Category: Latest News

By Josh Verlin

The Sweetest Place on Earth is just one win away.

The PIAA state semifinals take place this upcoming weekend — Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22 — at high school gyms across the state, with 48 teams still alive in 12 different brackets across six classifications on the boys and girls’ sides. That includes 16 teams from the Philadelphia area still alive, with eight local squads playing on Friday and eight on Saturday. 

Here’s a look at each of Saturday’s semifinals involving local teams:

Boys 3A
West Catholic (12-1) vs. Holy Cross (2-2)
Parkland HS, 2:30 PM

Both of these teams have made deep postseason runs in recent memory. For West Catholic, that was a state championship two years back, the Burrs capturing the 2023 3A crown with an 83-55 win over Deer Lake. Holy Cross was in the 2A title game just last March, losing to Aliquippa, with the entire starting lineup back in the mix. West Catholic doesn’t have that Hershey experience on the roster, with only a couple pieces still remaining from that title run, but a Catholic League battle-tested team is always a threat this time of year. 

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By Josh Verlin

The Sweetest Place on Earth is just one win away.

The PIAA state semifinals take place this upcoming weekend — Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22 — at high school gyms across the state, with 48 teams still alive in 12 different brackets across six classifications on the boys and girls’ sides. That includes 16 teams from the Philadelphia area still alive, with eight local squads playing on Friday and eight on Saturday. 

Here’s a look at each of Friday’s semifinals involving local teams:

Boys’ 1A
Sankofa Freedom (12-1) vs. Lancaster Country Day (3-4)
Plymouth Whitemarsh HS, 5:30 PM

Sankofa Freedom is back in the state semifinals for the first time since winning the 2019 PIAA Class 1A title, the Warriors’ first and only state championship run. Sankofa’s had a quality run so far, taking out a one-loss York Country Day squad by 29, then beating District 11 champs Bethlehem Christian 75-66 and District 1 champs Chester Charter 67-56. 

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By Matt Smith

An argument could be made that the team most deserving of a win in Saturday’s PIAA Class 5A quarterfinal wasn’t the one that advanced.

Strath Haven saw its improbable run come to an end at Easton Area Middle School. Crestwood, at times too relaxed while trying to bleed the clock in the fourth quarter, may consider itself fortunate to have survived.

Even after Crestwood built a 13-point lead in the third quarter, the Panthers weren’t finished. It was appropriate that Haven came within a few inches of tying the game in the final minute, two clean 3-point attempts from senior Maryella Gill and freshman Maddie Fanning falling just short. The Panthers thrived all season on controlled chaos – and nearly pulled off their wildest win yet.

Strath Haven (15-14), which had clawed its way through district playbacks just to earn a states berth, then shocked everyone with two upset wins, finally ran out of time, falling 54-47 to the District 2 champions.

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By Andrew Robinson

Heart is everything for Olivia Voshell.

The Strath Haven senior plays basketball with plenty of heart and it’s a trait her teammates picked up this season as well. So while she and the Panthers were at a serious size disadvantage against Crestwood on Saturday, they knew their heart would keep them in the game.

Strath Haven’s season ended in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals Saturday but only after the Panthers had pushed the Comets to the limit, Crestwood scraping out a 54-47 win at Easton Area Middle School.

“You can’t really compare height to heart,” Voshell said. “We have some of the biggest hearts. Maddie and Kenzie (Fanning) are five-foot-nothing and they come out and act like they’re eight feet tall. I think it’s just coming in and not being afraid.”

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By Joseph Santoliquito 

They will remember the bus rides. And the pizza in the back of the bus on the bus rides. And the laughs on the bus rides. And the singing on the bus rides. And the giggles and the jokes on the bus rides. And how all the problems in the world seemed to be wiped away on those bus rides.

It is why it was so heart wrenching when the Delco Christian girls’ basketball team took their last bus ride this season on Saturday, after a 54-39 loss to District 4 champion Lourdes Regional at Hamburg High School in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class 1A state playoffs.

