In the middle part of the game, the Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic girls were in good shape. But it was the start and finish that did in the Trojanettes.
North Catholic lost to Berks Catholic, 56-47, in a PIAA Class 4A semifinal Saturday afternoon at State College High School. If only the Trojanettes could have played the beginning and the end like they did the rest of the contest, they would have been going to their 13th PIAA championship game.
North Catholic fell behind, 10-0, at the start of the game, but came back and held a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. The lead grew to six before the Berks Catholic Saints (25-5), a team from Reading, went on an 11-0 run to take control of the game.
“When the hurt goes away a little bit in time, I’m hoping these girls will be really proud of themselves because they really did have a great season,” said North Catholic coach Molly Rottmann.
Rottmann’s point is well taken because because North Catholic finished 25-4 and won a WPIAL title. But the Trojanettes are thinking a little about what if?
“We just had some breakdowns [in the fourth quarter],” said Rottmann. “I’m sort of kicking myself. Maybe I should’ve kept the press on longer than we did. We were having some success with it, but we had some fatigue with some kids. You always look back and think what could you have done different.”
North Catholic held Berks Catholic 6-foot center Dejan Terrell to 13 points, four below her average. But Berks Catholic got a career-high 18 points from Molly Duncan and 11 from Jackie Kirwan. Duncan and Kirwan came into the game averaging eight points between them. Duncan had four 3-pointers.
“The big girl [Terrell] had five points at halftime. We did a great job of holding her down,” said Rottmann. “The ones who didn’t score for them really stepped up and had big games.”
Emma Pospisil hit a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter to give North Catholic a 37-34 lead. Then the Saints marched to a strong to the finish.
Junior center Dani Short led North Catholic with 17 points and Tess Myers added 16. Despite the loss, the Trojanettes season was impressive, considering the team had only three seniors, one junior and 13 sophomores.
“You always want to do a little better and we wanted to win a state championship,” said Rottmann. “But I’m proud of their accomplishments. We got great maturity and leadership from the older players to help the young ones.”
First Published: March 24, 2018, 11:45 p.m.