish through excellent defense off a spin-move to her left with 0.5 seconds left was the difference as the No. 3 Vikings edged the No. 6 Lions 43-41 in their quarterfinal game Thursday night at Wood.

“Coach Mike (McDonald) called ‘Open’ so I knew he wanted me to get the shot off,” Orihel said. “I tried to get as much time as I could off the clock and after we ran ‘Open’ the first couple times, I had gone right, so I knew they were going to cut off my right and I figured I would go left, the clock was winding down, I knew I just had to get a shot up.”

Meeting for the third straight year in the playoffs, Wood and O’Hara authored another nail-biter of a finish that while won by a late shot, was really decided defensively. The Vikings (13-10) rallied from a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit with 6:12 to play, giving them their first win over O’Hara (12-11) in those three post season meetings.

“I’m shocked, I feel like we stole it almost,” McDonald said. “The fourth quarter was gutsy, (O’Hara) gave us everything in the third quarter and I felt we just dug down in the fourth quarter. It was hard, they’re good, we’re familiar with each other and it’s hard to score points in this game.”

Earlier this season, O’Hara had come to Wood and beat the Vikings. Orihel wasn’t a factor in the outcome of that one, sitting a majority of the second half after injuring her ankle. Even, by her standards, struggling at times against the Lions’ stout defense, the sophomore kept thinking back to that January game.

“Losing to them in the semifinals last year, we had something to prove and me getting hurt in the last game, I had something to prove,” Orihel said. “It was in the back of my mind the whole time. O’Hara is one of our main rivals, they’re such a great team in the league and getting hurt last game, it was something for me to prove that we could beat them.”

All game, O’Hara made life miserable for Wood around the rim. O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan felt her team had one of its best defensive performances of the season, especially in regards to communicating.

With all their history against one another, and given that both teams are system-based on offense, Doogan followed up by saying players on both sides are used to defending each other, so points were going to be at a premium.

“Give Wood credit, they got a couple easy baskets off offensive rebounds that we would have liked to have corralled,” Doogan said. “It’s a loss where I’m not going to sleep for a couple nights, but it’s not on them. The kids’ effort was absolutely there, we just have regroup and get ready for the next challenge.”

Orihel led Wood with 18 points, scoring eight in the fourth quarter, but her heroics at the end of the game wouldn’t have happened without some other contributors. Ryanne Allen came out hot, then after struggling through the middle portion of the game, she hit a huge 3-pointer off an offensive rebound in the fourth that pulled Wood within 39-37.

Freshman Brianna Bowen was also clutch for Wood off the bench. A tough-minded forward, Bowen had five rebounds but also scored seven points, all on determined drives to the rim.

“I just told myself to finish strong over the defense and think about finishing like you’re getting fouled,” Bowen said. “We just keep striving and staying positive the whole time and keep playing as a team.”

Wood also needed stops and turned up its defensive effort to get them. Bowen noted the Vikings started to hedge O’Hara’s handoffs and worked to keep the ball away from Amaris Baker, Sydni Scott and Kerry Patterson as much as they could.

Baker had a strong second half, with all eight of her points after the break, but her free throws with 53 seconds left that tied the game 41-41 were O’Hara’s only fourth quarter points in the final six minutes. McDonald singled out senior Liz Fasti as a sparkplug defensively.

“Coach told us we had to get up and pressure them, try and force turnovers but we were also in one-and-one so we couldn’t foul,” Fasti said. “Sometimes we’d foul after they would get an offensive rebound so we just had to go and get the first rebound and not let them have more than one shot.”

Fasti just kept telling herself she wasn’t going to let Wood lose and she found Orihel off an inbound play to tie the game 39-39 with 3:01 remaining.

After Orihel and Baker traded free throws to bring up the 41-41 deadlock, Wood called a timeout with 23.5 seconds left. The sophomore drove into the lane and turned her back to the rim, with McDonald admitting he had a split-second of apprehension Orihel was going to spin right into a host of defenders.

 “That’s on me, I would have loved to run a double-team but you only get one chance at it and she made a heck of a shot,” Doogan said. “I can’t ask any more of our players. They did exactly what we asked of them, they played their butts off.”

Instead, she went left and despite excellent defense, got the shot to drop.

“That’s what she does,” McDonald said. “She’s a very, very strong player, a confident player. O’Hara is an unbelievable team and we just happened to be two points better than them tonight.”

The Lions’ PCL run ends but they will play for the District 12-6A title and then move on to the state bracket. Wood faces No. 2 Neumann-Goretti in the semifinals at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at Jefferson University.

Wood thought Orihel’s shot ended the game, but the officials put the 0.5 back on the clock and the Vikings had to make a last stand. Fittingly, it was Orihel who broke up the Lions’ inbound pass at halfcourt, preventing O’Hara from any sort of look and letting her team celebrate what it had tried to about a minute earlier.

“After I missed a couple, I knew I had to keep shooting and eventually they were going to fall,” Orihel said. “Luckily that one did. We have such confidence in each other, we know no matter how many we’re down by, we can always come back.”

Archbishop Wood 43, Cardinal O’Hara 41
Archbishop Wood 13 8 8 14 – 43
Cardinal O’Hara 11 6 19 5 – 41
Archbishop Wood: Kaitlyn Orihel 7 3-4 18, Ryanne Allen 3 3-5 11, Annie Whalen 2 0-0 4, Brianna Bowen 3 1-1 7, Lindsay Tretter 1 1-1 3. Nonscoring: Liz Fasti, Noelle Baxter, Ryleigh Parsons. Totals: 16 8-11 43
Cardinal O’Hara: Kerry Patterson 1 4-4 7, Amaris Baker 2 4-4 8, Sydni Scott 3 0-0 7, Stephanie Huesby 2 0-0 4, Siobhan Boylan 4 0-2 9, Maggie Doogan 3 0-0 6. Nonscoring: Erin Welde, Annie Welde. Totals: 15 8-10 41
3-pointers: AW – Allen 2, Orihel; CO – Patterson, Scott, Boylan.