Lansdale Catholic rolls past Archbishop Ryan, advances to PCL semifinals for first time

LANSDALE >> The final score showed a comfortable margin of victory, a result earning the Lansdale Catholic girls basketball team a place in the Philadelphia Catholic League semifinals for the first time in program history.

But Crusaders coach Eric Gidney knows advancing even further requires a better effort than what LC put together Thursday night against visiting Archbishop Ryan.

“Forgetting the scoreboard, we just have to execute better than that,” Gidney said. “We have to have higher expectations of not what the score is – I mean, the scoreboard’s a liar sometimes, right? It’s just a matter of how we actually perform on the court.”

Top-seeded Lansdale Catholic scored the first eight points – Olivia Boccella knocking down a 3-pointer while Gabby Casey followed with the next five – and never trailed in the quarterfinal contest with the No. 8 Ragdolls.

By the end of the opening quarter, LC was up 22-5 with the hosts extending its advantage to 25 at halftime before going on to claim a 53-27 win.

“We know what we’ve made of and what we’ve capable of and it’s just disappointing when you know what you’re capable of and you don’t execute or you don’t live up to it,” LC senior Jaida Helm said. “But that just comes down to practice and staying focused throughout the whole thing. So I feel like we kind of took it a little lighter than we should have so I think that took our focus away.”

Lansdale Catholic (21-2) had never made it past the quarterfinals since joining the PCL in 2008-09 but finally broke through and next faces No. 4 Archbishop Carroll – a 57-41 winner over No. 5 Neumann-Goretti – 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the second game of a semifinal doubleheader at Saint Joseph’s-University City.

“Feels cool to be here when all that’s happening but it’s not just our team that started it, it’s everybody, all the teams before that helped build it,” said Helm, who transferred to LC after three years at Abington. “And Coach coming in and doing a great job, at just coaching players up and helping develop everybody and get everybody confident to play in the Catholic League.”

No. 2 Archbishop Wood takes on No. 3 Cardinal O’Hara in the first game at 6 p.m. with the winners meeting in the league championship game Monday, Feb. 27 at The Palestra.

“I’m not trying to be a perfectionist but I just expect better,” Gidney said. “The Philadelphia Catholic League is the best girls basketball league in the state if not for a really, really big area and we’ve got to be better than we were tonight regardless of the opponent, regardless of what the scoreboard says if we want to get over this hump.”

LC’s first meeting with Carroll this year came Feb. 9 with the Crusaders holding on for a 42-39 road win. The teams’ last postseason matchup came in 2019 when the Patriots topped Lansdale Catholic in the quarters 53-37 on their way to their last Catholic League title.

“They’re a physical and really tough (team) so we just have to prepare for that,” Helm said. “And I feel like having more preparation for that game will help us once we get there. And I think that we’ll be ready and they’ll be ready so it’ll just come down to who (can) game plan better and executing.”

After topping Carroll, the Crusaders ended their regular season by beating Faith Christian two days later with Helm scoring her 1,000th point in the 60-41 in the 60-41 nonleague road victory. Helm was honored for the achievement before Thursday’s game then went out and chipped in nine points, seven coming in the third quarter.

“I don’t try and look for points, I just come out and see what’s going on in the game and do what I can do to help us win,” Helm said. “Whether it’s I don’t score and I just play great defense on their bigs or on whoever, whether I have to score, help Gabby score, whether I have to help everybody score by giving them the ball or whatever. So I just find my spots.”

Casey scored 14 in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 17 points for the Crusaders, which has won its last five since a 53-51 home loss to O’Hara Feb. 2. Boccella hit a trio of 3-pointers in adding 11 points.

Delaney Finn had 11 points to pace Archbishop Ryan (8-15), which was looking to reach the PCL semifinals for the first time since 2015.

“I felt like Ryan had their backs against the wall, they had a good game plan, they blitzed us,” Gidney said. “We weren’t necessarily prepared for that because I wasn’t sure what they were going to do. We knew they were going to kind of kitchen sink this game, right, like throw everything at us. So once they did that we went to go make adjustments on it and really didn’t actually execute very well on it for a long time.

“So that was frustrating but we have just enough talent to get away with mistakes like that. And we have a couple days to clean that up and hopefully continue to play beyond Tuesday night.”

A Casey free throw made it 8-0 at 6:24 in the first quarter before Ava Morsa’s basket got the Ragdolls on the scoreboard. But after Boccella drained a three, Casey collected the next seven – including a three-point play at 3:19 – with Sanyiah Littlejohn’s bucket capping a 12-0 run made it 20-2 LC.

Finn hit a triple but Casey’s steal and layup had the Crusaders ahead 17 after eight minutes.

Lansdale Catholic scored the first six points of the second quarter to go up 28-5 after an Alana Ciccocelli foul shot at 4:40. The Crusaders finished the half with an Aubrey Mobley jumper then a Boccella layup off a Littlejohn steal for a 37-12 advantage at intermission.

Helm started the third with a 3-pointer with Nadia Yemola’s basket extending the margin to 42-12. The Crusaders proceeded to push their lead to as high as 35 twice, the last time at 51-16 after Yemola scored and was fouled with 6:44 in the fourth.

Lansdale Catholic 53, Archbishop Ryan 27
Archbishop Ryan 5 7 4 11 – 27
Lansdale Catholic 22 15 12 4 – 53
Archbishop Ryan: Delaney Finn 3 2-2 11; Jenna Gontz 2 1-2 6; Ikera Ellison 1 1-2 3; Eliana Szatkowski 1 1-2 3; Riley Lukach 1 0-0 2; Ava Morsa 1 0-02; Reynah Ratliff 0 0-2 0; Totals 9 5-10 27.
Lansdale Catholic: Gabby Casey 6 5-7 17; Olivia Boccella 4 0-0 11; Jaida Helm 4 0-0 9; Ali Johns 2 1-2 5; Aubrey Mobley 2 0-1 4; Nadia Yemola 2 0-1 4; Sanyiah Littlejohn 1 0-0 2; Alana Ciccocelli 0 1-2 1; Totals 21 7-13 53.
3-pointers: AR-Finn 3, Gontz; LC-Boccella 3, Helm.