Seniors team up to help Archbishop Wood hold off Archbishop Carroll
PHILADELPHIA >> Lindsay Tretter and Izzy Larsen saved their best for last on Sunday.
Archbishop Wood’s two seniors combined for 13 points in the fourth quarter as the Vikings tried to down rival Archbishop Carroll for a second time, each score taking on more importance as the Patriots valiantly tried to rally back. No basket was bigger than the one Larsen scored, off a Tretter assist of course, with a minute to go.
Thanks to the seniors’ work, Wood held off Carroll 59-53 for a PCL Red Division win at Jefferson University.
“It all comes down to composure,” Larsen said. “Tretter, she’s played four years now at Wood and she’s so level-headed, she just comes out there and makes plays. She assisted my layup at the end of the game, she put in a three, when they closed out, she pump-faked, went around and got a score.
“The composure to put in those kind of buckets in the fourth quarter is an important thing to have.”
Wood junior Kaitlyn Orihel celebrated a milestone, becoming the first Viking to score 1,000 points since Bailey Greenberg in 2016. The junior guard hit the magic number on a signature and-one drive during a 10-point third quarter that helped put Wood up 38-31 going to the final frame.
Orihel led Wood with 19 points in the win and hit four free throws in the final frame to help ice the result, but wasn’t looking to force anything to get the 10 points she needed at the start of the game any faster.
“It hasn’t really hit yet,” Orihel said. “It was unreal for me coming into it, this was always a goal for me starting my freshman year.”
Carroll, which lost to Wood earlier in the season, played a strong first half defensively and took a 20-19 lead to the half despite Erin Sweeney being limited to a single point. With Wood paying so much attention to Sweeney, sophomore Grace O’Neill stepped up and got some major support from Karli Dougherty.
Orihel’s milestone and-one was also the go-ahead bucket with the free throw giving Wood a 31-29 lead with 2:14 left in the third quarter. While the Vikings (13-5, 8-0 PCL Red) wouldn’t give the lead back, they weren’t about to walk out of Jefferson’s gym with the result gifted to them.
“We’re trying to get used to playing in situations like this because if we want to play in a semifinal game to go to the Palestra, we have to win here,” Larsen said. “Even though it’s uncomfortable, we have to get used to it. Kaitlyn getting her 1,000th point, if anything, was fuel to do well.”
Tretter wasn’t as quick out of the locker room as Larsen, but asked what the difference was in the fourth quarter, the guard knew just what to say.
“Just keeping ourselves under control and composed,” Tretter, who scored all nine of her points in the final frame, said.
She paused and looked at Larsen.
“You always say that.”
Carroll determined the best way back into the game was a direct one and began attacking Wood’s defense in force. It worked, as the Vikings started getting tagged for fouls and the Patriots began a march to the foul line.
Tretter erupted for seven points to start the quarter, hitting a three, using the up-fake to get a layup and scoring once more to put Wood ahead 45-33 with 5:32 remaining. Carroll went on a 9-3 run, a Ryanne Allen trey the only Wood score, and whittled the lead down to six with 3:20 still to play.
“Whatever they were doing going to the basket, the refs were into calling those fouls for them and they shoot so well,” Larsen said. “I think at halftime, half their points were from the free throw line so when they started getting those calls, they really capitalized and started putting them in.”
Tretter admitted to some frustrations with the calls going against them, but again pointed back to composure for not letting it boil over.
“We just needed to keep ourselves in check,” the guard said.
Larsen got her first score of the quarter with 2:35 to go, but Carroll ripped off a quick 8-2 run with a three from Sweeney cutting the lead to 52-50 inside a minute-and-a-half left. That’s when the senior-to-senior connection cashed out, with Tretter slipping a pass into Larsen for a layup and two-possession lead.
“We went into a timeout at one point, and we said ‘we’re having fun right now,’” Larsen said. “We were playing as a team and getting those shots and we play our best when people are smiling, enjoying each other and having fun.
“When we got it into our heads that playing as a team makes us feel good, it goes on down the line.”
Wood got a couple stops, bracketed by Orihel going 4-of-4 at the stripe before Sweeney hit a last-chance three with 9.6 seconds left. Tretter finally put the result to bed, canning two free throws with four seconds on the clock, keeping the Vikings unbeaten atop the PCL.
“When you like playing with the people you’re playing with, it makes the game so much easier,” Tretter said. “You don’t care who is scoring, you play for the person next to you and you’re happy when anyone does well.”
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 59, ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 53
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 10 4 19 21 – 59
ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 10 10 11 22 – 53
AW: Izzy Larsen 3 2-2 8, Kaitlyn Orihel 6 7-8 19, Ryanne Allen 5 1-2 14, Lindsay Tretter 3 2-2 9, Bri Bowen 2 2-2 6, Dana Kiefer 0 2-2 2, Shannon Morgan 0 1-3 1. Totals: 19 17-21 59
AC: Maggie Grant 1 2-2 5, Karli Dougherty 4 5-5 14, Erin Sweeney 3 2-4 10, Grace O’Neill 4 7-8 15, Nikki Mostardi 2 5-6 9. Totals: 14 21-25 53.
3-pointers: AR – Allen 3, Tretter; AW AC – Sweeney 2, Dougherty, Grant.
