Trojanettes’ height pays off in another title
The big question before Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic and Blackhawk squared off for the WPIAL Class 4A girls basketball championship was whether the size of the Trojanettes or the 3-point shooting of the Cougars would prevail.
As it turned out, the Trojanettes scored from all over the court and, limited the Cougars’ 3-point effectiveness in a 65-36 win Friday night at Petersen Events Center.
It was North Catholic’s 17th WPIAL title, by far the most of any girls program. Coach Molly Rottmann became only the fifth coach in league history to win six championships.
University of Dayton recruit Sam Breen is a tall task for any team, especially the smaller Cougars, who had no answer for the 6-foot-1 star. Breen racked up a game-high 34 points and pulled down 21 rebounds. She passed Hopewell’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and moved into 13th on the WPIAL all-time scoring list with 2,331 points.
That earned Breen North Catholic’s proudest tradition of ringing the gymnasium bell back at the school, a ritual that began at the old facility located on Troy Hill.
“It’s always one thing I’ve never been able to do,” said Breen. “I get to this year.”
Fellow senior Kylie Huffman, who stands 6-2, also had a big game with 18 points and eight rebounds.
“We knew if that ball went inside, we’d have trouble,” Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico saod. “That was a tough matchup.”
The Trojanettes (23-3) imposed their size on their smaller opponent, but they also beat them at their game by nailing 6 of 8 3-point attempts. Blackhawk (16-9) averaged 10 made 3s per game and had 240 on the season before Friday, but was unable to connect with consistency, making 8 of 28 attempts.
The only Cougars player to register double figures was Madison Amalia, who scored 11.
“You’re going to have off nights,” Lodovico said. “You hope it’s not this night you’ll have an off night, but it just happens that way.”
The Cougars were forced to stay to the outside because of an inability to get inside on the much taller Trojanettes. That eliminated the drive-and-kick from the Cougars arsenal and slowed their tempo.
“They obviously are deadly from the 3-point range, but they also are really good at getting to the hoop,” Rottmann said. “I think where we took them out of their comfort was the fact that once they got inside they were trying to shoot over Sam and Dani [Short] and Kylie. We took away the inside game and the drives, which was big. Our kids did a really good job of following the defensive plan.”
The game turned into a rout in the second quarter.
Blackhawk’s Breanna Hoover hit a 3-pointer to cut the Trojanettes’ lead to 23-17. Then, North Catholic responded by going on a 10-0 run as part of a 31-5 tear that spanned the second and third quarters.
“The last two games we’ve had horrible third quarters,” Rottmann said. “We talked about that at halftime, how its a 0-0 ballgame. It ended up being a big run.”
Breen had 23 first-half points, including two 3pointers. The Trojanettes connected on 12 of 22 field goals and 5 of 6 3-pointers.
Blackhawk made only 5 of 20 attempts at 3-pointers in first half. All 12 of the Cougars’ first-quarter points came from 3-pointers and their first field goal inside the arc came with 5:30 remaining in the first half.
North Catholic’s win was the school’s second WPIAL title in as many days.
The boys claimed the WPIAL Class 3A crown Thursday night.