LORETTO - Homer-Center couldn't miss from beyond the arc in the first half of its District 6 Class A girls basketball championship game against Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic Saturday at DeGol Arena.
The Lady Marauders responded by doing something they normally don't - fire up plenty of treys themselves. When the dust settled, BG made eight 3-pointers, seven in the first half, en route to doing something it does normally do, win another district title, 61-48.
"Bishop Guilfoyle is a good basketball team," Homer-Center coach Tom Lasher said. "We scouted them, went and watched them play and they shot nowhere near as good from the perimeter as they did today."
Article Photos
Mirror photo by Patrick?Waksmunski
BG players (from left) Elyssa Ehredt,?Devin Stessney and Courtney?Becker congratulate each other after the win.
The victory gave the Lady Marauders their sixth consecutive district title in Class A, breaking a tie with Williamsburg for the most consecutive championships. Bishop Guilfoyle is now 22-10 all-time in district final games.
"Every year we work really hard for everything we get," said BG's Kayla Bates, who made four of the Lady Marauders' treys and finished with 16 points. "We're really familiar with [Homer-Center], and we knew it would be a fun game."
Bishop Guilfoyle topped the Wildcats for the second consecutive year in the title game. Only three Lady Wildcats scored, but the trio of Katelyn Skinner, Maggie McLoughlin and Breanna Rossi kept the game close early. Skinner and McLoughlin both finished with five 3-pointers, and Rossi made two. Skinner, who along with Adams made the first-team Class A All-State squad last year, finished with a game-high 23 points.
"At halftime, I said that we had quite a shooting demonstrating going on between the two teams," Bishop Guilfoyle coach Mark Moschella said. "It wasn't like we weren't contesting their shots and they weren't contesting ours. The spectators got to see some real good basketball players out there on both sides."
One of those players, BG's Halee Adams, was held scoreless for three of the four quarters but scored 12 points during the pivotal second quarter.
Homer-Center trailed, 24-21, before Adams made a putback and a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions. The Lady Wildcats pulled back within four, but Adams connected on another trey with 2:52 left in the half and followed it with another putback to put BG up nine.
"It was too close in the first quarter, and we knew we needed to rebound better," Adams said. "Everyone worked so hard."
Devin Stessney came up one point short of putting each Bishop Guilfoyle starter in double figures. Elyssa Ehredt scored 14, and Courtney Becker had 10 points and 12 rebounds while helping limit Homer-Center to one shot.
In the second half, the Lady Wildcats made just one field goal that was not a 3-pointer, and even the treys stopped falling. Homer-Center made four from beyond the arc in the final two quarters, but three of those came after BG pulled ahead by as many as 17.
"Courtney Becker and Halee did a great job in the middle," Moschella said. "We felt like sooner or later, they'd have to start missing a couple [3-pointers].
"It's nice to beat such a quality opponent to win another District 6 championship."
HOMER-CENTER (48): Rossi 2 2-2 8, Skinner 8 2-2 23, McLoughlin 6 0-0 17, Horel 0 0-0 0, Townley 0 0-0 0, Pohley 0 0-0 0, Galasso 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 4-4 48.
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (61): H. Adams 5 0-0 12, Ehredt 5 4-6 14, Bates 4 4-4 16, Stessney 3 1-4 9, Becker 3 4-8 10, Boslet 0 0-2 0, Meck 0 0-0 0, Bender 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 13-24 61.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Homer-Center 16 14 7 11 - 48
Bishop Guilfoyle 19 22 8 12 - 61
3-pointers: Homer-Center 12 (McLoughlin 5, Skinner 5, Rossi 2). Bishop Guilfoyle 8 (H. Adams 2, Bates 4, Stessney 2)
Records: Homer-Center (21-4); Bishop Guilfoyle (23-2).
Officials: Chuck Glasser, Bill Antesberger, Tracy Cornelius
