For the second year in a row, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy will play at the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse with an opportunity to earn a chance to play in the PIAA Class 1A girls basketball championship on the line Saturday at noon.

Bishop Carroll Catholic, a young team that didn’t even make the state playoffs last year, will be on the other bench.

“Bishop Carroll really reminds me of ourselves,” Bishop Guilfoyle junior Gia Adams said. “They are really into the defensive end, and they work together as a team. I think it’s going to be a really fair matchup. They have definitely gotten better, and we’re ready for their challenge.”

The Lady Marauders were eliminated in the first round of the District 6 playoffs by Glendale in 2022, made the state playoffs and won one game in 2023 and then soared all the way to a victory in the PIAA championship game last year.

Now, the Lady Huskies want to make a similar jump.

“We have to play a perfect game,” Bishop Carroll coach John Strittmatter said. “I told our kids, when you look at Guilfoyle and you look at us — we play a similar type of game. The only difference I see is that Guilfoyle has more depth than we do. That’s a big factor in any game. I have like seven players that I use, and she goes 11 or 12, and that makes a big difference in a game.”

Bishop Carroll defeated Williamsburg in the quarterfinals, and BG topped Saint Joseph’s and made 12 3-pointers in the game.

But BG freshman Layona Williams said as usual, her team’s focus will be on defense Saturday.

“Defense is always what we worry about first,” Williams said. “If we play well on the defensive end and get defensive and offensive rebounds, offense will come from all of that.”

The long gap between the quarterfinals and the semifinals, caused by the Giant Center in Hershey not being available the original week the state championship games were scheduled, could mean BG is even deeper on Saturday.

“It is nice when you’re playing so many games back-to-back to give your kids some rest to get their legs back,” Bishop Guilfoyle coach Kristi Kaack said. “Stella (Yeskey) is working through an injury right now, so it’s nice to give her a little bit more time to continue to heal. That’s a great element to it, but I also think it’s tough. When you’re playing two or three games a week, you get into a rhythm. All of a sudden, if you have to sit five or six days between a game, I think that can hinder your rhythm a little bit. This group is locked in, so I don’t worry about that happening though because they are competing against each other in practice.”

Bishop Carroll has been relying on hot shooting this postseason and got a career-high 23 points from freshman Emily Lucko against Williamsburg, and Strittmatter is concerned about the layoff.

“I think it’s too long,” Strittmatter said. “I tried to use it for some of my players and give them some time off. We don’t practice at this time of the year like we do during the regular season. It’s a long season, and I’m trying to protect their legs. If they are tired, their legs are tired. They aren’t going to run well, jump or shoot well. They aren’t going to play good defense. It’s a real balance this time of the year keeping the kids healthy.”

Lucko said BC is trying to focus on playing a solid first half in the District 6 championship game to build confidence. That game was tied with 1:07 to play in the first half.

“Playing BG, I think we just have to go in with the mindset that they are a beatable team,” Lucko said. “We know we can perform against them, because we did in the first half of the District 6 championship. I think we just need to carry that throughout the whole game.”

Bishop Carroll’s win over Coudersport in the first round was the school’s first in girls basketball since a 2020 victory over Lebanon Catholic.

“This run to the final four has been very rewarding, especially after the last three years,” Bishop Carroll senior Caroline Golden said. “It’s tough to lose in the playoffs, and I personally have never made it this far in high school playoffs. Looking back, it makes everything that happened over the past three years worth it. I’m really blessed to have the opportunity to play in this game. Win or lose, it’s an amazing accomplishment to even be here.”

And at this point, Bishop Carroll feels like it is playing with house money.

“Again, I told our kids, the pressure is on Guilfoyle, really,” Srittmatter said. “I try and keep our kids loose to play relaxed and have fun. Guilfoyle is expected to beat us. If we get ourselves too tight, we won’t do much, but if we play loose and play a good game — who knows? We could be taking a bus trip.”

Either way, it has been a landmark season for the Ebensburg-based school.

“Our key players are young,” Strittmatter said. “Our ladies haven’t realized all of the accomplishments that they have achieved so far this year. We have done things they didn’t do last year. We beat good teams that we lost to last year. We got to the district playoffs and made the championship game. We’re in the state playoffs and made the semifinals. There’s so many accomplishments that these young ladies have achieved. They aren’t focused on that. They are looking at Hershey, but you have to look at all the good things you did this year.”

Kaack, who was a star player at Altoona before playing college basketball at Duquesne, will be coaching at the AAHS Fieldhouse for the second week in a row and for the second year in a row, she’ll try and clinch a trip to Hershey on the floor she used to call home.

“That gym meant a lot to me as a player,” Kaack said. “To be able to coach on that floor, especially in games of this magnitude, has been a lot of fun for me.”