District 1 Class 2A Girls Basketball: Sacred Heart makes it six straight titles
LOWER MERION – Winning a District 1 championship never gets old, no matter how many titles a team piles up.
Just ask the basketball players from Sacred Heart Academy.
Since the PIAA went to six classifications in 2017, the Lions are the only team to win the Class 2A crown.
Second-seeded Sacred Heart wrapped up its sixth straight district title with a 49-32 victory over top-seeded Delco Christian Saturday afternoon at Harriton.
“It’s always exciting,” senior guard Kyra Santora said. “We were nervous this year. We had some injuries and other setbacks, but we wanted to get that sixth one because there are six seniors on the team. We didn’t want to lose in our senior year.”
While freshman M.J. Donohue led the offense with a game-high 13 points, it was the seniors who came through in crunch time to send the Lions (9-10) to the PIAA tournament.
Santora scored five of her 10 points in a 39-second span after the Knights (16-10) cut the deficit to 22-16 early in the third quarter. Santora hit a layup and then buried a 3-pointer to trigger a 15-1 run that pushed the advantage to 37-17.
“We’ve been down in games before and come back and won,” Santora said. “I didn’t want them to do that to us. I wanted to keep up the energy and keep us going.”
Sacred Heart coach Zach Shuler wasn’t surprised that Santora came through when the Lions needed her most.
“Her confidence has really grown throughout the season,” Shuler said. “We’ve put her in different roles and she stepped up, whether it’s at point guard or shooting guard. She’s one of our better defenders and she’s come up big this year, but nothing like in the biggest moment of the championship. I’m so proud of her.”
He was also proud of senior Ainsley Davis, who saved eight of her 10 points for the second half. She scored six points in the fourth quarter as Sacred Heart stretched its lead to 48-24.
“They’ve been great leaders all year long,” Shuler said of his senior class. “Unfortunately, they’ve suffered some injuries. We were able to get Kathryn (Gallagher) back. She’s been out for about six weeks (with a back injury). I knew they would step up. Kyra Santora set the tone early with a big three and then another three later. And her defense was awesome. Ainsley and Kathryn came up big, too.”
Defense had a lot to do with the victory. The Lions forced 28 turnovers and held the Knights to 23 percent shooting overall (7-for-30) and just 1-for-9 from 3-point range. Sacred Heart scored nine points off 16 first-half turnovers. That just happened to be the spread at the break.
“Turnovers hurt us,” Delco Christian coach Stephen Poyser said. “We really haven’t been doing that lately. I guess the pressure that we faced today kind of rattled us a little bit.”
The pressure wasn’t anything new. The Knights beat the Lions, 38-18, at Sacred Heart on Feb. 4, but DC had junior point guard Sarah Stahl that day. They didn’t have her in the rematch after being injured in the Bicentennial League playoffs.
“We were able to get by Bristol without her,” Poyser said, “but we really missed her today against that pressure.”
The Knights struggled to find a rhythm on offense against the Lions. Melina Mxaku and Ahanti Harris led the way with seven points each, and Sydney Stevens added six points. But it wasn’t enough overcome Sacred Heart’s vast experience in championship games.
“Winning the championship has been our goal for the whole season,” Davis said. “We’ve won it every year since I’ve been on the team as a freshman and we want to keep it going. We want to win for the players who came before us. We get so much motivation from the classes that have graduated before us. At the end of the day it was all heart that carried us through.”
