Allen’s free throws KO Archbishop Carroll

Ryanne Allen was right where she wanted to be.

With her Archbishop Wood girls basketball team trailing Archbishop Carroll by a point with eight seconds left in regulation, Allen had charged down the floor and drew a shooting foul with 1.3 on the clock. It was all on her to come through at the line if the Vikings wanted to keep their goal of a Catholic League title alive.

Allen was right where she wanted to be, hitting a pair of free throws for the winning margin as the topseeded Vikings edged by the No. 4 Patriots 38-37 the semifinals.

“Coach Mike (McDonald) gave us a play but they went to double-team Kaitlyn (Orihel) so I knew I had to come to the ball and go make a play for myself,” Allen said. “I knew this was my time and it’s something I’ve been working toward for so long. I knew I could do it, I could step up and knock down those foul shots.”

The highly-touted junior wing has come through in crunch time a few times for the Vikings this season and they needed her again on a night where their offense couldn’t seem to get going.

Allen finished with a gamehigh 19 points and did it not with her trademark longrange shooting but mostly using her size inside.

After beating BonnerPrendie last Friday, Archbishop Wood thought it had secured a place in the PCL title game. However, on Wednesday, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia opted to play a four-team bracket that made the Vikings earn their way to the final against a very familiar opponent.

“We made it a point to just stay positive,” McDonald said. “There’s a lot going on people want to complain about, you have to wear a mask, you have to quarantine, it’s been a long year so halfway through the season we talked about being appreciative of what we have. When this changed into a semifinal instead of just a championship, we said ‘this is where we want to be anyway, it’s what we do every year’ and we’re just grateful to have the chance to play in a Catholic League playoff.”

Grace O’Neill, who has committed to play at Drexel, powered the Patriots with 18 points and late in the game, willed her way to the foul line several times that included the trip to put Carroll ahead with eight seconds on the clock. Despite Wood trying different defenders, doubleteams and late traps, O’Neill was able to make plays for her team.

“Grace is such a good player, you’re not going to stop her so you have to try and limit her,” Orihel said. “We had our assignments on who we had to stop. I think our team defense overall was pretty good, we were able to hold them to 37.”

Freshman Brooke Wilson gave Carroll a spark off the bench, scoring seven points and dishing out a couple assists and Maggie Grant hit a big-time 3-point shot late in the fourth quarter that have the Patriots a 35-33 lead. After Orihel converted a conventional thee-point play to put the Vikings back on to, 36-35, O’Neill drained two free throws to give Carroll the lead again, 37-36.

Allen, though, was there to save the day for the Vikings.

“I knew if I went to the rim and had a strong take, I could draw that contact and hopefully get to the line,” Allen said. “I’ve been working on keeping every missed shot behind me and just focusing on the next play and I think I’ve improved at that a lot. It’s a short game and you have to keep on going, which I think I did at the end.”