Lower Moreland can’t slow down Scranton Prep in PIAA-4A 2nd round
BETHLEHEM >> Lower Moreland girls basketball coach Rich Becker went through his inventory of defenses, but with the way Scranton Prep was shooting Wednesday night, not much was going to slow down the District 2 champs.
The Lions stayed close through eight minutes of the PIAA Class 4A second round contest before the Classics began to hit jumper after jumper in the second quarter, outscoring Lower Moreland 19-4 to build a 16-point lead at halftime en route to rolling to a 57-31 win at Liberty High School’s Memorial Gymnasium.
“As a coach, you just kind of go through that Rolodex in your head. OK, we’ve gone our even front, odd front, we’ve gone man, they’ve done that,” Becker said.
“And then I think with them hitting their shots on defense it affected our offense, you saw that where we started to throw the ball away a little bit. Our girls started to press, shoot a little bit and when you start today four sophomores and a freshman, you’re going to get that.”
District 1 runner-up Lower Moreland did a have a pair of one-point leads in the opening quarter while Ceili Corduff’s putback pulled the Lions to within 8-7 heading into the second. The Classics, however, collected the next eight points to go up nine. A Claire Szymanski 3-pointer made it 21-9 and from there the lead stay in double digits as Scranton Prep advanced to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2014 when it made the Class 3A round of eight.
“They were killing us from the perimeter,” Becker said. “We went with our sliding 2-3, they shot off of that. We went with our 1-3-1, they beat us there and we went man-to-man, they penetrated and kicked. They shot great and not having Nicole Castor — our starting center — killed us today.”
Castor, a 5-10 sophomore forward, was out do to an illness for a young Lion squad that was looking to reach the state quarters for a second consecutive season. Corduff collected 11 points to lead Lower Moreland, which finishes the year 19-8 and with no players graduating, heads into next season with plenty of promise.
“We told the girls, nothing to be disappointed in the season,” Becker said.“Nineteen wins, final 16 in the state two years in a row we’ve made it — last year we were final eight. And we have everyone returning, we have zero seniors, we got one junior and our first two players off the bench are freshmen with our sophomore. So we’re in a good spot moving forward.”
Rachel Rose scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the second half while Kathleen Rose chipped in nine points for the Classics (25-2), who face District 3 champ Lancaster Catholic — a 32-30 winner over District 11 No. 2 Allentown Central Catholic — for a spot in the semifinals Saturday at a site and time to be announced.
“She’s the leading scorer in the Lackawanna League as a freshman and is able to not only create shots for herself but for others,” said Scranton Prep coach Bob Beviglia of Rachel Rose. “I thought she did a good job of getting her feet set and catching the ball with her feet set so that she could get right into her shot. When she gets a look like that, generally the ball’s going to go in.”
Cecelia Collins and Rachel Rose both scored four points as Scranton Prep began the second quarter on an 8-0 run. A basket by Jimia Davis — who finished with seven points — cut he Lions’ deficit to 16-9 but the Classic proceeded to put together a 9-0 run to lead 25-9 on a Kathleen Rose jumper. After two Phoebe Lynch free thorw made it 25-11 at 1:14, Kathleen Rose got another jumper to drop and the Classics went into halftime up 27-11.
“The personnel with put on the floor in the second quarter is the grouping that we usually have out against the zone,” Beviglia said. “We missed some, I thought, easy perimeter shots, we shot the ball pretty well all year long and we didn’t make them in the first quarter. We were a little bit ragged, we stood around.
“Second quarter, I thought we hit gaps and we were able to spit the ball out to the 3-point shooters. We got a couple of plays in transition were Collins hit (Elisa) Penetar, we had a nice basket there.”
Lower Moreland found a little bit of offense early in the third, but it was only enough to cut the margin down to 15. Scranton Prep, meanwhile, ended the quarter with the last six points — a Kathleen Rose three making it 39-18 entering the fourth.
“We tried running one of our continuity offenses and other than Castor — who wasn’t here — and Corduff, every girls on our team’s 5-5 or shorter. And that makes it tough to get inside and penetrate,” Becker said. “And watching Scranton, the game film, they really do a nice job of sagging into the help and forcing you to kick it outside. We’re just not a perimeter team.”
Rachel Rose had 10 of the Classics’ 18 points in the final quarter as Scranton Prep extended their lead to as large as 27 twice, the last time at 55-28.
