Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Conestoga eliminated by O’Hara
RADNOR >> To learn how to be a successful girls’ basketball team on the big stages takes time and lessons learned.
Friday night was one of those lesssons.
Cardinal O’Hara took advantage of a third-quarter lapse by the Pioneers to build a lead and they held on to post a 50-42 victory in the opening round of the PIAA 6A Championships at Archbishop Carroll.
The Lions (21-5), the District 12 champions, advance to the second round where they will face Spring-Ford at a time and place to be determined on Tuesday. The Pioneers, who were the 11th seed out of District 1, ended their season at 21-7.
“I thought we grinded it out,” said O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan. “We knew Conestoga was much improved. They have a couple of real good players. We wanted to grind it out. We wanted to use our transition to get us going. I feel we came out of halftime real strong.”
O’Hara came out to start the game pretty well also. They slowly pulled out to a lead. It stretched to 13-7 after junior Carly Coleman hit a baseline jumper and the free throw after being fouled with a second left in the first quarter.
Conestoga stayed close in the second quarter, however, They took their only lead of the game as heralded freshman Ryann Jennings buried a 3-pointer from the right win to make it 19-18 late in the quarter.
But, O’Hara came right back and Megan Rullo buried a three in the left corner to pull the lead back, 21-19, at halftime.
“It’s been a while since we were last on the court. It was fun to get our legs moving again,” said Molly Rullo. “It’s always a great atmosphere to play in. It was fun.”
O’Hara took control out of the halftime break by going on 10-2 run to begin the third quarter. Joanie Quinn and Coleman had five points each to fuel the spurt.
“We had some defensive lapses and they hit some threes,” said Conestoga coach AJ Thompson. “I
told the girls, if you leave a good team open, they’re are going to knock down those shots, especially in the state tournament.”
The lead ballooned to as much as 10, 31-21, with 3:40 left in the third. The Pioneers entered the fourth trailing, 39-28.
Stoga scored the first four points of the fourth period on two free throws by Marisa Francione and a 10-foot jumper by Janie Preston to cut the deficit to 39-32. Rullo was left alone and drove to the basket and scored for a 41-32 advantage.
The Lions took the air out of the ball and put on a master class on handling the ball in the halfcourt. Despite being hounded by the Pioneers, intent on forcing a turnover, O’Hara kept the turnover sheet clean.
“They did a great job and I went with experience,” said Doogan. “I went with experience. It wasn’t by design we held the ball. I kept telling them if they had a layup, go make the layup. We were able to make the free throws.”
Not able to get O’Hara to make a miscue, Conestoga was forced to put them on the line. That didn’t turn out much better, O’Hara made 9-of-10 from the line down the stretch, with Quinn doing most of the damage, making all eight of her attempts.
“Huge,” said Doogan. “It’s been a little up and down this year, so it was nice to have Joanie on the line and I have all the confidence in the world she would make those.”
Quinn led the Lions with 18 points — 16 in the second half, Molly Rullo added 15 and Coleman notched 10.
The future indeed looks bright for the Pioneers. One look at the score sheet reinforces that. Freshman Jennings led the way with 18 points, sophomore Preston had 12 points and junior Francione notched 11.
“We have a lot of juniors. We’re young, but we’re somewhat experienced at this time,” said Thompson. “Hopefully, the experience and the atmosphere stays with these guys and we build on it.”
Cardinal O’Hara 50, Conestoga 42 Conestoga: Jennings 6 3-5 18; Neary 0 0-0 0; Lanouette 0 1-2 1; Preston 6 0-0 12; I. Valencia 0 0-0 0; K. Valencia 0 0-0 0; Francione 4 3-4 11. Totals: 16 7-11 42. Cardinal O’Hara: DiBlasi 0 0-0 0; Miller 1 1-2 4; Quinn 4 8-8 18; Coleman 3 3-5 10; Mo. Rullo 7 1-2 15; Dawson 0 0-0 0; Me. Rullo 1 0-0 3. Totals: 16 13-15 50. Conestoga 7 12 9 14 — 42 Cardinal O’Hara 13 8 18 11 — 50 3-point goals: Jennings 3, Quinn 2, Miller, Coleman, Me. Rullo.