Defense carries Shanahan past Rustin for third-place district finish

WESTTOWN >> Aside from a few emotional parents, the boisterous voice of Bishop Shanahan head coach Fran Burbidge boomed the loudest inside the gymnasium on Friday evening as his Eagles cruised to 48-34 road win over the West Chester Rustin Golden Knights to secure the No. 3 seed out of District 1 in the upcoming PIAA Class 5A Tournament.

Shanahan will open play next Saturday against Lower Dauphin, the third-place team out of District 3. Rustin will kick off state play against the loser of Saturday’s District 3 final between Harrisburg and Susquehannock.

Friday night, Shanahan was led by senior Courtney Warley, who scored a cool 17 points enroute to the victory. Warley put immense pressure on the Knights’ interior defense, as Rustin simply did not have the personnel to combat her combination of grace and physicality inside.

“We always talk about playing inside-out,” Burbidge said after the win. “Because we have Warley we don’t want to pass up the opportunities to get and shoot the ball from two or three feet.”

Shanahan did an excellent job early in the game of disrupting Rustin’s offensive rhythm by coercing the Knights into several bad turnovers, and Rustin was never able to regain traction as the Eagles’ suffocating defense knocked the Knights off their game.

Rustin scored just four points in the first half, thanks to buckets from leading scorer Maggie O’Hare and Erin Gallagher.

The Knights started off the third quarter with more vigor as their on-ball pressure forced a few turnovers, which led to back-to-back 3-pointers by Rebecca Magrone. But that brief Rustin hum was hushed as the Eagles regrouped and went on a surge to secure a 20-point lead midway through the third.

Shanahan did an exceptional job honing in on O’Hare, clouding her vision with multiple defenders and forcing the Knights to look elsewhere to muster up some offense. O’Hare favors the 3-point line and the elbow, and she was unable to establish herself in both of those areas on the floor.

Gallagher and Lexi Zavitsky were called upon to generate some points for the Knights’ offense as O’Hare scrapped with Shanahan’s Jen Sendi, who drew the defensive assignment of the high-scoring guard. But the two were unable to provide much in the way of points.

Gallagher shot three for 12 from the floor including missing all five attempts from downtown, while Zavitsky was three for eight from the field and failed to connect on her lone 3-point attempt.

When asked why the Eagles were so precise in stymieing the Knights’ attack, Rustin head coach Jim Powers credited the offensive woes to a stout Shanahan defense along with his team fighting a touch of the jitters.

“First half… let’s say it was a combination of really good defense on Shanahan’s part, and we didn’t execute,” Powers said. “We had opportunities to finish. … I think we missed seven layups in the first half. That’s tough.”

Rustin’s offensive sets didn’t amount to much, doomed by stagnation and poor spacing. This proved to be a stark contrast from the style of Shanahan, whose offense was fueled by space, pace and ball movement.

Shanahan opened the game by getting two easy looks at the basket via some solid ball-reversal action, and they continued to find crevices in the Golden Knights’ defense by playing inside-out. Aside from a wayward stretch at the beginning of the third quarter, Warley and the Eagles’ guard tandem of Sammie McCarter and Kelly Basile remained patient and composed with the ball for the duration of the contest.

Rustin seemed bit rushed in its approach, and when asked what tweaks his team will make going into the state Tournament, Powers said his team will “get in the gym and concentration on knocking their shots down,” something they failed to do in the loss to Shanahan.

As for the Eagles, Burbidge wants to see his team come out with “the mindset of not letting turnovers and missed shots affect our defensive stances, our defensive intensity and our rebounding of the basketball.”

The state tournament will begin next Saturday, March 11, with games played at neutral sites.

Bishop Shanahan 48, W.C. Rustin 34
Bishop Shanahan: McCarter 4 1-2 9, Greenhunt 0 0-3 0, Greenhut 0 2-2 2, Hinkley 1 0-0 3, Sendi 4 0-0 10, Warley 7 3-7 17, Cox 0 2-2 2, DiMarco 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 8-16 48.
W.C. Rustin: O’Hare 3 3-3 9,Gallagher 3 2-2 8, Zavitsky 3 2-2 9, Magrone 2 0-0 6, Costin 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 7-7 34.
Bishop Shanahan    11    15    13    9 – 48
W.C. Rustin    2    2    17    13 – 34
3-point goals: Margone 2, Sendi 2, Hinkley, McCarter.