O’Hara’s sporadic shooting helps Wood reach PCL title game
PHILADELPHIA >> This was supposed to be the year that Cardinal O’Hara would return to The Palestra. This high school dream team, with its AAU standouts, All-Delcos and Division-I talent, is still one of the state’s best teams.
But playing for a Catholic League title wasn’t meant to be. This, it turned out, wasn’t the year of the Lions.
It might be Archbishop Wood’s time. That’s who O’Hara met Tuesday night at Philadelphia University in the Catholic League semifinal round.
Frankly, the Lions ran into a buzzsaw.
Winners of 13 straight entering the day, Wood’s last defeat was at the hands of O’Hara in January. They say it’s hard to beat a team three times in a season. But in the Catholic League, doing it twice against an equally talented team is almost impossible. O’Hara found out the hard way, dropping a 47-34 decision Tuesday night.
It marks the third consecutive year that O’Hara will not play for a Catholic League title. All-Delcos Hannah Nihill and Mary Sheehan, both juniors, will try again their senior year.
Wood, at least on this night, was simply the superior squad. If the teams could meet 10 times, chances are both would come away with 5-5 records.
Tuesday night, the Lions just didn’t have it — whatever it might be. They hit only four field goals in the first half and shot a very un-O’Hara-like 28.9 percent (11-of-38) from the floor. Wood played a stifling defense, from the perimeter to the low post, and never let up. The Vikings took away lanes and made life difficult for O’Hara’s collection of sharpshooters. The Lions failed to hit high-percentage shots with any sort of consistency. Wood bigs Bailey Greenberg, Katie May and Kate Connolly had their way under the basket and multiple players hit big shots — back-to-back 3s by May and guard Claire Bassetti in the third quarter pushed the Vikings’ lead into double digits, and the Lions failed to respond.
“First and foremost is shots — they hit their shots,” said Sheehan, who tied with Nihill for the team lead in points (nine). “Whenever you see your first two shots drop, and you kind of get it rolling, that always gives you the confidence. But we hit shots only here and there, it was kind of sporadic the whole night, and we just never had a moment where we hit one or two in a row that got us rolling. So that hurt. It just came down to them hitting their shots and we just didn’t defend as well as the first game.
“We were driving here and there and we weren’t picking up fouls. That also hurts when you’re driving and you’re not making the basket and not getting the call, so you’re not getting any points on the board. That happened a lot tonight and I think that diminishes your confidence as well.”
Sheehan tried like crazy against the taller Greenberg, Connolly and May to draw contact underneath the basket, but to no avail. Also, the Lions’ crisp ball movement around the perimeter was rendered ineffective as the Vikings kept pace, disrupting opportunities for open looks.
“Defensively, we had to make sure to keep them in front of us,” said Bassetti, who had five of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. “We made sure not to let Mackenzie (Gardler) get as many shots as she would have liked. and not let Hannah Nihill get into the lane as much. We definitely had to change up our defensive game plan, so we had Katie May on Hannah whereas last time we had Cass (Sebold) and me on her. Katie really played good defense.”
Nihill drained a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to cut the Vikings’ lead to six points, but the Lions couldn’t get closer. As O’Hara ran out of fouls to give, Wood made them pay at the free-throw line, converting 14 of 24 chances from the charity stripe in the final quarter. Sebold was 7-of-10, while Bassetti and Shannon May were both 3-of-6.
Ultimately, though, the Vikings held a high-scoring team to 34 points, and now they’re bound for The Palestra to play undefeated Neumann-Goretti.
“We’re more of a defensive team than an offensive team this year,” Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “All of our games have been 40 points or somewhere around there. I know from watching (O’Hara) throughout the season that they like to hold the ball, just with their rotations in their offensive sets. So, we knew it was going to be limited possessions. I thought we were a lot smarter this time, we didn’t rush too many shots and we looked inside a lot more.”
Bassetti’s 11 points were a game high. Green chipped in a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings (18-6). For O’Hara, Gardler had six points and three assists. Molly Paolino, who recently returned after missing several games due to injury, came off the bench to add two steals for the Lions (21-3).
O’Hara will set its sights on winning a District 12 Class AAAA championship and moving on to the state tournament.
“Last year helps, having that experience. We lost to Carroll at home in the (Catholic League) quarterfinals and we had to look in the mirror then, too,” Sheehan said. “We just have to forget about it and move on. That wasn’t us tonight.”
In the other Catholic League semifinal:
Neumann-Goretti 60, Archbishop Carroll 34 >> The Patriots fell behind, 15-3, after the first quarter and never recovered against the undefeated Saints, who advance to the Catholic League championship game to face Archbishop Wood for the third straight year.
