Leclaire, O.J. Roberts make team history with win at Garnet Valley
CONCORD — The last few days have been quite a special ride for Olivia Leclaire and her Owen J. Roberts teammates.
Last Saturday, OJR defeated Ridley in a District 1 Class 6A playback and LeClaire became the program’s all-time leading scorer.
Fast forward to Wednesday and the Wildcats were celebrating a 42-41 victory over No. 7 Garnet Valley, clinching the first PIAA tournament berth in team history.
“It feels really good just because it’s my senior year and we’ve had a lot of goals going into the season,” said Leclaire, who amassed a game-high 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the floor. She added team highs in rebounds (four) and steals (three). “We’ve been grinding out every single goal, little by little.”
Leclaire can brag about being the best player in school history, but that’s not the big story.
“Our first time ever in states,” she said. “That means so much to all of us.”
In order to get there, OJR had to upset the Central League champions, Ridley, and last year’s District 1 Class 6A champions and state finalists, Garnet Valley.
Not a bad one-two punch.
“We always go in with the mindset that we have nothing to lose,” Leclaire said. “We just have to go out and have fun at this point.”
As the No. 14 Wildcats prepare for 12th-seeded Souderton in the ninth-place game, Garnet Valley will host No. 9 Downingtown East Friday night. The winner will earn District 1’s 11th and final PIAA tournament berth.
“We have to give everything we’ve got,” said senior forward Liesl Dentinger, who was a force for the Jaguars in Wednesday’s defeat. “Most of all, we have to play as a team. Things work better when we’re having fun and playing together.”
Brooke Greenwald made the first of two foul shots to put Owen J. Roberts up 42-41 with a minute to go. It turned out the biggest play of the game was Greenwald missing the second freebie. Maddi Koury wrestled the loose ball away and the Wildcats maintained possession.
With 20 seconds to play, Hannah Clay missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Dentinger secured the rebound.
GV lost control of the ball on the ensuing possession, committing its 11th turnover of the second half. By the time the Jags got one final shot, with roughly 1.5 seconds to go, it was a case of too little, too late.
GV argued there should have been a foul called on the possession that led to Leclaire coming away with a steal.
“We went in after the game and we were saying, nobody just falls to the ground,” senior guard Abbey Anderson said. “But you can’t blame the refs. Everybody did say, though, that she definitely doesn’t fall on accident.
“This was a tough loss, but we have to come back from it.”
Clay, who was the hero in OJR’s overtime win at Ridley, swished a 3-pointer with three minutes left to give her team a 41-38 advantage. Garnet responded when Mary Rose Berry drilled a trey from the top of the key, tying the score at 41.
“As the playoffs have gone on, we have learned a lot about our strengths,” Anderson said. “We obviously want to get the ball inside to Liesl, who is the tallest player in our league. And we are doing a better job of working the ball around and playing defense. We have definitely been learning to play better together, but there are always things we have to improve on.”
Dentinger scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds and made three blocks for the Jags.
Sophomore guard Ava Possenti has given the Jags a big lift, too. Pressed into starting duty after junior Kendall DiCamillo suffered a season-ending injury, Possenti has become a dynamic player who can run the offense, shoot from outside, drive to the basket and play lockdown defense.
“She has stepped up for us, filling in the position that Kendall unfortunately lost. Ava has been so good,” Anderson said.
Possenti nearly made the play of the night when the Jags were doing whatever they could to force a turnover in the final seconds. Possenti disrupted a pass and forced the ball to roll near center court. The Wildcats were able to recover the ball and keep it away from the Jags.
Possenti finished with four points, three steals and three assists. Anderson added 10 points and three assists, while Jess Brewer came off the bench to chip in with six points and five boards.
Garnet Valley hopes to extend its remarkable run of seven consecutive PIAA tournament appearances. To make it eight in a row, they must win Friday night.
“I don’t want to end that streak,” Anderson said. “We need to go into it, especially Liesl and I as the senior captains … with the mindset that we don’t want this to be our last game. We have to push ourselves a little more and work harder. I think we need to enforce at practice to not rush or force the ball a lot because that’s what killed us tonight, especially at the end there. We have to play a lot better and be ready for anything.”
