Season Ends for District 9 Class 2A Girls Teams

KANE, Pa. – It was a tough night for the District 9 Class 2A girls’ teams Friday in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs with all three squads seeing their seasons come to an end.

(Cover photo of Ally Easton of Coudersport. Photo by Paul Burdick. Check out more of Burdick’s work here)

Here is a look at all three games:

LEECHBURG 55, COUDERSPORT 51

KANE, Pa. – WPIAL fifth-place finisher Leechburg stunned District 9 champion Coudersport, 55-51, at Kane High School.

Mikayla Lovelace scored 10 of her game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter to help the Lady Blue Devils (15-10) outscore Coudersport (23-2) 17-13 in the fourth after the Lady Falcons had rallied from a 30-26 halftime deficit to tie the game at 38 after three.

Lovelace helped Leechburg to the halftime advantage thanks to 14 first-half points including eight in the first quarter.

Ally Easton led Coudersport with 23 points and nine rebounds with Haley Keck adding 10 tallies and Alyssa Wood six points and eight rebounds.

Makenzie Fello chipped in 12 points for Leechburg, who will play WPIAL third-place finisher Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a 42-29 winner over Reynolds, in the second round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

LEECHBURG 55, COUDERSPORT 51

Score by Quarters

Leechburg 18 12 8 17 – 55
Coudersport 15 11 12 13 – 51

LEECHBURG – 55

Mikayla Lovelace 12 2-3 26, Cameron Davies 2 0-0 6, Daesha Knight 0 2-2 2, Brittany Robilio 4 0-0 9, Makenzie Fello 3 6-6 12. Totals 21 10-11 55.

COUDERSPORT – 51

Kiara Perkins 0 0-0 0, Macy Gleason 2 1-3 5, Ally Easton 10 3-4 23, Haley Keck 4 0-0 10, Alyssa Wood 2 2-4 6, Shae Black 0 0-0 0, Adrian Page 0 0-0 0, EmmaRae Easton 3 0-0 7, Tory Crosby 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 6-11 51.

Three-pointers: Leechburg 3 (Davies 2, Robilio). Coudersport 3 (Keck 2, E. Easton).

BISHOP GUILFOYLE 52, KANE 45

DUBOIS, Pa. – For one-half, the Kane Lady Wolves did everything right and looked poised to be able to knock off District 6 3rd place finisher Bishop Guilfoyle who entered the game as the favorite.

However, after trailing 23-17 halftime, the Lady Marauders went on a 20-0 run and opened up a 37-23 lead that they never relinquished.

Bishop Guilfoyle went into the full court press to begin the second half and Kane had no answers as they turned the ball ten times in the quarter and started 0-7 from the field.

“We were in foul trouble in the first half,” said Bishop Guilfoyle head coach Mark Moschella. ” I felt like once we could get all starting five back on the court, we’d be okay.”

“We had to press them; you don’t know how you’re going to do against it, sometimes it burns you on the back end with easy layups, but they did a good job.”

Sophomore Harlem Jennings lead Bishop Guilfoyle’s third-quarter surge as she scored eleven points, Darcy Lee scored seven, Lili Benzel added four and Karis Taddei had one as the Lady Marauders outscored Kane 23-8 in the quarter.

The Lady Wolves didn’t reach the scoreboard until Camryn Cummings field goal with 2:22 remaining that cut the deficit to 37-25. Kane trailed 40-31 after three-quarters.

“We pulled everything out of the bag to beat such a huge team,” said Moschella. “Not only were they big, but they were physical.”

“My young girls had some nerves there in the third quarter, but hey; they were in a ball game you go ask them,” said Kane head coach Dave Kiehl. “They may be an elite private school, but they were in a ball game, and these girls gave them everything they had, every last one of them. They put four seniors out there; we had one out there, two at the most. My girls played a heck of a ball game, I think they thought they were going to come in here and blow us out, but it didn’t happen.”

Kane which trailed 12-8 after one-quarter dominated the second to take the 23-17 lead into intermission as the Lady Wolves outscored Bishop Guilfoyle 15-5.

Ella Marconi and Trinity Clark lead way for the Lady Wolves all game as the scored 34 of their 45 points as Marconi led all scorers with 20 and had a double-double as she recorded 11 rebounds. Clark scored 14 and just missed a double-double with nine boards.

Clark’s three-pointer with 5:45 remaining in half gave Kane their first lead at 15-13, she along with Marconi both scored seven points in the second quarter and had seven rebounds by halftime.

Kane used its size advantage in the first half out rebounding Bishop Guilfoyle 22-11, but in the end, Lady Marauders ball pressure was too much for the Lady Wolves to handle as the turned the ball over 26 times, 15 in the second half.

“From here on out who’s going to be there? The private schools, they draw from all of Altoona; I thought we did all right, I really did. In my 27 years of coaching I’ve never had more information on a team,” said Kiehl.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE 52, KANE 45

Score by Quarters

Bishop Guilfoyle 12 5 23 12 – 52
Kane 8 15 8 14 – 45

BISHOP GUILFOYLE – 52

Lili Benzel 3 6-8 12, Harlem Jennings 7 1-1 16, Darcy Lee 6 3-4 15, Karis Taddei 2 2-3 6, Anna Audley 1 1-3 3, Beth Yahner 0 0-0. Totals: 19 13-19 52.

KANE – 45

Rachael Morgan 1 0-1 2, Ella Marconi 7 4-6 20, Trinity Clark 5 2-4 14, Camryn Cummings 2 1-4 5, Alexis Lopez 1 0-0 2, Hannah Buhl 1 0-0 2, Caitlin O’Hara 0 0-0. Totals: 17 7-15 45.

Three-pointers: Bishop Guilfoyle 1 (Jennings). Kane 2 (Clark).

CHARTIERS-HOUSTON 56, CRANBERRY 18

McMURRAY, Pa. – Cranberry’s return to the PIAA playoffs was one the Berries would rather forget after WPIAL champion Chartiers-Houston rolled to a 56-18 victory in the opening round of the PIAA Class 2A girls’ tournament at Peters Township High School.

Cranberry (18-7), the third-place team out of District 9, made a game of it for a quarter and trailed 15-7 going to the second quarter.

But the Lady Buccaneers (24-2) outscored Cranberry 39-8 over the next 16 minutes to blow the game wide open taking a 30-13 halftime lead and a 54-15 lead after three quarters.

Jala Walker led Chartiers-Houston with a game-high 23 points followed closely by Alexa Williamson who added 21 points.

Maliah Schreck paced Cranberry with seven points.

CHARTIERS-HOUSTON 56, CRANBERRY 18

Score by Quarters

Cranberry 7 6 2 3 – 18
Chartiers-Houston 15 15 24 2 – 56

CRANBERRY – 18

Swartzfager 2 0-2 4, Merryman 0 0-0 0, Schreck 3 0-0 7, Kahle 0 0-0 0, H. Duncan 1 0-0 2, Hutchinson 0 0-0 0, Altman 0 1-2 1, Finch 0 0-0 0, Wice 0 0-0 0, E. Duncan 2 0-0 4. Totals 8 1-4 18.

CHARTIERS-HOUSTON – 56

Lindsey 0 0-0 0, Simpson 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0, Walker 3 1-2 7, Vulcono 1 3-8 5, Mazutis 0 0-0 0, Jala Walker 11 1-2 23, Williamson 10 1-4 21, Jalin Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 6-16 56.

Three-pointers: Cranberry 1 (Schreck)