Lourdes Regional (23-6) will now advance to the state Class 1A semifinals against District 3 champion Linville Hill Christian next Saturday, while Delco Christian saw a highly successful season end, which included a Bicentennial Athletic League championship, and a 25-5 finish.

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By Matt Smith

When the game was on the line, Kylie Mulholland was spectacular Friday night.

The Garnet Valley senior guard delivered her best performance in a season full of excellent ones Friday night, stepping up time and again in the clutch to lead the Jaguars to a 49-43 double-overtime victory over reigning state champion Cardinal O’Hara in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals. It was a matchup between two Delaware County powerhouses.

The Jaguars advance to the state semifinals, where they’ll face District 7 champion Upper St. Clair next Friday at a time and site to be determined.

With her flash-like speed Mulholland was unstoppable when it mattered most. With time winding down in the first overtime, she raced to the basket and finished a layup to force a second extra period. She showed control at the free-throw line, sinking four crucial foul shots, including the pair that put Garnet Valley ahead for good in what will go down as an instant classic for Delco high school girls basketball.

After pouring in a game-high 25 points, Mulholland was all smiles, brushing off the heroics as just another day at the office.

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By Owen McCue 

The biggest shot of her high school career? How about two of them?

Garnet Valley senior Kylie Mulholland, not once but twice saved the Jaguars season with a pair of game tying shots late in overtime.

Mulholland put on her Superman cape and scored 25 points in a 49-43 double overtime win over Cardinal O’Hara in Friday’s PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal at Ridley High School to send the Jags to the state semifinals for the second year in a row.

“She’s got nerves of steel and she’s a competitor,” Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods said of Mulholland. “And all my guys are. They believe in themselves. They’re a tight knit group and they love each other, and they pull for each other. It doesn’t have to be just one player, and Kylie came out tonight and was making big shots.”

Mulholland’s first attempt to play hero was no good on Friday night. She put her team ahead 36-34 on a pair of free throws with 1:14 left in regulation. O’Hara senior Drexel commit Molly Rullo (14 points) tied the game seconds later. The Jags held the ball for one minute to take the final shot. Mulholland’s midrange jumper couldn’t go and the two teams headed for four more extra minutes of play, or so they thought, tied 36-36.

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By Matthew DeGeorge

Nine times in the last two decades, Neumann-Goretti’s boys basketball powerhouse has been crowned champion of Pennsylvania. A fair few of the wins on the way to those titles were sealed before a bus ever arrived at a gym, the Saints’ mystique beating teams before they tipped off.

To beat Neumann-Goretti, to pull what is no matter the seeds an upset, a team first has to believe it can – not in the rah-rah, let’s-give-it-a-go, huddle-breaking way. Really, truly believe.

The believing – more than the missed free throws or squandered lead – made it difficult Friday night when all was done for Penncrest. First, though, it had made life hard on Neumann-Goretti, for 31½ minutes. And then, in the locker room at Norristown High, that weight came down on the Lions.

“From the start of the week, we knew we could win,” center Mikey Mita said after a 76-69 overtime loss to the Saints in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals. “We knew we should have won. And we knew from the whole week since Tuesday night, after we beat Holy Ghost Prep, the mentality was, ‘We’re going to win and we’re playing next Friday.’”

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By Corky Blake

Archbishop Carroll’s girls basketball team was in desperate need of a spark in the first half of its PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal game against Central Dauphin on Friday night at Liberty High School’s Memorial Gym.

The District 12 champion Patriots offensively scuffled through the first quarter shooting 3-for-13 overall while not making one visit to the free throw line. They trailed 8-7 entering the second quarter despite forcing nine Central Dauphin turnovers.

When her team was unable to inbound the ball under its basket and was whistled for a five-seconds infraction, Archbishop Carroll coach Renie Shields looked to her left and summoned Maddie McFillin to enter the game – for the first time all season.

McFillin’s last organized basketball game came to a crashing halt last spring in a travel team tournament in Atlantic City. She tore the ACL in her left knee when a part of the temporary court gave way.

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By Joseph Santoliquito