Category: Latest News

Girls: Joanie Quinn stands out in ‘best game’ ever, leads O’Hara to Class 6A state final

Cardinal O'Hara's Joannie Quinn drives against Parkland during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball semifinal at Norristown Area High School Monday night. (Austin Hertzog - MediaNews Group)

Cardinal O’Hara’s Joannie Quinn drives against Parkland during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball semifinal at Norristown Area High School Monday night. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

By Matt Smith

Cardinal O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan had high praise for senior guard Joanie Quinn after the Lions defeated Parkland in the PIAA Class 6A semifinals Monday night.

“I thought that might have been Joanie Quinn’s best game in her four years,” Doogan said. “She was tasked with guarding (Talia Zurinskas) and that kid is an all-state type guard. And Joanie broke the pressure. She was very good tonight.”

Quinn poured in a game-high 21 points to lead O’Hara to a 51-32 victory over the District 11 champions. The Lions will play for a state title for the third time in four years Friday night in Hershey at the Giant Center.

Quinn and sophomore Megan Rullo were excellent at limiting Zurinskas after she dropped 10 quick points in the first quarter. From the second quarter on, Zurinskas shot 2-for-11 from the floor for seven points.

“I come into every game hoping to play the best game of my career, but of course that doesn’t always happen,” said Quinn, who added six assists, five rebounds and two assists. “Knowing this was such a big game, I can’t describe it. This is my senior year and there have been ups and downs, so this feels great.”

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PIAA Class 4A Boys: Munir Grieg, Ian Williams keep Carroll ‘together’ in win over Scranton Prep

Carroll's Ian Williams, seen in a game against Bonner-Prendie in January, scored 17 points to help the Patriots knock off Scranton Prep Monday night in a PIAA Class 4A semifinal game. (Pete Bannan - MediaNews Group)

Carroll’s Ian Williams, seen in a game against Bonner-Prendie in January, scored 17 points to help the Patriots knock off Scranton Prep Monday night in a PIAA Class 4A semifinal game. (Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)

By Matthew DeGeorge

The shirts Archbishop Carroll printed up read, “Built for March,” with the Carroll C in white and red. With a roster full of freshmen and sophomores, it might’ve helped to specify which March.

This first one for coach Francis Bowe’s group, though, is going pretty well.

Carroll pulled away in the second half and held off a veteran Scranton Prep squad that had already upended one powerful Catholic League foe in a 66-56 decision Monday night at  Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

Carroll will face Lincoln Park, which won an all-District 7 match over Hampton Monday night, 74-53. It’s the fourth state final in program history for the Patriots and first since 2015.

“Coming into Carroll last year, that was the goal, to change it back to how it was,” sophomore guard Ian Williams said, “back when Ryan Daly, Josh Sharkey, Derrick Jones were here. That was the goal, to bring the Carroll community back together.”

Carroll (21-8) did it in a classic clash of generations. When all is said and done, this group of Patriots will end up with more players fielding Division I offers than its opponent. But District 2 champ Scranton Prep (19-10) was a cohesive, veteran team with a clear identity. The Cavaliers’ dream run included an upset of Neumann-Goretti in the quarterfinals for its first state semi since 2008, vying for a first ever title-game berth.

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Girls: Spring-Ford books return trip to Hershey by ending GV’s storybook run

Garnet Valley's Savannah Saunders, right, takes a charge against Spring-Ford's Mac Pettinelli during a PIAA Class 6A girls' basketball semifinal at Norristown Area High School Monday night. (Austin Hertzog - MediaNews Group)

Garnet Valley’s Savannah Saunders, right, takes a charge against Spring-Ford’s Mac Pettinelli during a PIAA Class 6A girls’ basketball semifinal at Norristown Area High School Monday night. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

By Bob Grotz

It was a heartbreaking loss for Garnet Valley, its underdog season coming to a teary end in the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball semifinals Monday at Norristown High.

At the same time, it was a heart-warming victory for Spring-Ford, which scored a 62-43 win to return to the state championship for the first time since 2021, when such seniors as Aaliyah Soliday, who scored 14 points, were freshmen. Rams coach Mickey McDaniel remembers the last dance quite well.

“We lost to North Allegheny,” McDaniel said of the last trip to Hershey. “Lucy Olsen’s senior year.”

