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Lady Marauders’ season stopped

CLYMER — Here is all you need to know about the incredible success of the girls basketball program at Bishop Guilfoyle: The Lady Marauders last missed the PIAA state playoffs in 2006.

The last time before that: Midway through the second term of Ronald Reagan’s Presidency. The year was 1986. Top 40 radio stations were playing songs by a man named Howard (Jones, to be exact).

And yet BG, despite playing the rare role of underdog, came tantalizingly close to making what has come to be an all-but-annual trip to the state playoffs. Kyra Kelly’s 3-pointer on the Lady Marauders’ first possession of the fourth quarter produced the biggest lead of the night, 30-20.

Guilfoyle coach Mark Moschella never thought his team had Penns Manor where it wanted the Lady Comets. Not for one second.

“I said at halftime in the locker room, ‘They’ll put a press on. We worked on the press break. We’ve got to execute the press break,'” he said after Penns Manor decisively seized control and outscored the Lady Marauders the rest of the way, 20-4, en route a 40-34 victory on Wednesday night in a District 6 Class 2A quarterfinal-round game.

“To their credit they did a great job on the press and to our (detriment) we just didn’t execute the press break. And basically, those turnovers were costly because they turned into layups.”

Penns Manor assured itself one of four PIAA Class 2A playoff berths from District 6. It will face Bishop McCort in a semifinal-round game on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

For only the second time since spandex was a fashion craze as opposed to a punch line, there will be no March basketball for the Bishop Guilfoyle girls. Talk about March madness.

Moschella assured all concerned he will help the Lady Marauders, who were devastated this season by graduations, injuries and players leaving the community, return to their long-accustomed success.

“We have a good nucleus of kids coming back,” he said. “It’s pretty hard losing 10 kids out of the program and putting kids on who had no varsity experience. These kids were excellent all year.

“You can have a team that’s winning, and everyone is fighting, and how much fun is that? This group wasn’t like that. They got along all year, they were great kids to coach (and) the parents were excellent. So, as a head coach I cannot ask for too much more than that.

“It would have been easy for any coach to walk away. And I’m not going to walk away from these kids, not knowing that I wasn’t there to give a lot of these young kids an opportunity for next year, saying that they now have experience.”

The game at Penns Manor bore a remarkable similarity to the Jan. 20 matchup at the same gymnasium. Baskets proved to be hard to come by, both teams played tenacious defense, and free throw shooting favored the Lady Comets at the end.

“Bishop Guilfoyle is a great team; they are in the playoffs for a reason. And we just had to keep on staying confident in our abilities,” Penns Manor coach Jason Miloser said. “And I thought the girls did a really nice job in that fourth quarter of making the plays they needed to make.”

Bishop Guilfoyle made only 12 of 40 from the floor. Penns Manor was hardly any better, as it was only 10 for 47. The Lady Comets, however, cashed in 16 of 21 at the free-throw line.

Bishop Guilfoyle changed an 8-3 deficit at the end of one period into a 20-15 halftime lead.

“We could have set the tone a little early. But we started off with two missed layups and wide-open outside shot and came away with nothing on the first three possessions of the game,” Moschella said.

Jamison Consiglio posed matchup problems for Penns Manor inside for most of the night. She was the only Lady Marauder who achieved double-figures scoring. She led with 10 points while she grabbed five rebounds.

“We did a good job at times (feeding the ball inside to Consiglio),” Moschella said. “But I don’t feel that we were patient enough with our offense as well. We didn’t make them work at all.”

“Not only does she have a size advantage, she’s a great post player as well,” Miloser said. “That’s something we really tried to work on in practice, our post defense, because we knew their size could pose some problems for us.”

Miloser said his defenders did a better job of helping each other out and boxing out in the second half. Lauren Dumm, meanwhile, kept Penns Manor within striking distance with a pair of first-half 3-point field goals. She, too, finished with 11 points.

Kelly’s 3-pointer 28 seconds in the final period staked Bishop Guilfoyle to a 30-20 lead. Miloser and the Lady Comets had seen enough by that time.

“I thought my girls, especially in that second half, we did a much better job of keeping our composure,” he said. “In the first half we were too worried about getting fouls called instead of just playing basketball. In that fourth quarter in particular, we just kept moving on to the next play. Whether we made the shot or missed the shot, we just kept on playing hard. And it worked out in our favor.”

Penns Manor forced 20 turnovers and used that pressure defense to crawl back in contention.

“Uncharacteristically we turned the ball over,” Moschella said. “And those points off the turnovers were devastating.”

Penns Manor junior Autumn Fennell led all scorers with 18 points. She made 11 of 12 free throws. The Lady Comets converted 11 of 12 at the line in the final period.

Bishop Guilfoyle made seven of the 10 free throws it was awarded.

“We were in foul trouble, and I felt we overcame the foul trouble by putting kids on the bench,” Moschella said. “But at the end it’s about making good decisions, and we didn’t make good decisions against the press.”

Bishop Guilfoyle (34): Consiglio 4 2-2 10, Kelly 3 0-0 7, Labriola 1 0-0 2, Crider 1 0-0 2, Warner 1 3-6 6, Haigh 2 2-2 7, Kiesewetter 0 0-0 0, Brunner 0 0-0 0. Totals — 12 7-10 34.

Penns Manor (40): Dumm 3 2-2 11, Smith 0 0-0 0, Tomayko 2 1-3 5, Bagley 1 2-4 4, Fennell 3 11-12 18, Weaver 0 0-0 0, Britton 0 0-0 0, Zayachak 1 0-0 2. Totals — 10 16-21 40.

SCORE BY QUARTERS:

Bishop Guilfoyle 3 17 7 7 — 34

Penns Manor 8 7 5 20– 40

3-point field goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 3 (Kelly, Warner, Haigch), Penns Manor 4 (Dumm 3, Fennell).

Officials: Mike McDermott, Mike Felus, Bill Zamboni.

Team records: Bishop Guilfoyle (11-12), Penns Manor (21-3).

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