Girls’ Basketball: Fitzgerald, Pope John Paul II edge Upper Merion 32-26 to reach PAC semifinals

ROYERSFORD — If the screams of joy from inside the locker room were any indication, Grace Fitzgerald and her Pope John Paul II basketball teammates cared very little about style points.

Having not won a Pioneer Athletic Conference playoff game since 2019, the Golden Panthers were elated just to win at all in a tournament that had left them deflated the last few years.

On a night when smooth, rhythmic offense was at a premium, Fitzgerald was the outlier for PJP. The junior forward scored a game-high 14 points, including four straight makes in the second half that helped the No. 4 seed Golden Panthers outlast No. 5 Upper Merion 32-26 in Thursday night’s PAC quarterfinals at Spring-Ford.

“It feels great,” Fitzgerald said of her first taste of PAC postseason victory. “It’s so exciting to know I have another game and the seniors have another game. We worked hard and communicated on defense the entire game. Playing together was the key. Effort is always a thing we need to be focusing on, and tonight, it was there.”

PJP advanced to Saturday’s semifinals to play top-seeded Perkiomen Valley, a team that has lost just one game all season. The game will tip off at 6 p.m.

It was a tough shooting night for both teams. PJP shot a solid 11 for 26 on two-pointers, but was just 1 of 8 from downtown and made only seven of its 19 foul shots. Upper Merion, meanwhile, shot 8 for 38 from the field and could not get anything going offensively outside of sophomore guard Kennedy Coles, who scored a team-high 13 points for the Vikings.

“It’s pretty clear that we couldn’t put a beach ball in the ocean,” Upper Merion head coach Jen Stilwell lamented. “We missed so many shots. But I can’t deny how hard we worked on defense. They never quit, and that’s something we can have some pride about.”

Upper Merion’s only lead of the game was 1-0, and the Vikings were down 30-18 in the fourth quarter before a sudden 8-0 burst brought them to within four with under two minutes to play. However, it was too little too late as Fitzgerald and company put the finishing touches on a long-awaited victory.

Fitzgerald said the cold shooting and turnovers never got into her or her team’s heads.

“We focus on the next play,” she said. “(Head) Coach (Jack) Flanagan always drills that into our heads and tells us to stay positive. When you make a mistake, that really helps. That’s what creates the momentum to keep going and keep trying to get on a roll.”

Fitzgerald shot 6 of 14 from the field and 2 of 4 from the line, while sophomore guard Rylee Derecola chipped in eight points for the Golden Panthers (13-9). After the game, Flanagan noted the resilience of Fitzgerald even in the face of a mistake.

“The one thing I absolutely love about Grace is that you can coach her hard,” Flanagan said. “You can hold her accountable. Earlier in the game, she took a bad shot instead of pump-faking and going around her defender. I got on her about it, and later on she did the very thing that I had just told her to do. When you can coach good players hard, you can do some special things on the basketball court.”

Despite the tough loss for Upper Merion (13-10), there were still reasons to celebrate. This was the Vikings’ first trip to the PAC playoffs since 2018, and Stilwell spoke of the 2020-21 team that went 0-15 on the season. Three years later, that same program won 13 games and made it to the postseason; so, while the loss stings, as will the graduation of five seniors (Chloe Kokenberger, Olivia Smith, Avery Fox, Addie Eaton and Zaniyah Edwards), this is also a group that has come a long way in a short amount of time.

“Probably not a single person thought we would get out of the graveyard that we were in, but we did,” Stilwell said. “For three years we fought and fought and fought and got better every step of the way. They all bought into this program.”

Upper Merion sits at No. 12 in the District 1-5A rankings and is in position to qualify for the 12-team tournament.

As for the Golden Panthers, it will certainly take a crisper offensive effort to shock the PAC universe and upset a 21-1 Perkiomen Valley team that has been rolling all season. It’s unlikely many beyond those in that jubilant locker room believe it can be done, and that’s just fine with PJP.

“We have good shooters, a good offense and we work hard on defense,” Fitzgerald said. “We play together, and in hard times we stick together. As long as we stay confident and out of our own heads, everything is going to be OK.”

Of course, at a Catholic high school, a little prayer might not hurt, either.

“Before every game we say a Hail Mary — for Perk Valley we might have to say a Hail Mary and an Our Father,” Flanagan joked. “But to quote something my grandfather used to say, ‘Everything is tree tops right now.’ We’ve been a good team, but you want to take that next step by winning games that weren’t on your schedule when the season began.

“Tonight we were ready to make that next step, and now, the next step for us is Perkiomen Valley.”

Pope John Paul II 32, Upper Merion 26

Upper Merion 6 4 6 10 – 26

Pope John Paul II 9 8 9 6 –   32

Upper Merion: Coles 3 1 4-4 13, Maiden 0 1 3-4 6, Kokenberger 0 0 1-2 1, Smith 2 0 0-0 4, Fox 1 0 0-0 2, Jackson 0 0 0-2 0, Dougherty 0 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 2 8-12 26

Pope John Paul II: Derecola 3 0 2-4 8, Fitzgerald 6 0 2-4 14, Nilles 2 0 0-3 4, Vigliotta 0 1 2-4 5, Collilouri 0 0 0-2 0, Todd 0 0 1-2 1, Albeck 0 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 1 7-19 32