PIAA Class 6A Girls Basketball: Big third quarter boosts O’Hara past Conestoga

RADNOR — To learn how to be a successful girls basketball team on the big stages takes time and lessons learned.

Friday night was one of those lesssons.

Cardinal O’Hara took advantage of a third-quarter lapse by Conestoga to build a lead and the Lions held on to post a 50-42 victory in the opening round of the PIAA Class 6A tournament at Archbishop Carroll.

The Lions (21-5), the District 12 champions, advance to the second round where they will face Spring-Ford at a time and place to be determined on Tuesday. The Pioneers, the 11th seed out of District 1, ended their season at 21-7.

“I thought we grinded it out,” O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan said. “We knew Conestoga was much improved. They have a couple of real good players. We wanted to use our transition to get us going. I feel we came out of halftime real strong.”

O’Hara came out and took its time building a lead. It stretched to 13-7 after junior Carly Coleman hit a baseline jumper and the free throw after being fouled with a second left in the first.

Conestoga stayed in contact in the second quarter, however. The Pioneers took their only lead of the game as heralded freshman Ryann Jennings buried a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 19-18 late in the quarter.

 

But O’Hara came right back and Megan Rullo buried a three in the left corner to pull the lead back, 21-19 at halftime.

“It’s been a while since we were last on the court. It was fun to get our legs moving again,” the Lions’ Molly Rullo said. “It’s always a great atmosphere to play in. It was fun.”

O’Hara took control out of the break by going on 10-2 run to begin the third quarter. Joanie Quinn and Coleman had five points each to fuel the spurt.

“We had some defensive lapses and they hit some threes,” Conestoga coach AJ Thompson said. “I told the girls, if you leave a good team open, they’re are going to knock down those shots, especially in the state tournament.”

The lead ballooned to as much as 10, 31-21, with 3:40 left in the third. The Pioneers entered the fourth trailing, 39-28.

‘Stoga scored the first four points of the fourth on two free throws by Marisa Franscione and a 10-foot jumper by Janie Preston to cut the deficit to 39-32. Rullo was left alone and drove to the basket and scored for a 41-32 advantage.

The Lions took the air out of the ball and put on a master’s class on handling the ball in the half court. Despite being hounded by the Pioneers, intent on forcing a turnover, O’Hara kept the turnover sheet clean.

“They did a great job and I went with experience,” Doogan said. “It wasn’t by design that we held the ball. I kept telling them if they had a layup, go make the layup. We were able to make the free throws.”

Unable to get O’Hara to make a miscue, Conestoga was forced to put the Lions on the line. That didn’t turn out much better, as O’Hara made 9-of-10 from the line down the stretch, with Quinn doing most of the damage, making all eight of her attempts.

“Huge,” Doogan said. “It’s been a little up and down this year, so it was nice to have Joanie on the line and I have all the confidence in the world she would make those.”

Quinn led the Lions with 18 points — 16 in the second half – while Molly Rullo added 15 and Coleman notched 10.

In another PIAA Class 6A opener:

Springfield 58, Central 41 >> The Cougars seemed to enjoy playing in Archbishop Ryan’s gym Friday.

Springfield, which placed eighth in the District 1 Class 6A tournament, received scoring contributions from several players in this PIAA Class 6A opener. Kaitlyn Kearney led four players in double figures with 14 points to take down the District 12 runners-up.

Lexi Aaron added 12 points and Cora Fattori netted 11 for the Cougars (21-8), who face the winner of Saturday’s game between Wyoming Valley West and Abington in Tuesday’s second round.

Anabel Kreydt recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Taylor Hunyet finished with nine points.