WEST NORRITON — Give the ball to Emily Knouse and good things will happen.
Archbishop Wood’s offensive approach in the first half of Tuesday’s PIAA 5A semifinal basically boiled down to pass the ball to Knouse and let the junior decide what to do next. Knouse’s monster first half, coupled with stellar Lauren Greer defense, put Wood on track to get where it wanted to go.
A 26-point Knouse outing propelled the Vikings past Bethlehem Catholic 53-30, putting Wood in its fourth straight state title game.
“I was just taking what they were giving me, they were switching it up, it seemed to be every other possession,” Knouse said. “They seemed to have a little bit of trouble guarding those flare screens and my teammates do a great job of passing right on the line to me. I just happened to be knocking them down.”
Knouse scored Wood’s first basket, then 10 straight points to end the first quarter. She opened the second with back-to-back buckets, the second an and-one layup, for a personal 14-0 run that eclipsed Becahi’s entire offensive output in the first half.
Throughout the season, Knouse showed more and more of her offensive skillset, adding high post jumpers, drives, rip-throughs and post work to accent her dead-eye perimeter shooting. The St. Joe’s recruit chalked it up as a result of having to play as Wood’s “big” in the starting lineup but it’s also a credit to her for adding that versatility to her play.
“I think it just developed over time,” Knouse said. “Definitely in the beginning of the season and definitely in fall leagues, I was still almost a complete perimeter shooter. I found myself more and more getting to the basket and to the foul line.”
Wood coach Mike McDonald has seen it pay off as well, Knouse having led Wood in scoring in all four state playoff games thus far. The junior had 20 points at halftime and nearly sank a deep three at the buzzer to boot, giving Wood a robust 28-13 lead.
“She started driving, ripping, posting up and scoring in that area and now she just has the confidence to do it all,” McDonald said. “It’s incredible growth for her as a junior and it’s been so impressive to watch her game grow throughout this season, she can score in all different facets now.”
Knouse came out of the halftime break and quickly found Lauren Greer for a three. It would be Greer’s only basket of the game but far, far from telling of the senior’s only impact on the game.
In the team huddle Monday afternoon at practice, Wood assistant Ray Horn said the key to the game against the Hawks would be stopping point guard Cici Hernandez. The Becahi senior is a dynamic player, using her shooting ability to free up some space to spray passes to teammates, so she really made it all go for the District 11 champs.
Greer’s drawn plenty of tough assignments all year and she wasn’t going to fail this test.
“Preparing for this game today in school, I was watching film and I was trying to pinpoint certain things she did and make sure I was prepared,” Greer said, adding she had a free period and wasn’t sneaking clips during class. “I could tell from watching games she’s a shooter so I tried to ride her off the three point line. I knew if she curled and got around where I chased her over top, she’d be shooting a jumper so I tried to stay on that and not leave my feet.”
Hernandez finished with five points and only made two shots in 11 attempts. Keeping her from scoring also kept her from creating and it was telling that in Wood’s team room after the game, it wasn’t Knouse who got the first shout-out.
“First person I mentioned was Lauren Greer,” McDonald said. “All the way to the last minute before we got subs in, she was up there fullcourt trying to make it hard for (Hernandez) to even get the ball in-bounds. It was game-changing.”
Wood will travel to the Giant Center on Saturday where it will attempt to win a fourth straight state title. No girls’ program has pulled that feat off since Allentown Central Catholic from 2001-04, and for all its success at the state level, Wood has never done it.
The Vikings will face a tough task in District 10 winner Cathedral Prep, formerly Villa Maria, a foe that Wood has come across a few times in Hershey.
“The seniors don’t want it to end, they wanted to get to Hershey and do it, and they’ve played like it,” McDonald said. “It’s a great group, everybody is bought in. They’re confident, they’re engaged and they’re doing whatever it takes now to play an extra game and I expect the same thing come Saturday in Hershey.”
Archbishop Wood 53, Bethlehem Catholic 30
Archbishop Wood 14 14 14 11 — 53
Bethlehem Catholic 8 5 13 4 — 30
Archbishop Wood: Emily Knouse 26, Ava Renninger 14, Alexa Windish 6, Lauren Greer 3, Makayla Finnegan 2, Sophia Topakas 2.
Bethlehem Catholic: Aliyah Brame 11, Akasha Santos 10, Cici Hernandez 5, Daviana Jones 5.
