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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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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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By Andrew Robinson

It was some of the very first advice Carly Coleman got when she started playing basketball, and it served her well over and over again Friday night.

The Cardinal O’Hara girls basketball senior has always believed, thanks to her dad’s direction, there’s no better way to get the ball than to rebound it. When those rebounds come off her own teammates’ misses, it’s all the better, especially during a PIAA quarterfinal game against a top team in the state.

O’Hara’s relentless rebound, dogged defense, opportunistic offense and general toughness powered the Lions as they ended Perkiomen Valley’s season, 49-35 in the Class 6A quarterfinals at Norristown High School.

“It’s the heart for me,” Coleman said. “My dad always tells me to go up for rebounds because you never know. Nobody’s going to make every shot they take, so I think knowing there are extra possessions and extra points you can get is a huge deal.”

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By CoBL Staff

All the local participants in the girls’ 2A and 3A state playoff brackets have been eliminated — but the 6A field is more than picking up the slack. 

Six of the eight state quarterfinalists are from the Philly ‘burbs, including four teams from District 1 — Perkiomen Valley, Spring-Ford, North Penn and Garnet Valley — and two from District 12, Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara. That means each of the four quarterfinals feature at least one local squad, including two all-local matchups.

Here’s a close look at all four:

Girls 6A: 1-1 Perkiomen Valley vs. 12-2 Cardinal O’Hara (6 PM, Norristown)

This year’s 6A bracket is a little strange: typically Catholic League squads wouldn’t be both the first and second seed out of District 12 6A; the District 12 championship game is usually Catholic League vs. Public League, but a forfeit by Northeast High bumped O’Hara up from the 12-3 spot into 12-2, Dobbins sliding up to take the final spot in the state tournament. So instead of a PV/O’Hara matchup taking place in the second round, it comes in the quarterfinals, PV having beaten Manheim Township and then Haverford High to advance a round further than it did a year ago.

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By Owen McCue

The Spring-Ford boys basketball team moved into unprecedented territory with each state playoff win last season.

Prior to the 2022-23 campaign, the Rams had just one PIAA victory in program history. They quadrupled that number to four with last season’s run to state semis. 

A 45-32 win over Springfield (Delco.) in Wednesday’s PIAA 6A second round gave the Rams a sixth state playoff victory and a second straight run to the quarterfinal round — something they are not taking lightly even though they made it look routine.

“Tomorrow’s not promised,” Spring-Ford senior guard E.J. Campbell said. “We could have lost this game. We could have not had practice tomorrow. I’m thankful we have practice tomorrow. We just want to keep having practices and having games. … I’m one of two seniors, so I just go into each game going this could be my last game, so I’m going to give it everything I’ve got.” 

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