There is no doubt Our Lady of the Scared Heart had its concerns heading into its matchup Friday against Central Cambria.
This would be the first game the team would play without junior point guard Sara Daeschner after she tore her anterior cruciate ligament Tuesday in a win against Greensburg Central Catholic.
“I definitely have been a little bit worried. I’m not going to lie,” OLSH forward Lola Garner said. “But I think that we’re all pretty close, so that helped us to come together and be there for each other.”
Did they ever.
Garner and Leah Parker each scored 13 points and Claudia Ierullo led OLSH (25-4) with 17 as the Chargers staved off a late comeback push by the District 6 champions as they pulled out the 47-43 victory against Central Cambria (19-9) in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals Friday at Norwin.
Although OLSH led almost wire-to-wire and were up a dozen midway through the fourth quarter, Central Cambria made WPIAL third-place finishers work for it at the end. Red Devils senior forward Keira Link, who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, had nine in the final period to get them within striking distance in the final moments despite the Chargers trying to stall late.
Final seconds as OLSH closes out a 37-43 win against District 6 champion Central Cambria to set up a semifinal date with @shady_side. pic.twitter.com/XnZ39dBCKl
— Keith Barnes (@KBarnes_PG) March 14, 2025
“They put me through more than what I needed to go through there,” OLSH head coach Don Eckerle said. “But they handled the ball and they did a really nice job with the clock in the fourth quarter.”
Central Cambria hit the first basket of the game and took a quick 2-0 lead when Link dropped in a layup, but after that the team couldn’t hit anything. The Red Devils missed their next 10 shots and committed four turnovers, which allowed OLSH to take control.
Garner tied it just 16 seconds after the Link basket, which ignited a 10-0 Chargers run. Central Cambria went 6:43 without a hoop until Link hit a put-back with 1:05 left in the first quarter, but that only cut the OLSH lead to 17-8.
Central Cambria, which was 3 for 13 (23.1%) in the first quarter, did make a run with a couple of early 3-pointers in the second quarter, but OLSH was able to push back and nearly maintain the seven-point advantage it had following the first quarter.
Parker helped immensely when she drained a 3-pointer from the left corner with 0.2 seconds left in the half to stake the Chargers to a 27-21 lead at the intermission.
Other Class 3A quarterfinal
Shady Side coach Jonna Burke’s final-minute play call wasn’t this simple, but it could’ve been: get the ball to Karis Thomas. She’s got it from there.
Camp Hill Trinity made the junior guard work to get open, but get open she did. Leading 44-43 late, Shady Side got Thomas the ball on four consecutive possessions, with Trinity fouling every time to eventually force her to the line. When she finally got there, Thomas drained both.
One defensive stop sent Shady Side Academy to the PIAA semifinals for the first time, defeating Trinity 46-44 on Friday at Altoona.
“I've been doing this 30 years and this is actually my first time ever getting this far,” said Burke, who coached at Butler and Bethel Park before Shady Side. “It's special, and it's more special that it's happening with this group. This group, they're like a family. … Not one kid in that locker room wants it to be over.”
Thomas was the only Bulldog in double figures with 17 points. Sophomore forward Leah Buford scored 9, hampered with foul trouble. Senior guard Makiyah Mitchell scored just four, but her layup with 3:53 left put Shady Side (27-1) ahead 44-43 and proved to be the winner.
Sophomore guard Bella Dupes led Trinity (21-6) with 11 points. Junior guard Ashley Berkheimer added 10.
Trinity led 16-14 after the first quarter and Burke felt the Shamrocks were scoring too easily, so she switched from a man defense to a zone. The change seemed to work, as Trinity was held to 10 points in the second quarter and trailed by five at halftime.
But the Shamrocks took the lead in the third thanks to some strong defense and second-, and third-, and even fourth-chance opportunities. Shady Side’s center Cassie Sauer, a 6-foot-2 forward, has been sidelined for a few weeks and watched the game with crutches on the sideline.
“Since we've lost Cassie, that [rebounding] has been an issue,” Burke said. “We're getting better at it, believe it or not. It might not look like it, but we are getting better at it.”
Mitchell’s layup was the only field goal made in the final four minutes. Four turnovers — two on each team — were committed before Thomas’s free throws.
Class 6A
Upper St. Clair 51, Haverford 35: The Panthers took a double-digit lead in the first half and rolled against their District 1 foe. Meredith Huzjak led all scorers with 17, while senior guard Rylee Kalocay chipped in 14.
First Published: March 15, 2025, 3:37 a.m.
