By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

JOHNSTOWN — Starting strong can sometimes be helpful in an athletic competition. But finishing strong can be even more important.

The Bishop Guilfoyle Academy Lady Marauders used a very solid finish en route to posting a 62-51 victory over diocesan and Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference rival Bishop McCort Catholic Thursday night in a hotly-contested LHAC semifinal matchup at McCort High School’s Bradley Center.

BG (21-2 overall and 18-1 in the conference) outscored McCort down the stretch, 13-2, to break out of a 49-49 fourth-quarter tie and earn a berth in tonight’s 8:45 p.m. girls conference championship against Hollidaysburg at the Penn State Altoona’s Adler Arena.

Hollidaysburg advanced to tonight’s title game — which was moved up a day because of Saturday’s expected bad weather — by defeating Central Cambria, 67-35, in Thursday’s other conference semifinal.

Sophomore guard Morgan Ruggery led Guilfoyle with 19 points, while freshman Layona Williams scored 14 and freshman Mary Haigh chipped in 12 for the Lady Marauders.

“We did a much better job in the fourth quarter defending the perimeter and preventing them from getting any penetration on shots in general,” Guilfoyle coach Kristi Kaack said. “We felt like tonight was a team win for us, where we were much more in sync and played well on both ends of the floor.”

McCort senior guard Cami Beppler, who scored a game-high 27 points, was sidelined with an injury in the regular-season meeting between the two teams — a 62-59 BG victory at the Jaffa Mosque Jan. 31 — but made her presence very well-known on both ends of the floor in Thursday’s game.

After Beppler hit two free throws to tie the game, 49-49, with 3:42 left, Williams hit a 3-pointer from the top of the circle to put BG back on top to stay, 52-49.

Williams scored seven points on three field goals in the fourth period, while Ruggery chipped in with five points on a field goal and three free throws in the period.

Williams gave BG a spark in the final period, in which McCort had temporarily taken a 48-47 lead on Beppler’s 3-pointer with 4:23 left.

“She made some big shots for us tonight with the hands of their defenders in her face,” Kaack said of Williams. “She certainly did not look like a freshman out there tonight.”

Ruggery’s layup put BG up 54-49, and she followed with one of two free throws to give the Lady Marauders a 55-49 advantage.

Beppler hit one of two free throws to draw McCort to within 55-50, but BG got several free throw opportunities down the stretch, and made eight of 12 attempts from the foul line in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

Ruggery made two trips to the foul line and made one of two free throws on each occasion to give the Lady Marauders a commanding 57-50 lead with 28 seconds left. Haigh made three of four free throws and sophomore guard Maurie Querry connected on two of two in the final seconds as BG sprinted to the finish line.

“At halftime, we talked about keeping our composure, and we worked as a team and got good shots in the second half,” Ruggery said. “It was a very up-and-down game, and we knew that we just had to keep coming hard in the fourth quarter. And we shot a lot of foul shots, which also helped.”

Bishop McCort coach John Hahn, whose team dropped to 19-4 overall and finished 16-3 in conference play, believed that the difference in the game was that the Lady Marauders controlled the rebounds and also forced his team into numerous turnovers.

BG had a 36-22 edge on the boards, with Haigh grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.

“They’re a good, well-coached team,” Hahn said of BG. “We came back on them tonight, but we had way too many turnovers, and our rebounding was terrible. We didn’t get many second shots at all in the second half, and that can’t happen.”

BG hopes to turn the tables tonight against Hollidaysburg in the conference championship game. The Lady Tigers beat BG, 62-39, in a regular-season matchup in mid-January between the two teams at the Pleasant Valley gymnasium.

“We obviously did not play as well as we would have liked in our first game against them this year,” Kaack said. “They’re a senior-laden team, and we will have to be ready to go.”

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (62): Ruggery 6 7-12 19, Querry 2 3-4 7, Williams 6 0-0 14, Petrecca 3 1-1 8, Haigh 4 3-4 12, Homan 1 0-0 2, Gofus 0 0-0 0. Totals — 22 14-21 62.

BISHOP MCCORT (51): Zucco 1 0-1 2, Beppler 10 2-5 27, Preuss 1 0-0 2, Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Berkebile 3 1-4 9, Bailey 3 2-2 11, Toth 0 0-0 0, R. Bair 0 0-0 0. Totals — 18 5-12 51.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Guilfoyle 16 15 12 19 — 62

Bishop McCort 13 18 9 11 — 51

3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Williams 2, Petrecca, Haigh); Bishop McCort 10 (Beppler 5, Bailey 3, Berkebile 2).

Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (21-2, 18-1); Bishop McCort (19-4, 16-3).

Officials: Dan Amrhein, Jason Wohrl, Terri Piatek.