Lansdale Catholic holds off Archbishop Carroll, closes in on PCL’s top seed

RADNOR >>Lansdale Catholic entered the final week of the regular season in third place in the Philadelphia Catholic League with two road games against perennial powers left on the schedule.

At the end of the week, the Crusaders added two wins and will likely go into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

After beating Archbishop Wood Tuesday, Lansdale Catholic held off Archbishop Carroll for a 42-39 win Thursday night at Archbishop Carroll High School.

LC and Cardinal O’Hara finished the regular season with matching 9-1 records at the top of the PCL standings. Archbishop Wood will also be 9-1 if they beat St. Hubert Saturday. In the event of the three-way tie, the Crusaders would be the No. 1 seed.

“Lansdale Catholic has never been number one in the PCL, which is amazing,” LC senior Gabby Casey said. “It just shows the hard work we’ve put in throughout the offseason and continuing throughout the season.”

LC coach Eric Gidney pointed to the fact that the PCL doesn’t recognize regular season championships, but admitted the top seed does get to face the lowest seed, which is the eighth seed in the first round, and could become very beneficial if there is a first-round upset.

“The top four, if not five, in this league,” he said, “anybody can beat anybody on any given night. It’s happened. That’s why there was a logjam.”

Casey scored a game-high 21 points in the win over Carroll. She gave the Crusaders their first lead – one that they never relinquished – when she hit a three-pointer early in the second quarter to make it 12-10.

The lead grew to as many as 13 points, 23-10, late in the second quarter, but Carroll responded with a strong third to get within four, 30-26, heading to the fourth.

The Patriots cut their deficit down to one possession four times – 34-32, 36-34, 38-36 and 40-39 – in the final four minutes of the game, but could never draw even. They missed a shot with 40 seconds left, trailing 38-36, before missing two more shots down 40-36 on three consecutive possessions.

“It goes back to going to a little bit of junk defense, which we haven’t really done this year,” Gidney said. “I just think that sometimes it mentally wears a student-athlete down when just, ‘Oh my gosh this girl is on me again. I can’t shoot.’ Carroll is a really, really good defensive team. They do that to everybody 1-through-5. We’re not so much. We’re more of an offensive-minded team and I’ll admit that. We had to do something a little bit different to try to lock (Brooke and Taylor Wilson) down. Limited success when it comes to the scorebook, but successful when it comes to the scoreboard. I think towards the end it made them maybe force things a little more than they should have, and that’s why that (0-for-3) stretch was there.”

“It was just getting to it on defense,” LC senior Jaida Helm said, “really digging in and knowing that – I feel like our defense is really underlooked, so just proving that we really are a good defensive team and making them make a tough shot. (Brooke Wilson) made a tough shot to make it 39-40, props to her, but we came out with the win.”

Brooke Wilson’s tough shot was a three-pointer with 1.2 seconds left to get Carroll within one, but Casey hit two free throws with 0.1 seconds left and the Patriots didn’t have time for a full-court heave.

Casey and Helm combined for 10 of the Crusaders 12 points in the fourth quarter and Sanyiah Littlejohn added two. The three went a combined 10-for-13 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter while Helm had one basket – a baseline runner.

Lansdale Catholic’s offense got off to a slow start but found its rhythm late in the first quarter. The Crusaders didn’t score for the first 3:54 of the game and didn’t make their first field goal until 5:10 had passed. Casey scored their first five points and they were within one point, 10-9, after eight minutes.

Casey’s go-ahead three early in the second started a dominant quarter for LC’s all-time leading scorer. She scored 10 in the frame to help the Crusaders go on a 16-0 run and take a 23-10 lead. Carroll’s Brooke Wilson converted an old fashion three-point with less than a minute left before half to send the teams to the locker room with a 10-point difference, 23-13.

“We need to play (like the second half) all four quarters,” Carroll senior Taylor Wilson said. “That’s something we’ve been working on a lot this year. We’ve struggled usually in a half or a quarter. Getting that to playing consistently throughout the whole game is something that we’re really working towards.”

Brooke and Taylor Wilson combined for all 13 of Carroll’s points in the third quarter to make it a four-point game, 30-26, going to the fourth.

Brooke Wilson finished the game with 19 points and Taylor Wilson added 14.

Carroll finishes the regular season with a 7-3 record in the PCL and will be the No. 4 seed in the playoffs. If Wood beats St. Hubert Saturday and no upsets happen in the first round next week, these rivals would meet again in the semifinals.

“It’s always tough to beat a good team twice,” Casey said, “but if we play together and play like we did tonight, they can’t beat us. Just keep it rolling and keeping that mentality and confidence throughout the playoffs is going to be big for us.”

“In the first half we didn’t make our shots,” Taylor Wilson said. “I think everyone could see that. We’re really going to have to work on putting the ball in the basket. We got in our heads a little bit in the second quarter and let their run get to us. We can’t let that happen. That’s something we’ll definitely work on in practice.”

Lansdale Catholic 42, Archbishop Carroll 39

Lansdale Catholic 9 14 7 12 – 42

Archbishop Carroll 10 3 13 13 – 39

Lansdale Catholic: Jaida Helm 2 6-10 10, Sanyiah Littlejohn 1 2-2 4, Nadia Yemola 1 0-0 2, Olivia Boccella 2 0-0 5, Gabby Casey 6 8-9 21. Total 12 16-21 42.

Archbishop Carroll: Taylor Wilson 6 0-0 14, Brooke Wilson 5 7-7 19, Court Schumacher 1 0-0 2, Meg Sheridan 0 0-0 0, Alexis Eberz 2 0-0 4, Olivia Nardi 0 0-0 0, Kate O’Neill 0 0-0 0. Total 14 7-7 39.

3-point goals: LC: Gabby Casey, Olivia Boccella. AC: Taylor Wilson, Brooke Wilson 2.