Gwynedd Mercy can’t overcome slow start, falls to Bethlehem Catholic in PIAA-5A 2nd round

POTTSTOWN >> A quarter of play came and went in Wednesday night’s PIAA-6A second round contest and the Gwynedd Mercy girls basketball team’s point total still stood at zero.

“You can’t come out like that in states, you really can’t,” Monarchs senior guard Hannah Griffin said. “You can’t come out slow – you can’t come out shy, especially with defense. And offensively we weren’t getting the shots that we wanted.”

District 11 champion Bethlehem Catholic, meanwhile, collected 14 points in the first eight minutes and extended its opening run to 16 straight before Griffin connecting on a jumper finally got GMA on the scoreboard.

“I could tell cause I called two timeouts during that quarter and it was like ‘We’re not playing defense –we’re not playing defense,’” Gwynedd Mercy coach Tom Lonergan said. “Give credit to 24 (Kendra Rigo), they hit the two threes but they had eight points in the paint so of the 14, eight of ‘em was like uncontested layups. It was just effort – effort, focus or nerves, a combination of everything, I don’t know.”

The Monarchs got a few more shots to fall, tightened up a defense and in the fourth rallied to within six but their slow start was too much too overcome as Golden Hawks advanced to the quarterfinals with a 34-24 victory at Pottstown High School’s Strom Gymnasium.

“We give up 14 then we gave up 20 the rest of the way and four of them in foul shots at the end of the game,” Lonergan said. “That’s always been our trademark, is that we play defense so that’ why I was kind of disappointed the way we came out but not disappointed the way we finished.

“So I think being a young team, hopefully they can take the experience from this and moving forward into next season they can look back and say we’re not going to be the team that comes out of the gate the way we did last year.”

Rigo, a six-foot senior, knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in scoring 10 points in the first half – seven in the first quarter – and finished with a game-high 16 points as Bethlehem Catholic (19-9) reached the state’s final eight for the sixth time in the past eight seasons.

The Hawks face District 1 champ West Chester Rustin – a 49-46 winner over District 2 runner-up Abington Heights – Saturday at a time and place to be announced.

“For us, we did a good job mixing it up, keeping it off balance there like a good pitcher in baseball, right,” Becahi coach Jose Medina said. “So we wanted to keep them off balance and our girls did a great job. That was the game plan coming in and knowing where 15 (Griffin) was. Fifteen is like the straw that stirs the drink for them and we didn’t want to lose sight of her.

“Hey, they got some open looks and we had to tidy that up but the second half, hey, our girls hung on and that’s what this time of year, that’s what basketball is all about.”

Griffin, a Holy Cross commit, had nine points to pace Gwynedd Mercy (21-8), which was looking to reach the PIAA quarters for a third consecutive season but ended up having Bethlehem Catholic end its season for the fourth time since 2017. The Golden Hawks won their Class 4A semifinal matchup in ’17 then 4A second round contests in 2019 and 2020.

“I’m proud of the way we started to finish,” Griffin said. “The way we finished that third and fourth quarter is how Gwynedd basketball is and I think I’m just proud of them for picking it up.”

Griffin was one of three seniors on the Monarchs’ roster along with Morgan Newell and Mary Kate Donahue. Griffin and Newell were joined in Wednesday’s starting five by sophomore Cara Lapp and the freshman pair of Bailey Balkir and Emilia Coleman.

“I said to ‘em at the end here in the locker room, I said this team has a lot of potential and I put the potential in quotes, OK, what you do with that is going to be us to you between now and November,” Lonergan said. “I said because it’s now up to you to see are you going to be that player that can handle, knowing that Hannah’s moving onto Holy Cross, who’s going to pick up the ball-handling skills for us.

“We have a lot of players that can but you’re not quite there yet so you’re going to have to really work hard to get to that level.”

Bethlehem Catholic led 21-9 at halftime and still was up a dozen at the end of the third – a long two from Rigo making it 28-16.

Mekhyla Britt’s putback had the Golden Hawks ahead 30-16 but Griffin found Coleman for a basket inside while a Lapp 3-pointer had GMA down 30-21.

A Balkir free throw at 2:45 cut the margin to eight while a Balkir jumper after a steal made it 30-24. The Monarchs, however, could not collect another point while Becahi added its last four from the foul line.

“Our energy definitely just picked up and our attitude and I think we’re not people that are just going to let it go,” Griffin said. “We’re not just people that are just going to ‘You know, we’re down 10, whatever.’ No, we’re going to try to build back. And I think we came out really strong and we also just came out together as a team more, we start playing, we started passing, we started executing just a little better.”

In the first quarter, consecutive Rigo baskets inside had Bethlehem Catholic up 8-0. Ella Bincarosky hit a 3-pointer then assisted on Rigo’s corner triple in the final seconds that made it 14-0.

“She did a good job shooting the basketball today,” said Medina or Rigo. “She is a face four, she can really square up and today she was knocking ‘em down.”

After a Yarian Fernandez basket, Griffin broke through for the Monarchs with a jumper. Another Griffin basket had GMA down 16-4 before Rigo hit a 3-pointer. A Balkir trey made it 19-7 with Gwynedd Mercy going into halftime down 12 at 21-9 after a Lapp bucket.

Griffin’s 3-pointer to open the scoring in the third cut the margin to 21-12 but Cici Hernandez’s triple put the Hawks back up by a dozen. The Monarchs got within 10 twice – the second time on a Lauren Drakely basket off an offensive rebound before Rigo’s long two made it 28-16 entering the fourth.

PIAA-5A Second Round
(11-1) Bethlehem Catholic 34, (1-4) Gwynedd Mercy 24
Gwynedd Mercy 0 9 7 8 – 24
Bethlehem Catholic 14 7 7 6 – 34
Gwynedd Mercy: Hannah Griffin 3 2-2 9; Bailey Balkir 2 1-2 6; Cara Lapp 2 0-0 5; Lauren Drakely 1 0-0 2; Emilia Coleman 1 0-0 2; Totals 9 3-4 24.
Bethlehem Catholic: Kendra Rigo 5 4-6 16; Ella Bincarosky 2 0-0 5; Cici Hernandez 1 2-2 5; Aliyah Brame 1 0-0 2; Mekhyla Britt 1 0-0 2; Yarian Fernandez 1 0-0 2; Akasha Santos 1 0-0 2; Totals 12 6-8 34.
3-pointers: GMA-Balkir, Griffin, Lapp; BC-Rigo 2, Bincarosky, Hernandez.