O’Hara riding high after win over Bonner-Prendie

MARPLE — Cardinal O’Hara’s Siobhan Boylan and Sydni Scott said everyone was surprised to see a WNBA champion visit the team locker room Friday night.

Natasha Cloud, the 2009 O’Hara grad and 2019 Daily Times Sports Figure of the Year, stopped by to say hello after the Lions defeated Bonner-Prendergast, 47-41.

“She basically just said we did a great job with the win and that she knows all about the rivalry with Prendie,” said Boylan, a junior guard who finished with six points, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot.

“She really represents O’Hara in a great way.”

Scott tallied a team-high 15 points in the victory. The sophomore guard was happy to take a team photo with Cloud, whom Scott aspires to be someday. Cloud helped the Washington Mystics capture the franchise’s first WNBA title last October.

“I think a lot of players want to be like her,” she said. “For me, my goal is to be even better than Natasha Cloud one day.”

Scott led a balanced scoring effort by the Lions. She was clutch down the stretch, going 5-for-7 at the foul line to help ice the win.

Scott added a team-high five rebounds to go with three assists and a pair of steals.

“I love it,” Scott said of the win over the rival Pandas. “We all did what we were supposed to do.”

The Lions (12-1, 5-1 PCL Blue) have won nine in a row, including five straight against Catholic League foes. Not bad for a team that on Friday started a pair of sophomores in Scott and forward/center Maggie Doogan, two juniors in guards Boylan and Amaris Baker, and only one senior in forward Steph Huseby.

Doogan netted 11 points and the Lions got a boost from reserve player Sam Randazzo, who chipped in with seven points, three rebounds and two steals.

For a young squad just learning how to play together – and be good at doing it – second-year Lions coach Chrissie Doogan has relied upon her underclassmen and bench to perform key roles on a nightly basis. This night it was Randazzo, but on other nights guard Julia Stellabottoe and forward Annie Welde have hopped off the bench to contribute in big ways.

“It’s a really hard thing to be a bench player,” Doogan said. “Sometimes you have players who go in and are just so afraid to make mistakes, but tonight Sam went in the game with a let’s-go-out-and-win attitude. She has such great instincts and she knows where the ball is going to go and she has great hands. She was ready for us.”

Randazzo entered in the first quarter when the Lions needed some energy. Bonner-Prendie (5-6, 1-4) had jumped out to a 7-3 advantage in the opening five minutes thanks to the strong play of senior forward Alexis Gleason and sharpshooting sophomore guard Bridie McCann.

“I think they came out with a nothing-to-lose attitude and we put a little more pressure on ourselves,” Doogan said. “Once we started digging in and we were telling them to play defense and the shots will fall … we started to settle in,. We got some easy baskets and some steals and got huge help from Sam Randazzo off the bench, giving us some big minutes. Our defense was the key, by far.”

O’Hara forced 11 turnovers in the opening half. After a solid start, the Pandas faded in the second quarter when they attempted only two field goals and gave the ball away on eight of their final nine possessions.

The Pandas found themselves trailing by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, but made a run. Meghan Kilroy, who has been sidelined due to injury most of the season, stepped up to make two baskets in the final moments of the third period, trimming the Bonner-Prendie deficit to eight points.

O’Hara lead swelled back to double digits when Randazzo made two straight baskets off turnovers. Gleason, though, would get to the foul line often in the final quarter when she scored 10 of her game-high 21 points. McCann, who finished with 12 points, drilled her third and final trey of the night to cut the deficit to 40-34 with 2:20 left, but the Pandas couldn’t get any closer.

Despite the loss, Gleason knows the Pandas are so close becoming a very good team. Last year the Pandas advanced to the final four of the PIAA Class 4A tournament and it’s not outlandish to think they could get that far again.

“We’re almost there, I feel,” said Gleason, who recently committed to West Chester University. She posted a double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. “I think we came out really well and I think they (O’Hara) weren’t expecting it. Later in the year, we’ll see them again in one of our last home games. But for now we’re going to get better and learn from this.”

In another Catholic League game:

Neumann-Goretti 54, Archbishop Carroll 51 >> The Patriots (8-5, 2-4) hung with the top team in the Catholic League the entire game. Neither team owned a lead of more than six points.

The Saints, though, played frontrunners most of the way.

Taylor Wilson paced the Patriots with 16 points. Grace O’Neill (15) and All-Delco Erin Sweeney (13) also reached double figures in scoring. O’Neill was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and Sweeney added six rebounds and two steals. Karli Dougherty contributed three points, eight rebounds and two assists.

N-G’s Diamond Johnson scored a game-high 25 points.