Shenango girls basketball reigns victorious in the program’s first finals appearance after a 44-34 victory against Freedom, 44-34, in the WPIAL Class 2A title game Thursday night at Pitt’s Petersen Event Center.
Seniors Janie Natale, Kylee Rubin and Emilee Fedrizzi combined for 43 points. Fedrizzi passed the 1,000 career points mark in this game, Rubin led all scorers with a game-high 17 points, and Natale grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
“They put their mind through this two years ago and this is what they can accomplish,” Shenango coach Ricci LaRocco said. “They took me on a ride this year. It’s not over yet, and I couldn’t be prouder of my kids. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of imagination. But 10 years from now, they’re not going to say how pretty was. They’re going to say, ‘Where’s that gold medal?’ and “We have it.’.”
And the gold-medal game all came down to the fourth quarter.
The first minute of that quarter was blow for blow as Rubin hit a layup to give the Shenango the lead, then Freedom’s Riley Tokar retook the lead witha layup of her own. After more back-and-forth, Freedom was still up, 34-33.
But at the 5:31 mark of the fourth quarter, Freedom’s Julia Mohrbacher picked up her fifth foul. Shenango took advantage of the Bulldogs star being out of the game, as the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to end the game.
“To be honest, Mohrbacher being out helped,” LaRocco said. “She picked up her fifth, and we got out of the trap and went straight, man. I think once we smelled the blood, we kind of just attacked.”
Shenango got off to a slow start as the Bulldogs held them scoreless in the first two minutes of the game. The Bulldogs took a drive-the-lane approach, while the Wildcats mainly shot from the outside. The drive-the-lane approach helped the Bulldogs go up early, 7-3, but after the 3-pointers started falling for Shenango, it quickly crept back into the game. Shenango’s first three scores were 3-pointers, the Wildcats only trailed, 12-11, at the end of the first quarter.
Shenango took its first lead of the game early in the second quarter. The Bulldogs started the second quarter with three turnovers, and in the blink of an eye, Shenango was up 15-12. But a 3-pointer from Olivia Henderson tied the game at 15. Neither team had a big edge, and the Freedom lead was just at 23-22 at halftime.
The Bulldogs held Shenango scoreless for more than 3 minutes in the third quarter, forcing the Wildcats to take a timeout.
“I thought it was nerves, It took me a little bit to settle in,” LaRocco said. “We were getting them at spots we wanted to get them in, but we just weren’t coming up with the plays. I thought Freedom was the aggressor, but once we became more aggressive and we attacked a little bit, we started to get the lead.”
And that final 10-0 run ended the game.
“I’ve cried more in two months than I have 24 years,” LaRocco added. “This has been the best two years of coaching. I wouldn’t trade these two years for anything.”
First Published: March 3, 2023, 3:07 a.m.
