Oakland Catholic girls basketball continues dominance of North Catholic in WPIAL Class 4A semifinals
ROSS TWP — On Monday night, for the second consecutive year, Oakland Catholic bounced North Catholic in the WPIAL Class 4A girls basketball semifinals.
Including their 46-29 setback at North Hills Middle School, the No. 3 Trojanettes haven’t beaten the Eagles (20-2) in the last five tries. Molly Rottmann’s crew hopes it can take something away from this defeat.
“We’ve gotta be individually and collectively better,” Rottmann said. “They’re a good team, right? So we’re gonna have to handle the ball better, we’re gonna have to make those layups, you have to hit those outside shots.
“You have to do all the things better to beat a good team.”
No. 2 Oakland Catholic got out to a 9-2 lead in the opening quarter before North junior Brady Wehner made a pair of buckets to move within two points shortly after.
“We thought we were ready to come into this game,” said Wehner, who paced North Catholic with 10 points. “That’s every game we play against them. We think we’re ready, and we just kinda have some cracks sometimes — and sometimes that’s how the game goes. But you always have to (have a) next-play mentality.”
The Trojanettes (19-6) went 5:09 without getting on the board after that mini-run, then another 5:27 after Harmony Jones’ basket that ended the first drought. The Eagles led by 11 at halftime and expanded their advantage to as many as 23 with 2:16 to play.
“Feeling good and being prepared doesn’t always pan out on the floor,” Rottmann said. “We took a couple hits, and we fought back, but we just got out of our flow a little bit.”
North Catholic could get a fourth crack at Oakland Catholic in the state playoffs. First, the Trojanettes play No. 5 Elizabeth Forward in the third-place game Wednesday. The WPIAL has been scheduling consolation games tentatively for 7 p.m. at the higher seed, in this case North Catholic. Updated brackets with official sites and times will be released Tuesday morning.
The Eagles will play No. 1 Blackhawk in the title game Saturday at Petersen Events Center.
“We still have games to play,” Wehner said. “We lost in the semis last year, we made it to the semis of states last year.”
NORTH CATHOLIC 29
Brady Wehner 3 2-2 10, Harmony Jones 3 0-0 6, Sam Weir 2 1-3 5, Kate Vislosky 2 1-2 5, Lauren Reitz 1 0-0 3, Maggie Tatar 0 0-0 0, Finley O’Shea 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 4-7 29.
OAKLAND CATHOLIC 46
Josie Fontana 6 2-4 16, Zephaniah Troxler-Scott 4 1-2 10, Savanna Daye 4 0-0 9, Luci LaMendola 2 2-3 8, Brooklyn Rozier 1 1-2 3, Madi Pullen 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 7-11 46.
North Catholic 7 6 6 10 — 29
Oakland Catholic 14 10 13 9 — 46
3-point goals: Oakland Catholic 6 (Fontana 2, LaMendola 2, Daye, Troxler-Scott); North Catholic 3 (Wehner 2, Reitz)
