Archbishop Wood follows Orihel past Villa Maria to win 4A state title

HERSHEY >> One by one, each player and coach for Archbishop Wood put a hand in the air to break their last huddle before becoming state champions.

Just 6.2 seconds later, the final horn sounded and four years of waiting had ended as the Vikings stormed the Giant Center floor, PIAA winners once again. It was Wood’s mission all season.

Kaitlyn Orihel played closer in the second half and Wood followed her lead to a 44-34 win over District 10 champion Villa Maria in the PIAA Class 4A girls basketball title game Saturday afternoon.

“It was everything I’d hoped it would be,” Orihel, who scored 20 of her 25 points in the second half, said. “We love celebrating each other, so to storm the court and celebrate this win with the entire team, it was the best feeling I could have wanted.”

Wood lifted its first state title since the 2016-17 season and the sixth overall for the program. Coach Mike McDonald, the one in the middle of that last team huddle telling his players they were the first.

Saturday’s game did not play out in a typical Wood manner. Only three Vikings – Orihel, Ryanne Allen and Shannon Morgan – scored, only four even took shots and they never got into the up-and-down rampaging offensive attack that fueled their postseason run starting with the PCL championship game.

Facing an undefeated Villa Maria team that wanted to play deliberate and hammer the ball into the floor for long stretches, the Vikings had to battle their frustration as much as the opponent.

Allen started well, scoring 11 of her 17 points in the first half on just six shots but the Vikings could never pull away with Villa Maria keeping the game at its pace. Wood’s defense, usually very disruptive, did cause a few turnovers but for the most part, the Victors were able to beat the Vikings’ double-teams with passing.

“We wanted to get them to run and to be honest, we were struggling a little bit in that first half of what we wanted them to do,” McDonald said. “When we ran and doubled, they did a good job of getting it to the kid in the middle when our other kids were in the corners. And if we ran at it, then we were giving them an easy kick-out to someone who can shoot and we got lucky they missed a couple.”

Wood has shown a knack for adapting, whether it was to things off the floor like a state-mandated shutdown in preseason or having to play games in face masks, to things on the floor like how they were being defended. Allen, who didn’t score in the third quarter but had six points in the final frame to help ice things, said Saturday was just another challenge to figure out.

They would have preferred a more balanced game like the one they had against Scranton Prep or the team shooting like against Gwynedd Mercy but beating Villa Maria was going to be done differently.

“All season has been about adapting to new things,” Allen said. “Coming here, we felt we were the better team and winning the game would mean coming together like we have all season. That’s what we did, people stepped up in different roles, our bench gave us a lot of energy and we knew this was our last game together and we wanted to send the seniors off right.”

A 3-pointer by Villa Maria’s Carissa Dunham cut Wood’s lead to 22-21 with 2:35 left in the third. Orihel and Noelle Baxter had seen enough by that point.

Wood’s senior duo, playing their last game together after nine years as teammates, picked the Victors defense apart in the quarter. Orihel had all 10 of the Vikings’ points in the quarter with the last six coming on consecutive and-ones that gave the PCL champions a 28-21 lead going to the third.

“The whole team, we’ll do whatever we have to do to win,” Orihel said. “Whether that’s four of us in double-figures or me and Ryanne scoring most of the points, we’re still going to celebrate everyone

“Once we started pressuring the ball, it definitely helped. Just standing back and staring at them, it gets to be a little frustrating.”

Villa Maria cut the lead to 32-27 with 3:17 left but Wood responded with the next eight points to finally build a double-digit advantage. Allen scored the first basket of the run off an assist by Orihel, then got a great pass by Bri Bowen to put Wood up 38-27 with two minutes to play.

“It feels amazing,” Allen said. “After you make those layups, you just know. It’s special to be able to do that and to have Kaitlyn to make those foul shots at the end to cap off her high school career, it was pretty cool.”

Four years ago, Orihel and Baxter were on the losing end of a state title game in Hershey and made it their mission to get back and make amends. Last year’s season ending before they had a chance only added more fuel to that fire.

With 19.5 seconds left and Orihel at the line adding two more points to her program-record total, the rest of Wood’s starters subbed out.

“It was amazing, I was still high-strung to the end like always,” Baxter said. “Once we started putting the subs in, I started to feel it. I gave all the coaches a hug, then Coach Mike, it just felt really good.”

All that remained was one last huddle at the end of one last timeout before Archbishop Wood was state champion once again.

“The end of the game was how we want to play and we ended up on top because of it,” Orihel said. “Walking into the gym at Wood, seeing all the banners and knowing all the great players that came before us, it’s just cool that when we go back to visit, we’ll see our banner with 2021 PCL and state champions.

“Individual accolades are great but championships, they never go away.”

Archbishop Wood 44, Villa Maria 34

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 9 9 10 16 – 44

VILLA MARIA 9 7 5 13 – 34

AW: Kaitlyn Orihel 8 9-10 25, Ryanne Allen 7 2-3 17, Shannon Morgan 1 0-0 2, Bri Bowen 0 0-1 0, Noelle Baxter 0 0-0 0, Dana Kiefer 0 0-0 0, Delaney Finnegan 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 11-14 44

VM: Rachel Majewski 1 0-0 3, Carissa Dunham 3 0-0 8, Anthony Thunell 1 2-2 4, Ava Waid 4 3-4 11, Jayden McBride 2 2-2 6, Tori Myers 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 7-8 34

3-pointers: AW – Allen, VM – Dunham 2, Majewski