03/23/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /The Bishop Guilfoyle girls basketball team celebrates its PIAA Class 1A semifinal win on Saturday at the Altoona Fieldhouse.

By Michael Boytim

mboytim@altoonamirror.com

Shots that were falling a week ago weren’t, and the cheers echoing throughout Altoona Area High School’s Fieldhouse were for Bishop Carroll Catholic — not Bishop Guilfoyle Academy the way they were when the Lady Marauders scored 28 of the game’s first 30 points in the PIAA quarterfinals against Saint Joseph’s.

Sometimes experience pays off in moments like that and in others it’s having youthful confidence in simply believing in yourself.

Enter BG freshman Layona Williams.

With Bishop Guilfoyle trailing by two in the final seconds of the third quarter Saturday, Williams got to the basket and laid in a shot to tie the game. She followed that with a jumper and a driving layup to begin the final quarter to kickstart a 10-0 Lady Marauder run that helped secure a 49-42 win and a second consecutive trip to the PIAA Class 1A championship game.

“I still had faith we were going to go get the win,” Williams said. “I was just doing whatever I could to make it happen. I just feel like I went into another mode right there where I felt like I could do anything right there.”

Williams, who also got BG off to a good start by hitting a 3-pointer to open the scoring on Saturday, finished with 14 points to match sophomore Morgan Ruggery for high-scoring honors for the Lady Marauders.

“Any time (Williams) is on the floor, she’s always a threat on the offensive end for us,” Bishop Guilfoyle coach Kristi Kaack said. “She just plays with so much confidence. She’s definitely not like a freshman at all, especially on a stage like this today. But it’s our expectation after having a summer with her and watching what she does in practice. She put us on her back when we needed her tonight.”

Another freshman, Mary Haigh, and sophomore Anberlyn Petrecca finished the run with layups that made it 41-33 with 3:59 remaining.

“It was a sample of their depth,” Bishop Carroll coach John Strittmatter said. “She’s gotten better, that Williams girl, as the season has gone on, too. I can see why they started her.”

The Lady Huskies weren’t finished yet.

Bishop Carroll went on a 7-3 run with a runner by Emily Lucko and five straight points from Adelyn Myers, who finished with a game-high 15 points, to make it 44-40 with 1:02 left.

But Ruggery, who also had a team-high eight rebounds, went 5-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 50 seconds to secure the win.

“Any of us can do it,” Ruggery said. “We just kind of work the ball, and whoever gets fouled, we trust them to step up to the line and make it.”

Despite being returning starters on a team that won the state championship a year ago, Ruggery, Maurie Querry and Petrecca were supportive of Williams taking charge at the end of the third quarter.

“It’s been really fun to watch her develop,” Ruggery said. “She came in at the beginning of the year and was out a little bit with an injury. To see her get more comfortable each game and really just start playing her game has been really fun to watch.”

Now, Williams and Haigh get a chance to experience playing in the state final like their older teammates did a year ago.

“It feels really good,” Williams said. “I have never experienced anything like this as a freshman. I’m ecstatic. Seeing all the people here supporting us was really motivating for myself and the team.”

Neither team led by more than four points for most of the first half until Hannah Homan made a 3-pointer for Bishop Guilfoyle that started a 7-0 run that made the score 28-19.

Bishop Carroll responded by scoring the final four points of the half and the first two of the third quarter to make it 28-25.

“I thought in the third quarter, Guilfoyle didn’t shoot well,” Strittmatter said. “In the fourth quarter, they did and we didn’t. That was the biggest thing.”

As BG struggled to find its shot, Bishop Carroll’s Ava Pablic got hers going.

The sophomore hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Lady Huskies a 33-31 lead.

“I feel like that kind of hyped all of us up,” Pablic said. “It got us going and back into it.”

That’s when Williams decided to attack the rim rather than stick to outside shots that weren’t falling.

“It can really be any one of us,” Williams said. “I just feel like we’re so good and put together as a team that anyone can have a big night.”

The Lady Marauders made 12 3-pointers against Saint Joseph’s a week ago, but Saturday, they were just 4-for-17 from deep.

“A couple shots didn’t fall, and we started to get in our own way on the offensive end,” Kaack said. “We forced some outside shots. We stopped attacking the rim. I thought in the fourth quarter to start, we did a much better job getting to the rim instead of settling for outside shots.”

Ironically, success in the quarterfinals seemed to hinder BG’s performance in the first three quarters on Saturday.

“Coming off a week last week that we shot the ball so well, I think it made some of these kids a little nervous that shots weren’t falling in the first half,” Kaack said. “But I said to them, Carroll was dictating the pace on both ends in that third quarter. We just challenged them going into the fourth to let the defensive end win the game for us, and I thought it did tonight.”

Bishop Carroll turned the ball over on its first four possessions in the fourth quarter, and Pablic and Lucko, who combined for 17 points in the game, did not score in the final 10 minutes and 19 seconds of the game.

“We really go day-by-day sometimes and see who has a good week at practice or who brings something we think is going to be successful against a team like Bishop Carroll,” Kaack said. “The nice thing for us is that we feel good about anyone we put on the floor. I probably don’t always get it right, but tonight there were different kids at different times that really carried us through. I thought Mary (Haigh) and Morgan (Ruggery) were pretty phenomenal on (Lucko and Pablic). They really limited their opportunities in the second half.”

With the victory, Bishop Guilfoyle improved to 111-34 all-time in the PIAA playoffs and will play in its 15th state championship game in program history Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey against District 3 champion Linville Hill Christian at noon. Linville defeated Lourdes Regional, 60-45, in the other Class 1A semifinal on Saturday.

“It feels really good,” Ruggery said. “We have worked really hard all season. Being at Hershey last year, we knew there was no guarantee we were going to come back, but we worked hard to make it happen and we’re back, so it’s really special. I think we have gotten a lot better. I have seen us mature a lot, and each day I see us improving little bits at a time.”

Bishop Guilfoyle improved to 29-2 and will be attempting to win its ninth girls basketball PIAA championship.

“It’s great,” Kaack said. “I don’t want this to be lost on them, because this is a really special experience. I don’t think Bishop Carroll could have come out and played much better to try and beat us and go to Hershey on Friday, so I just want our kids to soak it in and enjoy this moment.

“Aside from basketball, I just really love these kids. They are enjoyable. Showing up to practice every single day never feels like a job. For me, it’s special, because the kids make every minute of film worth it when we’re scouting and preparing at this time of the year. For them, I’m excited, because today they truly earned the opportunity to go play Friday.”

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (49): Williams 6 1-3 14, Querry 1 0-0 2, Ruggery 3 8-10 14, Petrecca 2 2-2 5, Haigh 3 2-2 8, Adams 1 0-0 3, Gofus 0 0-0 0, Homan 1 0-0 3, Yeskey 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 11-15 49.

BISHOP CARROLL (42): Delauter 1 0-0 2, Ade. Myers 6 3-4 15, Pablic 4 0-0 11, Lucko 3 0-0 6, Lieb 2 0-0 4, Golden 0 0-0 0, Ave. Myers 2 0-1 4. Totals — 18 3-4 42.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Guilfoyle 12 16 5 16 — 49

Bishop Carroll 11 12 10 9 — 42

3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Williams, Petrecca, Adams, Homan); Bishop Carroll 3 (Pablic 3).

Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (29-2); Bishop Carroll (21-8).

Officials: Albert Jones, Dan Gales, Jordan Forster.