Trinity’s offense gets shut down
Archbishop Wood goes on late, 9-0 run to cement win
In the lowest-scoring championship in PIAA girls basketball history, Archbishop Wood slowed down the game and went on a 9-0 run late in the fourth quarter to defeat Trinity, 34-26, in the Class 5A title game Saturday at Giant Center.
“Finally we go down and hit a couple shots, got a couple steals, and then so it was finally like ‘OK, we’re going to win this game,’” Archbishop Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “Once we went up again, our defense was too good for them to come back in the game.”
The Hillers were held scoreless from the floor in the fourth quarter until Sierra Kotchman made a 3-pointer with 26 seconds to play.
In the first quarter, Archbishop Wood jumped to a 9-0 lead with three consecutive 3-pointers. The Vikings made 6 of 18 3-pointers in the game, shooting 22.9 percent from the floor. A Kotchman jumper made it 9-4 before the Vikings went on a 5-0 run to lead by 10 with 4:20 left in the second quarter.
Riley DeRubbo made a free throw and Abbey O’Connor added a layup, cutting Archbishop Wood’s lead to 14-9 to start the third. Kotchman and DeRubbo each made two free throws, and O’Connor added two free throws to pull the Hillers within 4 points.
Thirty seconds into the fourth quarter, DeRubbo’s two free throws narrowed the deficit to 19-17 before Archbishop Wood went on its run. DeRubbo led the Hillers with 13 points, and Kotchman followed with 7. If Trinity could have gotten another shot to fall in that moment, it might have changed the course of the game, coach Bob Miles said.
“I think it puts them back on their heels,” Miles said. “... We just kept thinking if we just knock one down, get one, get one, unfortunately we didn’t do that, but I think that would have changed the whole outcome of the game. They’re a very good team, don’t get me wrong.”
But it wasn’t that kind of night for Trinity, as it shot 4 of 28 from the floor and made 1 of 7 3-pointers. The Hillers made 17 of 19 freethrow attempts.
“We pride ourselves on really, we say, getting after people or frustrating them,” McDonald said. “Making them have to make plays. If they make plays and they beat you, then they made plays and they beat you. But we don’t want to let teams sit out, run their offense, be comfortable with the ball.”
The Vikings finding their rhythm on offense in the fourth quarter made the difference, according to Miles.
“That gave them the separation they needed to pull away,” Miles said. “We just weren’t as deep as they were, obviously, and that takes its toll down the stretch. I thought we did a decent job keeping them in front of us.”
The 60 total points in the game broke the previous PIAA girls scoring low of 70 in 1980. In that game, Venango Christian defeated Pine Grove, 37-33. Trinity’s 26 points tied for the thirdlowest point total by a girls team in a PIAA championship, with Bishop Hoban’s 22 points in a loss to North Catholic in 1994 marking the lowest total.