Bishop Canevin lands in title game again

for a layup to close the first quarter. Opening up the second quarter with a jumper, Amaia Johnson stretched the lead to 21-6.

“I leaned over to my assistant coach and I was like, ‘Listen, they can’t keep shooting the ball like this,’” Bishop Canevin coach Scott Dibble said. “‘If they’re going to have 100, we have no chance ... they’ve got to settle down.’”

Settle down they did, as the Wildcats cooled off from their 19-point first quarter, scoring 12 points in the second and 8 in the third.

Just when the game looked like it was going to get out of hand, a layup by senior Lauren Gamble and a 3-pointer by senior Kasey Kaczorowski, who made four 3-pointers and had 12 points, cut Bishop Canevin’s deficit to 21-15.

East Allegheny passed up the court and found Amaia Johnson open under the basket, though, to make it 25-15, then 31-24 at halftime.

“I just kind of reiterated, and we talked about the game,” Dibble said of the Crusaders’ conversation at halftime.

“I said we need to do a better job of containing Amani, rebounding the basketball, which we did a horrific job of that in the first half, and just controlling our emotions. It’s a big game, the kids are excited, they’re going a million miles an hour, our timing’s off offensively, and we’re taking some bad shots. I said ‘Settle down.’”

The Crusaders summoned their defense, and East Allegheny shot 4 of 11 from the field in the third quarter while Bishop Canevin took the lead.

Trailing, 35-32, Allen fought for a layup to bring the Crusaders within a point and her free throw tied the score, 35-35.

Amaia Johnson made a jump shot, but Kaczorowski responded with a 3-pointer to give the Crusaders a 38-37 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter.

A layup by sophomore Diajah Allen and another 3pointer by Kaczorowski made it 45-37.

A layup by Allen put Bishop Canevin up, 47-39, heading into the fourth quarter. Allen made another layup with less than two minutes to play, and East Allegheny couldn’t make enough shots to catch Bishop Canevin down the stretch, despite a 3-pointer by Amaia Johnson at 1:50.

Entering the game, the Crusaders were motivated to stave off the Wildcats’ hopes of revenge.

“We were like ‘Time to get them again,’” Allen said.