Allen delivers as Archbishop Wood edges Archbishop Carroll in PCL semifinal

WARMINSTER >> Ryanne Allen was right where she wanted to be.

With her Archbishop Wood girls basketball team trailing Archbishop Carroll by a point with eight seconds left in regulation, Allen had charged down the floor and drew a shooting foul with 1.3 on the clock. It was all on her to come through at the line if the Vikings wanted to keep their goal of a PCL title alive.

Allen was right where she wanted to be, hitting a pair of free throws for the winning margin as the top-seeded Vikings edged by the No. 4 Patriots 38-37 in their PCL semifinal game Friday night.

“Coach Mike (McDonald) gave us a play but they went to double-team Kaitlyn (Orihel) so I knew I had to come to the ball and go make a play for myself,” Allen said. “I knew this was my time and it’s something I’ve been working toward for so long. I knew I could do it, I could step up and knock down those foul shots.”

The highly-touted junior wing has come through in crunch time a few times for the Vikings this season and they needed her again on a night where their offense couldn’t seem to get going. Allen finished with a game-high 19 points and did it not with her trademark long-range shooting but mostly using her size inside.

After beating Bonner-Prendie last Friday, Archbishop Wood thought it had secured a place in the PCL title game. However, on Wednesday, the PCL and AOP opted to play a four-team bracket that would have to make the Vikings earn their way in against a very familiar opponent.

“We made it a point to just stay positive,” McDonald said. “There’s a lot going on people want to complain about, you have to wear a mask, you have to quarantine, it’s been a long year so halfway through the season we talked about being appreciative of what we have. When this changed into a semifinal instead of just a championship, we said ‘this is where we want to be anyway, it’s what we do every year’ and we’re just grateful to have the chance to play in a Catholic League playoff.”

Wood went up 6-2 to open the game and led 8-6 after a quarter but the host team’s offense stalled out in the second. Carroll opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run with half the points coming from their standout junior in point guard Grace O’Neill to take a 16-8 advantage.

Allen had the only five points of the second quarter for the Vikings, who trailed 18-13 at halftime and posted a 5-of-19 first half shooting the ball.

O’Neill, who has committed to play at Drexel, powered the Patriots with 18 points and late in the game, willed her way to the foul line several times that included the trip to put Carroll ahead with eight seconds on the clock. Despite Wood trying different defenders, double-teams and late traps, O’Neill was able to make plays for her team.

“Grace is such a good player, you’re not going to stop her so you have to try and limit her,” Orihel said. “We had our assignments on who we had to stop. I think our team defense overall was pretty good, we were able to hold them to 37.”

Freshman Brooke Wilson gave Carroll a spark off the bench, scoring seven points and dishing out a couple assists and Maggie Grant hit a big-time 3-point shot late in the fourth quarter as the teams were trading the lead.

Wood’s bench didn’t score, but Shannon Morgan, Allie Fleming and Delaney Finnegan provided valuable defensive minutes. Morgan had a pair of steals in the fourth quarter that were as good as scores with the score locked in a one-possession game.

“We don’t know who we’re going to have to call on, so it’s important they keep stepping up,” McDonald said.

The Vikings regained the lead in the third quarter but only took a 28-27 advantage into the final stanza before back-to-back hoops by Orihel opened it up to five points with 5:16 to play. O’Neill then found her way to the foul line on three separate occasions, hitting 5-of-6 to knot the score at 32-32.

Allen split a pair at the line to break the deadlock with 1:22 left then the Vikings seemed to get a stop when O’Neill wasn’t able to finish a layup. Instead, Wilson came down with the offensive board and the ball worked back around until Grant connected from the left wing for a 35-33 lead with 37.2 on the clock.

Wood came back down the floor and it was Orihel from there. A 3-pointer missed, but the Villanova recruit had two offensive rebounds, finishing the second with a whistle before hitting the and-one free throw for a 36-35 lead with 18.8 remaining.

“At that point, something just takes over my body,” Orihel, who scored 13 points, said. “I missed the first one and I just knew I had to get it again and get it up. Eventually, or I guess hopefully, it’s either going to go in or you’re going to get the foul. We were down two, so I knew we needed to get a basket and I was trying to get up whatever I could.”

The Patriots took their last timeout with 12.8 left, then O’Neill was able to draw contact going to the rim with 8.0 on the clock and showed plenty of composure knocking down the two foul shots for a 37-36 lead.

Wood took a timeout after the second free throw to draw up a play, but once Allen had to go get the ball, she knew going to the rim was her best option.

“I knew if I went to the rim and had a strong take, I could draw that contact and hopefully get to the line,” Allen said. “I’ve been working on keeping every missed shot behind me and just focusing on the next play and I think I’ve improved at that a lot. It’s a short game and you have to keep on going, which I think I did at the end.”

Wood will face second seed Cardinal O’Hara, a 57-40 winner over No. 3 West Catholic, in the PCL title game Sunday. The contest, slated for a 4 p.m. start at Archbishop Carroll is the third meeting between the teams with each winning on their home floor during the regular season.

The Vikings have lost the last two years in the PCL final and although Sunday’s game won’t be at the Palestra, they’re still plenty eager to try and come out with a better outcome. Thanks to Allen putting herself right in the position she wanted to be, Archbishop Wood will have that opportunity.

“Everyone knows me as a three-point shooter and they play me to that, so I have to be more versatile,” Allen said. “I just knew when the time came, I’d be ready to step up for my time and this was the night where it happened.”

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 38, ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 37
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 8 5 15 10 – 38
ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 6 12 9 10 – 37
Archbishop Wood: Ryanne Allen 5 7-8 19, Kaitlyn Orihel 5 3-5 13, Bri Bowen 1 0-0 2, Noelle Baxter 1 0-0 2, Dana Kiefer 1 0-0 2. Totals: 13 10-15 38.
Archbishop Carroll: Grace O’Neill 3 11-14 18, Taylor Wilson 1 0-0 2, Maggie Grant 2 0-0 6, Brooke Wilson 3 1-2 7, Courtland Schumacher 2 0-0 4. Totals: 11 12-16 37.
3-pointers: AW – Allen 2; AC – Grant 2, O’Neill