Archbishop Wood’s firepower too much for Lansdale Catholic in PCL quarterfinals

WARMINSTER >> After seeing Archbishop Wood earlier this season, Lansdale Catholic senior Lauren Crim had an idea what it would take to beat the Vikings.

If the No. 7 seeded Crusaders wanted to spring the upset of the No. 2 Vikings, they were going to have to play almost flawlessly. In the first half, they did a lot of things well but the basket was not being kind to them while Wood was doing its usual thing of hitting clutch 3-pointers.

LC gave everything it had, but ultimately fell short 63-33 in their PCL quarterfinal game Thursday night.

“I went into the locker room and said I’d never been so tired after a half of basketball,” Crim said. “They’re just pressing nonstop and it’s tough when our shots aren’t going in. We almost have to play perfect to beat them and it just wasn’t our night.”

Crim and Brady Wassel, the team’s only two seniors, saw their terrific careers come to an end with the loss on Thursday. With the PCL’s other 4A team, Bonner & Prendergast, finishing ahead of LC, the Crusaders (16-8) would have needed to win the entire PCL tournament to make a second straight trip to states.

Outside of Crim and Wassel, who are both continuing their careers in college, the Crusaders were an extremely young team and as Crim noted, they played some of their most important games early in the season. Still, the guard couldn’t have been more proud of her team and said it still hadn’t sank in that her time as an LC basketball player was ending.

“For the last four years, they’ve been everything to this program,” LC coach Joe Mack Jr. said of Crim and Wassel. “They were always the ones first to open gym and always the last to go, getting extra shots in, working on defensive schemes and asking us questions. They’ve been great for our program and I’m going to miss them.”

Wood (17-6) looked like a team that hadn’t played in more than a week, its usual sharp cuts and crisp passes weren’t quite there in the first quarter. The Vikings were also getting out-hustled on the boards, and Caitlin Rosenberger’s basket made it a 6-6 game with 2:24 left in the opening frame.

After the Crusaders pulled within a point at 8-7 on Crim’s free throw, the Vikings started to shake off some of the rust. Lindsay Tretter found Katie May at the top of the arc for a three with 37 seconds left, then the two reversed roles on an inbounds play with a couple seconds left and May hit Tretter for the trey and a 14-7 lead after the opening period.

“We had to get more stops, we were fouling way too much,” May said. “I think it was some rust, we had to get back into it. We have to try to simulate games as much as possible and it’s hard to do that but you get something out of it if you’re pushing the girl you’re guarding and I felt we did that.”

GIRLS BASKETBALL: @WoodGirlsBball @mia_andrews10 with a steal, a save on a pass and an assist on Erin Morgan’s Q2 three against Lansdale Catholic. Andrews had three steals in the quarter pic.twitter.com/tgcfZu1bTx

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 16, 2018

LC, which also did a good job of drawing fouls in the first half, cut Wood’s lead down to 16-12 on a pair of Crim foul shots with 5:33 left in the second frame. May drove baseline and scored and Mia Andrews came up with a steal and went all the way down the floor for a layup to stretch the lead back out.

Andrews was a spark for Wood in the second, coming up with three steals and hustling to save an errant pass, kicking it out to Erin Morgan for a three and a 26-13 lead with 2:46 remaining in the half. Wood held a comfortable lead for most of the latter half of the second quarter, but LC continued to work hard on the glass and got a couple second chance baskets late in the half to pull within 28-17 at the break.

“Any given girl can step up on a given night and we know with an extra pass, a girl’s probably knocking down a three because we have such great shooters,” May said. “We have such even scoring that it’s hard to guard.”

The Vikings got good defensive minutes off their bench and maintained their pressure defense most of the game, with a number of different players guarding Crim and Wassel. Wood coach Mike McDonald said the Crusaders weren’t going to just go away and his priority was trying to make whatever shots Wassel and Crim got as difficult as possible.

Annie Whalen scored all 10 of her points in the third quarter as Wood pushed its lead out to 48-27 at the end of the frame. As a team, the Vikings hit nine 3-pointers with six different players burying at least one look from behind the arc.

Wood finished with four players in double figure scoring and May was nearly a fifth with nine points. The senior forward, who is committed to Northeastern, also filled the sheet with nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals.

“That’s what makes her so good, it’s not just scoring the ball,” McDonald said. “She can shoot it if she’s open, but she does all the other things, 95 percent of the game is without the ball and she really excels at all of it.”

Wood faces Cardinal O’Hara next Tuesday at Jefferson University in the PCL semifinals. Senior Bridget Arcidiacono had 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks for the Vikings.

GIRLS BASKETBALL: @WoodGirlsBball @kaitlynorihel steps back and hits a Q2 three against Lansdale Catholic. Orihel led Wood with 12 points pic.twitter.com/pl755x447E

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 16, 2018

LC’s season ends, but Crim was optimistic the young core of players behind her and Wassel would be able to capitalize on their potential. Both four-year players, they were the last ones standing from their freshman class and will leave a significant imprint on the program.

“We’ve been on varsity together, I think we had nine freshmen and we were the only two that stayed so we really stuck together,” Crim said. “I have faith in this team, it’s tough to leave but they’re going to do great the next few years.”

ARCHBISHOP WOOD 63, LANSDALE CATHOLIC 33
LANSDALE CATHOLIC 7 10 10 6 – 33
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 14 14 20 15 – 63
Lansdale Catholic: Lauren Crim 2 5-7 9, Olivia Schneider 1 1-2 3, Carolyn Ferko 1 2-2 4, Kristina Finkelston 2 5-6 9, Brady Wassel 0 2-4 2, Caitlin Rothenberger 1 0-0 2, Timaya Lewis 1 0-0 2, Riley DiVitis 1 0-0 2. Totals: 9 15-21 33.
Archbishop Wood: Kaitlyn Orihel 5 0-2 12, Bridget Arcidiacono 4 2-2 10, Annie Whalen 3 2-2 10, Erin Morgan 1 0-0 3, Katie May 3 2-2 9, Ryleigh Parsons 3 0-0 6, Mia Andrews 4 0-0 10, Lindsay Tretter 1 0-0 3. Totals: 24 6-8 63.
3-pointers: AW – Orihel 2, Whalen 2, Andrews 2, May, Morgan, Tretter.