O’Hara youngsters rise up and give Doogan first PIAA tourney win
RADNOR — Cardinal O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan got a kiss on the cheek from her daughter, Maggie, after Friday night’s game at Archbishop Carroll High School.
She told Maggie to have fun at the O’Hara freshman dance.
“I told her if she didn’t make those shots, she wasn’t allowed to go,” mom said.
Coaching in her first PIAA tournament game, Chrissie Doogan pushed the right buttons in the second half and watched as her young kids — biological and otherwise — stormed back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat Plymouth Whitemarsh, 41-39 in the first round of the Class 6A tourney. O’Hara will play Spring-Ford in the second round Tuesday.
Maggie Doogan was among the players who performed down the stretch for the Lions (14-11). She made a three-point play when her team needed a boost, and hauled in a defensive rebound in the final 30 seconds to keep the Colonials (21-7) from making the tying or go-ahead basket. Coming off the bench, Doogan scored a season-high 11 points and led all O’Hara players with five rebounds.
“The senior class has been great to me,” she said. “They’ve really helped me a lot.”
Asked what she focuses on the most when she called on to play, Maggie glanced at her mom.
“I just do whatever my coach tells me,” she said.
Good answer.
While Maggie Doogan hit two big shots and a free throw in the fourth quarter, Amaris Baker stole the show with her tremendous defense and scoring off turnovers. The sophomore guard had three of her seven steals in the final quarter. With three minutes to go, after Siobhan Boylan tied the game for the Lions at the foul line, Baker picked off a base and scored a breakaway layup to give her team the lead for good, 29-27.
O’Hara had played from behind for most of the night. The Lions began the night 0-for-7 from the floor, trailed and limped into halftime shooting just 30.4 percent while trailing by three points.
Baker knew something had to change in the fourth quarter as O’Hara was staring at the real possibility of seeing its season end in the first round of states.
“We knew that if we lose, we’re done,” said Bakers, who finished with 14 points. “We didn’t want it to end, so we knew that we had to fight.”
After Baker’s basket, the Lions tacked on two points. Doogan connected with a streaking Sydni Scott, who scored an easy layup. Scott was hobbling most of the game as she dealt with leg cramps.
“I’m fine,” she said, smiling. “As a group this is our first time making it this far and we knew we really had to play together. We had to play defense. I think that once we started to play team ball, I felt like we could win.”
As O’Hara wrestled with the rim for three-plus quarters, P-W did a good job of feeding the ball inside to Anna McTamney, Lainey Allen and Jordyn Thomas, who combined for 31 points. McTamney used an inside move to get to the basket with ease for three quarter, but the Lions were able to neutralize her in the final minutes. O’Hara shot 5-for-6 from the floor and outscored P-W, 13-3, in the fourth.
With 5.3 seconds left, P-W had a chance to tie. Kaitlyn Flanagan drove to the basket but her shot rimmed out. Doogan secured the rebound as time expired.
“”I’ve got to say, when that ball left Kate’s hand I thought it was going in. It looked good,” P-W coach Dan Dougherty said. “We were trying to isolate our two posts on the other side, try to get Jordyn Thomas and Lainey Allen on the block, and I figured they would run out to Kate at the top. We were putting the shooter behind to try to get the ball to the corner and lob it in. But we did tell Kait during the timeout, ‘Listen, if the ball comes to you, you have to attack down the middle and everybody else has to crash. I told her she has to put the ball off the glass and if it doesn’t go in, hopefully we can get the rebound. It just rimmed out for us, I really thought it was going in.”
The Lions’ on-the-ball defense, especially from its guards, caused havoc all night. Leading the way were seniors Kerry Patterson and Erin Welde, who made up for their lack of production on offense with tremendous hustle and defense. O’Hara’s relentless defense caused 18 P-W turnovers.
“They just pressured us a lot more and I think it got in our heads,” said McTamney. “We know what we did wrong.in important times and we just have to work on it in the offseason for next year.”
The future is certainly bright for the Colonials, who started two sophomores (McTamney, Gabby Cooper) and three freshmen (Allen, Thomas, Flanagan). Allen tallied a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Thomas added six points, three assists and four boards.
“We lost the fourth quarter, 13-3, and multiple times this year we lost games like this,” Dougherty said. “When we lost to Abington, and both games against Upper Dublin, we were with them for three quarters but turnovers killed us in the fourth quarter. So, the common thing you tell young teams is that the only thing you’re going to be next year is older. You’re going to get better, but you’re going to have to work on it.”