Olsen left for Villanova with 1,699 points, more than any girl or boy in the history of Spring-Ford High. The Rams (27-6) will get a chance to avenge that outcome against Cardinal O’Hara, which cruised to a 51-32 triumph over Parkland in the other semifinal. The state title game is Friday at 6 p.m. at the Giant Center.

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Girls: Mulholland becomes breakout star in Garnet Valley’s run to state semis

Garnet Valley's Kylie Mulholland drives past North Penn's Cameron Crowley during the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal on March 15. Mulholland scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Jaguars to a 58-51 victory. (MIKE CARBREY - MEDIANEWS GROUP)

Garnet Valley’s Kylie Mulholland drives past North Penn’s Cameron Crowley during the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal on March 15. Mulholland scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Jaguars to a 58-51 victory. (MIKE CARBREY – MEDIANEWS GROUP)

By Matt Smith

Kylie Mulholland packs a whale of a punch for a 5-foot-4 guard, her energy, speed and decisiveness on the floor a vital source of Garnet Valley’s resurgence in the PIAA playoffs.

As the Jaguars continue their improbable run in the Class 6A tournament, reaching the final four as the sixth-place team from District 1, the junior Mulholland has become a breakout star

In the Jags’ 58-51 victory over North Penn in the quarterfinals, Mulholland jumpstarted the scoring with a 3-point field goal, her first of two triples in the opening quarter. She came through at clutch moments driving quickly to the basket and hitting pull-up jump shots.

When the Jags found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter, Mulholland helped lead them back. She scored seven points in the final stanza, and ended with a game-high 21, as the Jags punched their ticket to Monday’s semifinal double header at Norristown Area High School. Garnet Valley (25-6) faces Spring-Ford at 6 p.m.

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PIAA 6A Girls Semifinal Previews: O’Hara vs. Parkland, Garnet Valley vs. Spring-Ford

O’Hara senior Joanie Quinn (above) was a freshman during the Lions’ last state title run. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

By Andrew Robinson

Four teams, two spots in the state title game and one venue to sort it all out.

The final four Class 6A girls’ basketball teams left in Pennsylvania will converge on Norristown Monday to sort out which of them get to face each other in Hershey on Friday night. 

Cardinal O’Hara (12-2) vs Parkland (11-1), 6 p.m.

Monday’s first matchup figures to feature defense, defense, defense and a little more defense.

Parkland’s been extra stingy in the postseason, the Trojans allowing just 32.6 points per game since the end of the regular season. The EPC champions gave up a postseason-high 37 to Archbishop Carroll last time out but even that came with no shortage of frustration for the Patriots.

Seniors Talia Zurinskas and Madi Siggins – the EPC MVP – make it all go for coach Ed Ohlson and despite extra defensive attention their way, the duo has been productive this postseason. Zurrinaskas had 23 against Carroll while Siggins put in 16.

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PIAA 4A + 5A Boys Semifinal Previews: Carroll-Scranton Prep, Ryan-Imhotep

Freshman guard Darrell Davis (above) is part of a super-young Carroll core. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

By Josh Verlin + Rich Flanagan 

The state playoffs are a time where experience and maturity reign supreme.

Just don’t tell Archbishop Carroll’s boys that.

Francis Bowe’s Patriots have what has to be the youngest roster in the state, but they’re right there in the state semifinals on Monday night, a matchup with Scranton Prep upcoming at Bethlehem’s Liberty High School at 7 p.m.

Bowe doesn’t have a single junior or senior under his watch, like the high school version of a junior college roster. His sophomores are the experienced vets leading the freshmen, in a year when most of their basketball-playing classmates around the country are still on junior varsity rosters.

“It’s very unorthodox,” Bowe said. “I don’t know if a lot of coaches can say they’ve been in the same predicament I’ve been in. When you’re worried about what sets you’re running in January and how clean you look on the defensive side of the ball, I’m still reminding guys that you have to be locked in for two hours in practice, you can’t be daydreaming. 

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PIAA Class 6A Girls: Savannah Saunders’ D helps Garnet Valley’s scorers overcome North Penn

Garnet Valley's Haylie Adamski, 14, wearing a crown, receives a hug as the Jaguars celebrate their 58-51 victory over North Penn in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals Friday night at Bensalem High School. (Mike Cabrey - MediaNews Group)

Garnet Valley’s Haylie Adamski, 14, wearing a crown, receives a hug as the Jaguars celebrate their 58-51 victory over North Penn in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals Friday night at Bensalem High School. (Mike Cabrey – MediaNews Group)

By Matt Smith

The members of the Garnet Valley girls basketball team are enjoying every moment of their run – many would call it an unlikely run – in the PIAA Class 6A tournament.

The Jaguars pulled off another shocker Friday night at Bensalem High. Their big three of Haylie Adamski, Kylie Mulholland and Emily Olsen combined for the lion’s share of offense in a 58-51 triumph over North Penn in the state quarterfinal round.

One player who didn’t score a single point but made the biggest impact was Savannah Saunders, the Jags’ defensive ace.

Saunders is always told ahead of time that her No. 1 job is to guard the opposing team’s best player. It’s a test she has passed many times over this season. She faced perhaps her toughest challenge Friday against Caleigh Sperling, North Penn’s dynamic senior guard who dropped 30 points in the District 1 playbacks against Haverford last month.

Saunders, a junior small forward/guard, delivered. She came away with three steals in the first quarter and made life difficult for the superstar Sperling, who managed only three made baskets and 11 points on the night. Thanks to Saunders, Garnet Valley’s biggest concern was a non-factor.

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PIAA Class 6A Girls: Molly Rullo, O’Hara defense shut down top-seeded Perkiomen Valley

Cardinal O'Hara's Carly Coleman (14) and Megan Rullo, left, lead the celebration after defeating Perkiomen Valley in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal Friday night at Norristown High School. (Austin Hertzog - MediaNews Group)

Cardinal O’Hara’s Carly Coleman (14) and Megan Rullo, left, lead the celebration after defeating Perkiomen Valley in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal Friday night at Norristown High School. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)

By Bob Grotz

One sequence embodied the heady play of Cardinal O’Hara in its 49-35 win over top seeded and highly regarded Perkiomen Valley Friday in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class 6A playoffs.

With the third quarter winding down the Lions were holding a five-point lead and looking for a last shot. For a moment it looked like the Vikings’ frenetic defense had forced a stop. But the Lions skillfully swung the ball this way and that, inside and out until Molly Rullo found younger sister Megan outside the arc.

Faster than you could say, boom, and-1, the shot fell and Megan was fouled on the play. She hit the free throw for a rare four-point play sending the Lions (24-4) into the final frame with a nine-point lead.

The Vikings (29-2), the top seed out of District 1 who had lost only to nationally ranked Gill St. Bernard’s private school in northern New Jersey, never got closer than eight points the rest of the evening.

“They were doubling and we got it into the post,” Megan Rullo said. “Molly kicked it out, I was ready to shoot and let it go. Coach Chrissie (Doogan) always talks about getting your teammate the shot, that it’s not about getting your own shot, reverse the ball. And that’s what we really did. And we knocked down the shots that mattered.”

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PIAA Class 6A Girls: Too much iron and near misses for Carroll in loss to Parkland

By Matthew DeGeorge

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.”

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PIAA Class 4A Boys: Carroll focuses on the present just in time, beats Carver

Carroll's Darrell Davis scored 18 points to help the Patriots dispatch Carver Friday night in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal game. (Pete Bannan - The Associated Press)

Carroll’s Darrell Davis scored 18 points to help the Patriots dispatch Carver Friday night in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal game. (Pete Bannan – The Associated Press)

By Matthew DeGeorge

The book said that Archbishop Carroll was in danger of getting caught looking ahead Friday night. Instead, coach Francis Bowe made a disorganized team focus its eyes backward at halftime.

The team that Carroll might play next in the PIAA Class 4A tournament, Neumann-Goretti, had beaten the team it was playing Friday at Pottstown, Carver Engineering and Sciences, in the District 12 final, and handily. So the fact that Carver was within two of Carroll at half was cause for some concern in the Patriots’ locker room.

“He just mentioned Neumann to us,” point guard Darrell Davis said. “He said Neumann beat them by 40, and they’re looking like they’re a better team than us. We took that to heart.”

They took it to the scoreboard, too, scoring 21 of the first 23 points of the second half to roar into a second state semifinal in three years with a 60-42 decision. The reward is a date Monday with either Scranton Prep or the Saints, to whom Carroll dropped a heartbreaking 89-83 game in the PCL playoffs.

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