The payoff

Being named Class A state player of the year as a junior was a source of inspiration for Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic High School star Alli Williams in her senior season.

"It's always a great honor to be player of the year. It was motivation for me,'' Williams said. "If I won it as a junior, I wanted to play as well as I could to try to win it as a senior. I had to keep working hard to win it again.''

Williams accomplished her task. The 5-foot-11 guard-forward set team career scoring records for points and rebounds and led the Lady Marauders to their first-ever undefeated season, and, as a result was recognized as player of the year again in her classification Tuesday by a panel of sports writers from across the commonwealth.

BG, which won its second straight PIAA championship and third in four years, was well-represented on the all-state team. The Lady Marauders' Mark Moschella, who surpassed the 400-win plateau in the Ellis Shootout Christmas tournament, was named Class A coach of the year for the second straight time, while freshman forward Halee Adams made the single-A third team.

Williams, a St. Francis recruit, averaged 16.5 points and more than 10 rebounds per game as the Lady Marauders went 30-0. That average was down nearly three points from her junior season, but that statistic did not diminish her ability to control things on the court.

"The team wasn't as dependent on me for scoring this year, so I think I stepped up in other areas, like my rebounding,'' Williams said. "I did whatever my team needed. I think I stepped up in rebounding and on defense. I just tried to play my game.''

Williams still did enough scoring to shatter BG's career point mark early in the season and finished with 1,756 points. In the District 6 Class A championship game, she added the Guilfoyle all-time rebounding mark to her list of achievements - she finished with more than 800 career boards.

Moschella entered the year needing seven wins to reach the 400 milestone. He has a 423-122 mark in 18 years at the helm.

Adams, meanwhile, complemented Williams by averaging 14.9 points per game as a ninth-grader. She scored 11 in the state finals.

Two other players from the Mirror coverage area made the team. Northern Cambria's Breanna Kochinsky joined Williams on the first team after spearheading the Lady Colts' drive to the state finals and scoring her 1,000th career point; she was on the third team as a junior last season. Tussey Mountain's Rachel Zimmerman returned to the third team by leading the Lady Titans to a second straight District 5 championship.

Williams wasn't the only player from a smaller school to show she possessed big game this season. Notre Dame recruit Kayla McBride, the 5-foot-11 senior who led Erie Villa Maria to four league championships, four District 10 championships, three PIAA finals appearances and Class AA state titles in each of her last two years was a repeat winner as Class AA player of the year.

McBride finished her career with 1,727 points. As a senior, she was also named a Parade All-American and the Gatorade Pennsylvania player of the year, and selected to play in the prestigious McDonald's All-America Game.

McBride topped an unusually strong crop of talent to secure top honors in Class AA over York Catholic junior Kady Schrann and Penn State recruit Maggie Lucas of powerful Germantown Academy.

McBride averaged 20.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, 5.6 steals and 2.7 blocked shots this past season. She finished her career off at the PIAA finals with 29 points - 14 in the fourth quarter - and 11 boards as the Victors fended off a late charge by Schrann and York Catholic.

Villa Mara went 28-2, the only two losses coming to Regina of Ohio and Oak Hill Academy from Virginia. The talent pool in McBride's classification was so deep this season that not even state scoring champion Chikilra Goodman (36.2 points per game) could crack the Double-A first team. Those honors went to McBride, Lucas, Schrann, Engineering & Science junior Brittany Hrynko, Delone Catholic sophomore Sierra Moore and Germantown Academy senior Tory Thierolf, who is bound for Drexel.

The large-school classifications were far from devoid of talent. Central Dauphin's Alyssa Thomas, who is headed to Maryland, leads a Class AAAA first-team that includes four other Division I signees and a highly regarded junior.

Thomas, however, stood out by scoring 777 points and pulling down 409 rebounds in leading Central Dauphin to the PIAA semifinals, where its season was stopped by eventual state champion Mount Lebanon.

Thomas will have quality company from her home state in the Atlantic Coast Conference next season. Fellow Class AAAA first-team pick Natasha Cloud of Cardinal O'Hara will be Thomas' teammate at Maryland, and Butler's Olivia Bresnahan, like Thomas, a repeat Quad-A first-team selection, is headed to Florida State.

Abington's Emily Leer (Villanova), Baldwin's Belma Nurkic (Duquesne) and Mount Lebanon's Madison Cable round out the first team. Cable is the only underclassman so recognized; she scored 30 points in the Lady Blue Devils' PIAA championship game win against Archbishop Ryan.

In Class AAA, St. Joseph's recruit Erin Shields from Archbishop Carroll was named player of the year, moving up from last year's second team to join returning first-teamer Laura Murray, a Davidson recruit from Camp Hill Trinity.

The rest of the first team boasts tremendous scoring punch: St. Marys junior Kayla Hoohuli, General McLane's Valerie Majewski and Mercyhurst Prep's Lindsay Stamp, all juniors receiving Division I recruiting interest and averaging at least 23 points per game. Hoohuli averaged 30.3 per contest, scoring 52 in a PIAA first-round playoff win over Hampton.

Three other Division I recruits are on the Class A first team: Lebanon Catholic's Hailey Carangelo will team with Williams at St. Francis, Friends Central's Talia East is on her way to Penn State, while Farrell's D'Asia Chambers, who poured in 50 in a game against Rocky Grove, signed with St. Bonaventure.

Delaware County Christian junior center Emily Homan and Steelton-Highspire freshman guard Malia Tate-DeFreitas comprise the rest of Class A's first team. Tate-DeFrietas is the only freshman to make any of the four first teams.

Several other regional players were recognized. Ferndale's Brittany Eisenhuth made the Class A second team, while Conemaugh Valley's Taylor Gruss was a third-team honoree. In Class A, Southern Huntingdon's Elaina Hummel and North Star's Emily Lohr were third-team picks.

The coaches of each of the PIAA championship winners were Coach of the Year in their respective classifications - Mount Lebanon's Dori Oldaker in Class AAAA, Archbishop Wood's Chris Ricci in AAA, Villa Maria's Scott Dibble in AA and Moschella in A.