Karis Thomas brought the ball up the court in the final second against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and looked over to the Shady Side Academy bench at coach Jonna Burke.
She paused for a quick second and continued her dribble as her teammates started to celebrate.
Then, with the clock at Fox Chapel High School about to hit zeros, she whipped the ball underhanded toward the rafters and joined in.
“It was enjoyment and everything from the game,” Thomas said. “I was really excited, not for myself but for my teammates. I look at those girls like my sisters and it was just a really special moment.”
Now, Thomas and her sisters get to take a family vacation.
Thomas scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half as Shady Side Academy (28-1) left Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (25-5) standing still in a 43-29 victory Friday night in the PIAA Class 3A girls basketball semifinals to earn a trip to Hershey next week for the state championship.
Karis Thomas, who scored a game-high 21, closes out the Bulldogs 43-29 win against @olshgirlsbball that sent @shady_side to its first @PIAASports championship game pic.twitter.com/kqvZqAovWt
— Keith Barnes (@KBarnes_PG) March 22, 2025
It was Hershey’s kisses all around for the Bulldogs after the win, but it wasn’t an easy trek getting to this point.
“I think back to my freshman year. We were pretty bad (9-12) and we lost in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs and it was kind of a miracle that we made it,” Shady Side Academy senior Cameron Capel said clutching her foil-wrapped treats. “To even think of competing for a state championship, I don’t think that 14-year-old me would have ever thought that, so this is a crazy feeling.”
What might be even crazier is that this was the 571st win in Burke’s storied 30-year career and, if you include the time when she was a WPIAL Hall of Famer in the making while she was in high school at Bethel Park as Jonna Huemrich, she has never been to a state championship.
“It’s kind of surreal right now because this is one of those things that’s always out in the distance,” Burke said. “It’s been a dream of mine to make it to a state championship since I was in high school playing and 30 years coaching and it’s hard. It’s so hard. I’m over the moon.”
Game flow
Early on it looked like this would be a battle of 3-point shooters.
Capel opened the game with one from long range and Leah Parker answered with a pair to put OLSH ahead 6-3.
Neither team really established itself offensively and, when Thomas made a basket with 2:5 left, the Bulldogs only trailed 6-5.
But OLSH got baskets from Parker — who had nine in the first half — and Lola Garner with 53.4 remaining to take a 10-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Then, as far as OLSH was concerned, nothing.
Thomas made 3 of 4 from the line early to get Shady Side Academy back within two, 10-8, then Capel, who finished with five points and 12 rebounds, hit a short jumper to tie it, 10-10, with 4:04 left in the second quarter.
It took a while, but Shady Side Academy finally got the basket it needed to take the lead when freshman Laila Banner converted a 3-point play with 1:51 left and Thomas closed out the 12-0 run that gave the Bulldogs a 17-10 advantage with 59.2 to go in the second quarter.
Parker, who finished with 12, ended the run when she hit the front end of two from the line with 30.6 seconds left, but the damage was done.
OLSH finished the second quarter without a first goal, didn’t have a point in the period until the Parker free throw and trailed 17-12 at the intermission.
But the time Garner ended the streak with a basket 2:10 into the second half, the Chargers had gone 11:03 without a hoop and had given away any momentum they had from their early five-point lead.
“The second quarter killed us in this game,” OLSH coach Don Eckerle said. “We were hoping to have a better shooting game and we had some critical turnovers. As soon as I went to the locker room, I said we lost this game in the second quarter.”
Key stats
• OLSH went 0 for 12 from the field in the second quarter, which stretched into 0 for 15 when the skid ended in the third quarter. Because of that, the Chargers were 4 for 23 (17.4 percent) in the first half.
• Shady Side Academy struggled a bit in the paint in the first quarter, going 1 for 7, which is to be expected with 6-foot-3 Cassie Sauer starting center still sidelined with a hip fracture. But the team was 3 for 4 in the second quarter thanks to a couple of fast-break layups.
• Shady Side Academy had a 39-21 rebounding edge and had two players, Capel and Leah Buford, pull down a dozen apiece.
Quotable
“It means everything. We’ve been looking at the bigger picture for a while now and, we’ve been playing together so long, it’s a really special moment. It’s a really happy moment.” — Thomas
What it means
Shady Side Academy will play Loyalsock in the PIAA Class 3A championship game at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. Neither team has ever previously played for a state title.
First Published: March 22, 2025, 1:18 a.m.
Updated: March 22, 2025, 1:52 a.m.
