Catholic League Girls Basketball: Brooke Wilson, Carroll repel O’Hara’s comeback bid

PHILADELPHIA – No lead is safe when Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara go head to head.

Carroll almost learned that the hard way. Brooke Wilson made sure the Patriots survived a furious O’Hara comeback bid Tuesday evening at Saint Joseph’s University City campus.

Leading by 20 points at intermission, the Patriots were well on their way – or so they thought – to The Palestra next Monday to play for the Philadelphia Catholic League championship. O’Hara had other intentions.

Wilson drove to the basket and scored twice on successive possessions in the fourth quarter, shortly after Molly Rullo had made a bucket to pull O’Hara within three points. Wilson, a senior guard/forward and Army commit, pushed her team across the finish line. Despite being outscored by 13 points in the second half, Carroll defeated rival O’Hara, 45-38.

Carroll will meet Archbishop Wood in the Catholic League final.

“I’ve played so many years of Carroll basketball, so many games. I’m finally starting to learn to take a deep breath and slow down,” said Wilson, who scored five of her eight points in the final quarter. She added five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

“You can control how fast you play, you can control the tempo no matter if it’s going in their favor or they’re on a run. Just take a deep breath and control this play. That’s what I told everyone. … We had a lot of turnovers (12 in the second half) and a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day we did pull it out. It was all about our patience, taking our time and taking a deep breath.”

The Lions, who were the No. 2 seed in the tournament, had dug themselves a hole against the third-seeded Patriots. Too big a hole. But they were not resigned to defeat. It wasn’t long ago (Jan. 31) that O’Hara rolled to a relatively easy win at Carroll.

The rematch saw the Patriots come out on fire. They banked three 3-pointers in the first quarter and shot 10-for-14 from the floor in the opening half. O’Hara struggled to a 3-for-18 performance. Many of the Lions’ misses came from high percentage areas of the floor.

“I think the first half showed how good we are, how good we can be and all our work in practice,” Wilson said. “I mean, we executed. Going into the game that was one of our goals, to execute. I think we did just that. They missed a lot of shots, but they were hard shots to make. In the second half it just showed how we played as a team. We can play much better than that but at the end of the day we played as a team and we played as one. I had to channel my old reckless self at the end.”

That is a good thing for the Patriots. They needed their star player to take control. Wilson played most of the fourth quarter on four fouls. She sat briefly, but after Joanie Quinn hit a three-point play to cut the O’Hara deficit to 34-30 with 4:46 remaining, Wilson checked back in.

“I just knew I had to be smart,” she said. “I tried to get two charges which was probably stupid on my part. The way the game was going I shouldn’t have done that. Playing smart and not doing anything stupid.”

Alexis Eberz hit three foul shots in the fourth quarter to help the Patriots seal the win. She swished a 3-point shot in the waning seconds of the first half to give Carroll a commanding 28-8 lead.

“We had to stay composed because we know they are a great team. They made a run,” Eberz said. “We had to keep our confidence up and keep our composure.”

Maddie McFillin had a tremendous floor game with five points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals for the Patriots. Her sisters Felicity (five points) and Abby (eight points) were key contributors as well. Bridget Archbold gave Carroll a strong effort off the bench.

Quinn was outstanding for O’Hara. She powered the Lions’ comeback attempt with 10 points in the third quarter. The La Salle recruit ended with 17 points, four steals and two assists. Rullo had eight of her nine points in the second half and forward Carly Coleman chipped in seven points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.

O’Hara and Carroll could meet again in the PIAA Class 6A tournament. Last season the Patriots beat the Lions to advance to the state final.

In a District 1 Class 2A semifinal:

Sacred Heart 47, Calvary Christian 18 >> Keara McCaffrey dominated early for the Lions, scoring nine of her game-high 15 points in the first period. Maya Walker and Megan Donahoe added seven points each.

Sacred Heart will play for the district title Saturday afternoon at Bensalem High.