Defense has N. Catholic back on top

Blackhawk’s No. 1 seeding drives Trojanettes to crowning moment

Blackhawk already was short-handed, playing without Quinn Borroni, one of the team’s best players who was injured in a scrimmage shortly before the postseason.

Then something made things worse for the Cougars in the WPIAL championship.

It was North Catholic’s defense.

North Catholic’s man-toman defense clamped down on Blackhawk and the Trojanettes locked up their umpteenth WPIAL championship when they defeated Blackhawk 51-35 in the Class 4A title game Saturday afternoon at Petersen Events Center.

North Catholic (22-3) held No. 1 seed Blackhawk (21-4) to its second-lowest point total of the season. Blackhawk shot only 21% (8 of 38) from the field for the game and North Catholic’s defense certainly had something to do with that. Alena Fusetti, Blackhawk’s leading scorer on the season, scored 13 points but was 4 of 16 from the field.

“They played really good defense, tight on our shooters and really tight on Alena,” Blackhawk coach Steve Lodovico said. “We didn’t execute our offense, either. For whatever reason, we were out of synch offensively. We could never get anything going.”

For North Catholic, it was a fabulous 22 and elite 11 game all in one. The championship was North Catholic’s 22nd, by far the most in WPIAL history. For coach Molly Rottmann, she entered an elite class with her 11th championship, which ties for the most in WPIAL girls basketball history. The man she tied was, coincidentally, Don Barth, who was Rottmann’s coach at North Catholic.

After Rottman climbed the stairway to 11, four of Rottmann’s players sat next to her during a postgame media conference. Three of them had no idea their coach tied Barth’s record. But senior guard Tori Drevna knew.

“What’s on the back of our T-shirts that we wear is

‘value,’” Drevna said. “[Rottmann] just values every single player, no matter what their role is. She’s just a great coach.”

Rottmann jokingly added, “Thanks, Tori. That means extra playing time for you.”

North Catholic’s defense was no joke. Blackhawk made only 2 of 14 shots in the first quarter and North Catholic led 26-17 halftime lead. In the second half, North Catholic opened a 33-21 lead on Anna Waskiewicz’s put-back. The Trojanettes took a 41-26 advantage into the fourth quarter and Blackhawk got no closer than nine points.

“Borroni was a big piece of their team missing,” Rottmann said. “I would never wish that on anybody. But I thought out kids really did a great job defensively.”

Offensively, North Catholic got 16 points from junior guard Alayna Rocco and 13 from junior guard Ava Walker. Senior guard Dacia Lewandowski added eight points and five rebounds. She has missed much of the season with a leg injury.

“I’m still recovering from injury, but I’d say that was one of my better performances,” she said.

Lewandowski said North Catholic has been extra motivated since the playoffs started because North Catholic was the No. 2 seed behind Blackhawk.

“You need a ‘why’ for when you’re going into everything. What’s your ‘why’ and the reason you go into things?” said Lewandowski the philosopher. “Our ‘why’ was that we were the No. 2 seed. We took that personally.

“Sowe left it all on the court and made a name for ourselves.”