LOWER GWYNEDD — For Faith Ambrose, it just ended up being her that had the good look from behind the 3-point line.
“It feels good that my teammates trust me with those shots but I think it could’ve been anyone,” the Bishop Shanahan senior said. “It was just kind of the ball’s my hands at those times, so just ready to shoot.”
Ambrose came through with clutch baskets throughout the visiting No. 9 Eagles’ District 1-5A girls baskteball quarterfinal with top-seeded Gwynedd Mercy and with contested knotted a 43 in the fourth quarter, delivered again — connecting on her fifth 3-pointer to put Shanahan ahead.
“I saw that there’s no one really at the top, I saw it was open,” Ambrose said. “And I knew there wasn’t much time left and it was tied and I shot it and it went in luckily.”
The Monarchs — who rallied from a 15-point second-quarter deficit — were still within three in the final seconds but Emilia Coleman’s three from the top of the arc at the buzzer came up short as Bishop Shanahan held on for its second-straight upset, knocking off GMA 47-44.
“It bounced on the rim and I thought it was going to roll back but it rolled forward so that was kind of annoying,” Coleman said. “But it is what it is.”
Ambrose had half of the Eagles’ 10 3-pointers, finishing with a team-high 20 points as Shanahan (12-11) both qualified for the PIAA tournament and reached district semifinals for a third straight season.
The Eagles, who topped No. 8 Upper Moreland on the road last Friday in the first round, visit No. 4 West Chester Rustin — a 61-33 winner over No. 5 Lower Moreland — Friday for a spot in the 5A final.
“It definitely feels really good cause I think we all had high expectations at the beginning of the season and at the start it didn’t go as we planned,” Ambrose said. “But now we’re back, we’re in states making a good run and I think all our team is really contributing to help us win so it feels good.”
Shanahan and GMA were meeting in districts for the second straight year, the Eagles defeating the Monarchs 36-26 in last season’s 5A third-place game.
Coleman hit five 3-pointers in leading all scorers with 22 points for the AACA champ Monarchs (20-5), who now must go through playbacks to secure their 10th straight state appearance. GMA hosts Lower Moreland 4 p.m. Saturday — winner clinches a PIAA berth with the loser having its season end.
“It’s going to be a good game on Saturday whoever we play and we have to be there — come out and show out,” Coleman said.
A Coleman 3-pointer gave Gwynedd Mercy a 41-40 edge with a basket by the sophomore extending the margin to 43-40. But Carmel Ambrose hit the last of three 3-pointers to tie the game at 43 with Faith Ambrose making the Eagles’ 10th triple to give them a 46-43 lead.
“If it’s not on, it definitely hurts us but when we are on those are our best games and we’ve been doing really well,” said Faith Ambrose of the Eagles’ 3-pointer shooting.
GMA’s Cara Lapp was fouled on a putback try with 38.2 seconds remaining and made the second of two free throws to have the Monarchs down 46-44.
With 11.3 seconds, Faith Ambrose went to the line after Gwynedd’s fifth foul and hit her second for a 47-44 Eagles lead. The Monarchs’ final possession came after a sideline inbounds with 5.9 seconds, Coleman’s shot for the tie could not connect.
“It definitely got stressful as they started making their shots and coming back but we’ve been in a lot of those games this year so I feel like we’ve just been prepared,” Faith Ambrose said. “And, I mean, it’s the playoffs so we really wanted to win and I think we just stayed focused on our goal and didn’t let it have negative effects on the court.”
Shanahan’s Abby Wolf opened Tuesday’s scoring converting three at the line after getting fouled on a 3-pointer attempt. The Eagles proceeded to hit four times beyond the arc in the first quarter — Faith Ambrose hitting a deep, high-arching triple at the buzzer after an inbounds with 1.6 seconds left for a 19-8 Shanahan lead.
“It looked on target so I was hoping it was going in,” Faith Ambrose said. “Yeah, felt good.”
A Lauren Foster trey gave Shanahan its largest lead at 24-9 before Bailey Balkir provided GMA a spark with five straight points. Lapp’s 3-pointer capped an 8-0 Monarchs run to cut their deficit to 24-17 before a Faith Ambrose basket had Bishop Shanahan up nine at halftime.
Faith Ambrose began the third with a three, pushing the Eagles’ lead to a 29-17 but Gwynedd Mercy scored the next six, Coleman’s trey pulling the hosts to within 29-23.
After a Carmel Ambrose 3-pointer gave Shanahan a 34-25 advantage, the Monarchs responded with a 10-0 run to grab their first lead of the game.
“I think we definitely slowed the ball down more and we were more careful with our passes and our shots, we took more time,” Coleman said. “And defensively we went zone which was really helpful, we used our length to our advantage.”
Coleman’s three had GMA down 34-31 while Ali Kaltenbacher, who was active rebounding throughout the contest, was fouled after grabbing a missed 3-pointer and hit both at the line to make it 34-33 with 1:39 left in the third. Lapp’s fast-break layup off a feed from Meg McDonnell put Gwynedd up 35-34.
Shanahan, however, took the lead into the fourth — Carmel Ambrose collecting an offensive rebound then finding Faith Ambrose for a three from the left wing made it 37-35.
A Balkir bucket had GMA level before Faith Ambrose scored on a drive for a 39-37 Shanahan advantage. After a free throw by each side made it 40-38, Coleman collected the next five points, giving Gwynedd its largest lead of the game at 43-40.
Bishop Shanahan 47, Gwynedd Mercy 44
Bishop Shanahan 19 7 11 10 – 47
Gwynedd Mercy 8 9 18 9 – 44
Bishop Shanahan: Faith Ambrose 2 5 1-2 20; Carmel Ambrose 0 3 0-0 9; Abby Wolf 1 1 3-3 8; Lauren Foster 1 1 0-0 5; Sam Blumenthal 2 0 0-0 4; Taylor Bollenbach 0 0 1-2 1; 6 10 5-7 47.
Gwynedd Mercy: Emilia Coleman 3 5 1-2 22; Bailey Balkir 3 0 1-3 7; Ali Kaltenbacher 1 0 4-7 6; Cara Lapp 1 1 1-2 6; Meg McDonnell 1 0 1-2 3; Totals 9 6 8-16 44.
