Author: delcohoops

By Matt Smith

To become the PIAA Class 6A champion Friday night, there was no question that Archbishop Carroll needed the Wilson sisters to take over in the second half.

The first half was a grind for everyone on the floor. Players from Carroll and unbeaten District 3 champion Cedar Cliff couldn’t buy a basket.  When it appeared Carroll had the upper hand, Cedar Cliff managed to score on two straight possessions late in the second period to grab its first lead of the night. Carroll had let the undefeated Colts sort of hang around.

The Patriots needed senior forward Taylor and junior guard Brooke Wilson to ignite the offense after halftime. The star sisters responded by scoring all 15 of Carroll’s points in the third quarter.  It was exactly the type of boost Carroll needed Friday at the Giant Center.

Fueled by Taylor and Brooke’s hot shooting, the Patriots went ahead by as many as seven points in the third and held off several last-ditch rallies by Cedar Cliff to win the PIAA Class 6A title, 43-37.

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By Jack McCaffery 

Were they to stand alone, without context and without a sense of history, the two numbers would have been staggering before the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball championship game Friday night.

One was zero. The other was 13.

The first was the number of times Cedar Cliff High had lost this season. The second was the loss total for Archbishop Carroll.

Technically, it was an enormous gap, but for one reality: Carroll played in the Catholic League. There is a difference, and it is real, and it is measurable, and it was the leading reason for the Patriots’ 43-37 victory and the five-pound Hershey bar they received as a parting snack.

“Absolutely,” Carroll coach Renie Shields said. “Even in our last game, we played O’Hara, our rival, and we physically just beat one another up. We were fortunate to come out a winner in that game. But we also had to play Lansdale (Catholic) and (Archbishop) Wood. We play some really good teams in the Catholic League. And I personally think it’s the best league in the Pennsylvania area.”

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By Matt Smith

Brooke Wilson does everything extremely well for Archbishop Carroll.

A perfect snapshot of her immense talent in Carroll’s 31-30 win over Cardinal O’Hara in the PIAA Class 6A semifinal round Monday happened on a few occasions. The junior guard leaps to snare a rebound in mid-air and then speeds the length of the court, outrunning O’Hara players to the basket. Her adrenaline rushing, Wilson screams in celebration as she walks to the free-throw line to complete a three-point play.

That’s the sort of skill and energy Wilson brings on the floor. She backs it up with her defense – her specialty – shooting, driving and rebounding. Wilson does it all.

“I would say I’m always pretty energetic,” she said Monday. “I’ve been working on my skills and just growing to become a better player.  I think I rely on my speed, to be able to get coast to coast and I think it paid off tonight. I was able to do that a lot. I saw that in the game that I was able to take advantage of my speed and of their uncertainty in transition and I was able to take it to the rim.”

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Taylor Wilson stepped to the line with 5.6 seconds left and calmly stroked home two free throws Monday night, giving Archbishop Carroll a 31-30 win over Cardinal O’Hara in the PIAA Class 6A semifinals at Garnet Valley High School.

The free throws settled a game in which Carroll, the District 12 third seed, led most of the way only for O’Hara to surge ahead in the final two minutes of a fourth quarter where neither team could beat the other’s defense for nearly six minutes. Two free throws from Molly Rullo with 35.6 seconds left broke a 28-all tie. Wilson hit one at the line to get within one, then Rullo missed a front-end of a 1-and-1 to give Wilson a shot to put the Patriots ahead.

“I shoot foul shots every day at practice,” Wilson said. “I shoot them in games. It’s no different. I went up to the line, it’s just like practice.”

A runner at the horn by O’Hara’s Carly Coleman bounced off rim and out.

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By Matt Smith

Taylor Wilson cleared her mind as she went to the free-throw line with 5.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter Monday night.

With Archbishop Carroll trailing Cardinal O’Hara by one point, Wilson did not even consider what happened moments earlier when she attempted two freebies. She had made the first, but missed the second.

“I was thinking, this is just like practice,” said the senior forward. “Put them in the basket. That’s it. I shoot foul shots every day, it’s the easiest shot in the game. Free points. Just put them in.”

Wilson swished both foul shots to propel Carroll to a 31-30 victory in a PIAA Class 6A semifinal at Garnet Valley. Carly Coleman’s last-ditch effort to win the game for O’Hara as time expired was off the mark.

Carroll will play District 3 champion Cedar Cliff for the PIAA Class 6A title Friday, 6 p.m. at the Giant Center. Cedar Cliff defeated District 7’s Norwin in overtime, 55-47, in the other semifinal Monday.

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By Matt Smith

The best rivalry in Delaware County girls basketball, featuring Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara, will be renewed Monday on a grand stage. The Catholic League counterparts will pair off this time in a PIAA Class 6A semifinal game at Garnet Valley High. The game starts at 7.

It’s fitting that O’Hara and Carroll are the only teams left from eastern Pennsylvania competing for a chance to win a state title in PIAA’s highest classification. They are the most recent Delaware County girls hoops teams with PIAA titles.

While Carroll hasn’t played for a PIAA championship since 2019, O’Hara is aiming for a three-peat. The Lions captured the Class 5A championship – their first in team history – in 2021 and 2022.

Under the old PIAA classification system, the Patriots captured a Class AAA title in 2009 and a Class AAAA crown two years later. Carroll head coach Renie Shields was an assistant for the Patriots during those years. Carroll fell to Chartiers Valley, 53-40, in the Class 5A final in 2019.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

It made sense that the game would find Darren Williams at its most crucial juncture.

All day, the Archbishop Ryan wing had been outstanding on the offensive end. His length and aggressiveness on defense was a big reason why Radnor struggled to establish rhythm in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal Friday night.

But with Ryan leading by three and the clock ticking under 15 seconds, the end-to-end chess match that had engrossed for 31-plus minutes distilled into one bout of isolation one-on-one.

Jackson Hicke driving the ball. Williams backpedaling in defense. A fair few of those in attendance at Bensalem High School holding their breaths.

Williams did the job defensively, contesting Hicke’s drive so that he couldn’t get a shot off, the ball caroming off his body and out of bounds for a turnover. It was the final rebuttal from Ryan in an outstanding state quarterfinal, won by the District 12 runner-up, 69-65.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

The clock at Bensalem High School showed 15 seconds when Brooke Wilson allowed herself to crack a smile. The senior guard and her Archbishop Carroll teammates had just been winging the ball around the half court for 30 seconds, tying to avoid Abington’s last-ditch attempts to foul.

Up double-digits, in a matchup of teams you might not have expected to be playing for a PIAA Class 6A semifinal berth a month ago, Wilson had done the hard work to get her team in position to advance, and guarantee a Delaware County team will play for a state title this year.

Wilson orchestrated a pristine second half, threatening a triple double with 12 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists as Carroll rallied to top Abington, 55-43. The Patriots (14-11) advance to the semifinals to take on rival Cardinal O’Hara, which dispatched Central York, 61-49.

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By Bob Grotz

Pulsating tempo, physical defense, thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

There was a little of everything in Chester Charter Scholars Academy’s 63-58 loss Friday to Linville Hill Christian in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class A boys basketball game at Avon Grove High.

And a lot of heartache for the Sabers, with the exception of senior guard Kevin Miller becoming the first player in school history to hit the 1,000-point mark.

“It’s super-disappointing,” Sabers coach Daniel Spangler said of the loss. “We felt like we had the talent to get to Hershey. But what’s not disappointing is the way we played. The energy, the effort, the lack of quit. That’s not disappointing.”

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