Too much iron and near misses for Carroll in loss
POTTSTOWN » There was a look of resignation, however brief, among the Archbishop Carroll girls basketball players after the third, then fourth look rimmed out Friday night.
The clock on its season ticking under two minutes, Carroll players were on the Pottstown High School floor against Parkland, battling for rebounds, stepping over bodies, getting teammates open. Those shots just weren’t falling.
That’s how Carroll’s reign as PIAA Class 6A championship ended Friday night, with a clang of iron multiplied too often and a 48-37 setback to District 11 champion Parkland.
The Patriots (20-9) shot just 13-for-56 from the field (23.2 percent) and 3-for-25 from 3-point range. Even if that was embellished by fourth-quarter desperation, it was end to end frustration for the Patriots Friday night.
“The shots weren’t falling tonight,” guard Alexis Eberz said. “But you’ve got to bounce back. … Especially when we’re down, it’s hard when shots aren’t falling. But you’ve got to keep your head up. You’ve got to keep shooting.”
Some of that, for sure, had to do with the low-post defense of Parkland, led by Madison Siggins. The Trojans (29-2) prevented Brooke Wilson, Carroll’s dynamo of a point guard, from getting anywhere near the rim. The result was having to settle for jumpers … jumpers that too often were wayward.
“Our defense is our identity, and we needed to get those stops in that game,” Siggins said. “We had to be fast and quick and overcommunicate in that defense.”
Eberz led Carroll with 13 points, but she was just 3-for16 from the field. She had seven points in the first quarter, then shot 1-for-14 the rest of the way.
Olivia Nardi didn’t score, 0-for-5 from the field. Brooke Wilson was 4-for-12 for 11 points, and added four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
That’s because Parkland’s Talia Zurinskas wouldn’t miss. Or at least when it seemed like Carroll couldn’t get anything to fall, she couldn’t miss. She scored a game-high 21 points, which given Parkland’s gritty offense looked more like 35 points.
Parkland wasn’t perfect, as 23 turnovers indicate. But it was good enough because Carroll couldn’t punish any of those struggles.
“It honestly feels like more,” Siggins said. “When you are scoring like that, it feels like so much more.”
Parkland first threatened to run away in the second quarter, going up 18-11, but Wilson answered with a feed to Bridget Archibold for a two-pointer (originally called a 3, then a point docked from Carroll) and an and-1 at the hoop. Wilson attempted just two field goals, yet Carroll entered the break down just four.
The Patriots waited for a hot streak that never came. A triple by Zurinskas made it 32-22 late in the third. Siggins, who shot 5-for-8 from the field and paired 16 points with six boards, added two straight baskets to open the fourth and stretch the lead to 13.
Carroll got within eight with three minutes left on two Eberz free throws. But Eberz missed two of three when fouled on a triple, uncharacteristic for such an exemplary shooter.
“This stinks losing like this, especially to a team like this,” Eberz said. “They’re a great team, but we didn’t really think we were going to lose tonight. But it happens.”