St Basil clicking on all cylinders in PIAA-3A 1st-round win over West Catholic

LOWER GWYNEDD >> In the first round of the PIAA Class 3A girls basketball tournament, the St. Basil Panthers continued their unbeaten streak to 27 games by getting past West Catholic 70-49 at Wissahickon High School Friday night.

With the win, the Panthers remain undefeated with a perfect 27-0 record and advance to the second round.
Highlighting the blowout victory for St. Basil was Casey Remolde, who scored 20 points in the victory.

“It just feels good to know we made it past the first round of states,” said Remolde. “I was a little nervous on how we would start the game, but we came out strong and it feels good knowing that there’s another game coming up.”

The Panthers had a close nine-point lead after the first quarter, but a great defensive effort increased the lead to 18 points at halftime.

West Catholic came back on fire with an 8-0 run to start the third quarter and decrease the St. Basil lead to 10 points heading into the fourth quarter.

However, an offensive explosion from the Panthers and foul trouble from West Catholic in the fourth quarter helped the Panthers seal the deal and advance to the second round.

Also having a big game for St. Basil was Denae Carter with a game-high 23 points and a great defensive effort in the victory.

“We knew that we had to come out strong on defense,” said Carter. “We had to get down on West’s best scorers. We had a little trouble on fouls, but we got the job done.”

St. Basil head coach Terry Mancini was thrilled with how his team played in the first round of the state playoffs.

“We are 1-0 is the way we are looking at it right now,” said Mancini. “To be honest we don’t look at our record. This was a tough first round game for us because West Catholic is a well-coached very talented team.”

“We talked to Casey on Thursday saying this could be our last practice together,” added Mancini about his senior captain. “She has a sense of urgency and she doesn’t want her season to end and today she did a great job.”

With the loss, the West Catholic Burrs end their season with a 15-8 overall record and a third-place finish in the PIAA District 12 tournament.

The St. Basil girls basketball team will now focus on a highly-anticipated matchup with District Two champion Dunmore on Tuesday, March 12 with a time and location yet to be determined.

Dunmore and St. Basil will face each other as the only two undefeated teams in the PIAA 3A state tournament.

Dunmore enters the game with a perfect 26-0 record after crushing Constitution High School 62-14 in the first round last Friday.
St. Basil 70, West Catholic 49
WC 11 9 18 11 — 49
STB 20 18 10 22 — 70
St. Basil: Carter 23; C. Remolde 20; Deal 12; S. Remolde 9; Grant 4; Scannell 2.
West Catholic: Montgomery-Wilson 19; Singletary 10; McPhaul 9; Montgomery 7; Edney-Holmes 4.