Nihill books semifinal game for O’Hara

ROYERSFORD >> When Hannah Nihill got the ball, she knew the plan, and she knew her strengths.

The play was drawn up in the huddle. Presuming a tie game after Brianne Borcky’s second free throw with 5.6 seconds to play Friday night, it was designed to break Garnet Valley’s token pressure as quickly as possible, then assess options.

Then Nihill got the ball, and off she went. She drew a foul with 0.4 seconds showing on the clock, then calmly sank both free throws to help Cardinal O’Hara survive, 46-44, in the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals at Spring-Ford High School.

Once Nihill got the inbounds handoff, she slalomed up the floor through the GV defense. She pulled up at the left elbow and released a left-handed floater, drawing enough contact from Borcky to warrant a trip to the line.

“As soon as she gave me the ball, I was like, ‘Alright, this is it,’” the junior guard said. “I just said, this is where your speed comes into play, and I just booked it as fast as I could down the court, and I just drew contact and hoped for the best.”

Those points were Nos. 2 and 3 for O’Hara in the fourth quarter, the District 12 champions fortunate not to see a lead that grew to 18 points slip away in the face of the Jaguars’ determined comeback.

At the crucial moment, though, Nihill drew upon her wealth of experience. She recalled her age 10-11 AAU days, when she found herself on the wrong side of such a call at a national tournament. She did the driving then, too, but got whistled for an offensive foul on what she thought was a game-winner.

So Friday, “I thought that, this is maybe my turn,” she said. “So I tried to draw contact.”

That’s as close to an offensive plan as O’Hara (25-3) unearthed in the fourth quarter Friday. After a torrid start that resulted in a 20-4 first-quarter edge, the Lions went ice cold. Nihill provided the last made bucket on the final possession of the third quarter, then only a Mackenzie Gardler free throw preceded Nihill’s game-winning strikes.

“When you don’t see the ball go in, it kind of starts to freak you out a little bit,” said O’Hara guard Mary Sheehan. “You’re like, ‘OK, they have all the momentum.’ You just feel the energy swinging back to them, and mentally that takes a toll on you.”

O’Hara’s offensive impediments added up. Maura Hendrixson fell silent after providing 13 first-quarter points. Sheehan’s aggressiveness was checked by foul trouble before she was disqualified with 15 points. And Gardler endured a 1-for-9 shooting night. Coupled with O’Hara suffocating the game to limit possessions, a lead that stood at 12 after the first possession of the third quarter was whittled down to five early in the fourth.

Hannah Nihill the lefty floater. After 3 quarters, O’Hara leads Garnet Valley, 43-35 https://t.co/3sxn1bacJB

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) March 12, 2016

Though the opportunity was there, the game’s drama owed to Garnet Valley, the sixth seed from District One, seizing it. The Jaguars doubled down on the glass, led by 10 boards each from Emily McAteer and Borcky to power a 42-27 advantage on O’Hara.

“We knew coming into the game that they had more guards on their team, so we knew that since we have height, that we would use it to our advantage,” said senior forward Sam Tomasetti, who provided six rebounds and three steals. “When we came off the bench, we constantly said, ‘Let’s put it in the post and let’s use our bigs and get rebounds.’”

Garnet Valley chipped away — a 5-0 run led by Maddie Ireland (nine points) to limit the halftime damage to single-digits; a 6-2 spurt in the third to get within two possessions — never letting O’Hara recover.  GV (23-5) eliminated turnovers after 10 in the first quarter and picked O’Hara’s pocket on the five straight possessions before Nihill’s drawn foul to give itself a chance.

That swing in momentum had O’Hara wary of the “shock the world” chant coming from the GV student section.

“You get nervous. Especially me, I got nervous,” Sheehan said. “When we first hit some shots in the second half, I thought, ‘Alright, we’re up eight still.’ But even going into halftime, it kind of felt that we were down for some reason.”

Borcky’s 15 points led the effort on a day when GV was just 1-for-12 from 3-point land, and McAteer added 12.

On the third chance to get to within one score, McAteer cleaned up a Borcky miss to cut it to within 42-40. The roles flipped on the next time down the court, McAteer missing the front-end of a one-and-one before twice extending the possession with offensive boards before Borcky grabbed a rebound and was hacked by Nihill. The freshman calmly drained both to tie it at 44.

“I don’t think you can say anything but just smile at them and pat them on the back because that’s just unbelievable that a freshman had that much confidence and put away those two shots in front of that big crowd,” Tomasetti said.

But Nihill and O’Hara had one last chance to force their way into the state semis. And Nihill wouldn’t be denied.

“Basically that was the plan, get me the ball and go down the court,” Nihill said. “… I usually, in that situation, I’m just all like, ‘score.’ If it’s there, maybe I would (pass). But this one, I was like, ‘nope.’”