Sacred Heart has no answer for Clark, Mahanoy in states opener
UPPER DARBY — Mahanoy Area senior guard Claudia Clark was pretty much unstoppable Tuesday night.
Sacred Heart coach Zach Shuler had nothing but praise for the senior guard, who simply couldn’t miss in a PIAA Class 2A first-round contest at Bonner-Prendergast.
For a fourth straight year, the Lions were eliminated in the state playoffs by the District 11 champs. Behind Clark’s 26-point performance, Mahanoy rolled to a 46-19 victory.
“We tried to go man and put Mary Lauren Franz (on Clark), who is one of our fastest defenders, but they run their sets and they’re patient,” Shuler said. “It’s tough. She’s shooting it from NBA range, a lot of those shots. She’s good and once she gets on fire, look out.”
Clark shot 9-for-13 from the floor, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range. She accumulated all of her points in the first three quarters.
“They have all five players who can pass and shoot, and when you have that, it’s a luxury,” Shuler said. “They obviously have played together for a while and they know each other and they have great ball movement. We went zone in the second half, but they hit two 3s right off the bat, so we had to get out of it. We tried trapping, but it was tough. They’re a great team, hats off to them. (Coach) Eric (Moucheron) does a great job and they’re a good, good team.”
Sacred Heart, which won its fifth straight District 1 championship last week, was competitive for the opening few minutes. Kathryn Gallagher hit a layup to cut Mahanoy’s early lead to 6-4. But the Golden Bears settled in and ripped off 14 straight points over the first and second quarters. Sacred Heart went nearly seven minutes without a basket until junior Ainsley Davis banked a 3-pointer to make it 20-7. By then, Mahanoy was on cruise control. Mahanoy tallied seven of the final eight points of the second period and led at the break, 27-8.
The Lions got good looks at the basket, but struggled to convert. They shot 7-for-41 from the field, while Mahanoy made 18 of 37 attempts.
“At the end of the day, I feel like we got good shots and we started off the first half really strong,” Davis said. “But you just need to see the ball go in the basket and early on we weren’t seeing that, so I’m thinking it was just that our shots weren’t falling and then that kind of discouraged us. We didn’t really bring the confidence we needed in the second half.”
Davis and Gallagher, both juniors and the leading scorers on the Lions, were held to seven and five points, respectively.
“We were confident in Ainsley and we were going to keep going to her. She did it for us in the district championship and she’s been great all year,” Shuler said. “Unfortunately I think we just rushed a little bit instead of keeping our eye on the target.”
Although the season didn’t end the way the Lions expected, the Lions are in good shape for next season. They will compete as one of the smallest schools in the unforgiving Catholic Academies League. The Lions enjoyed a nine-win season as an independent this year.
“I’m looking forward to next season because this season was definitely weird,” Davis said. “I know what I need to work on. Next year it’s important for me to set the tone, step up and be a leader and just continue to bring the energy.”
