03/07/26 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Bishop Guilfoyle's Anberlyn Petrecca tips a rebound away from Otto-Eldred's Ayla Van Scoter.

The Bishop Guilfoyle Academy Lady Marauders have won two straight PIAA Class 1A girls basketball championships, and they showed Saturday afternoon at the Pleasant Valley gymnasium that it will take a Herculean effort by a great team to prevent BG from making it three state titles in a row later this month.

BG opened its title defense in impressive fashion, roaring to a 71-30 rout of Otto-Eldred in a first-round state playoff game in which the running clock was kicked into effect when the District 6 Lady Marauders had built a 30-point lead very early in the third quarter.

The Lady Marauders (now 25-2), who sailed to leads of 26-9 after one quarter and 44-18 at halftime, earned a second-round game against WPIAL third-place finisher Aquinas Academy at 6 p.m. Wednesday at IUP’s Kovalchick Center.

Senior guard Gia Adams scored nine of her game-high 15 points in the first quarter for BG, hitting a 3-pointer and adding three more field goals.

BG sophomore Layona Williams scored five of her 12 points in the first period, and junior Morgan Ruggery scored six of her 11 points in the opening eight minutes, when BG converted 12 of its 27 floor shots and amped up its defensive pressure to create numerous scoring opportunities via steals and forcing turnovers.

“I was real proud of the way that our kids played defense today — they did a great job on the defensive end,” BG coach Kristi Kaack said. “Offensively, I don’t think that we finished our shots particularly well in the first quarter, but we got some second chances off some easy shots because of our press, and that helped ups out.”

BG opened the game on an 11-2 run, with Williams scoring a putback field goal and 3-point shot, junior Anberlyn Petrecca converting a layup after an Adams steal, and Ruggery making a reverse layup before converting a steal into another layup.

After a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Baylee Francis — who led Otto-Eldred in scoring with 13 points — made it an 11-5 game, BG outscored the Lady Terrors, 15-4 for the remainder of the quarter.

Ruggery’s putback, two buckets by sophomore Mary Haigh, and the nine points by Adams completed the first-quarter scoring for BG, which showed no ill effects from its 10-day respite following its district championship victory.

“The long break between the district championship game and this game can be difficult, but it’s nice to have a game like this where we can get back into the flow of things,” Kaack said.

Otto-Eldred, which finished fourth in the District 9 tournament and wrapped a 21-6 season, was outmatched by BG in the same way that many of the Lady Marauders’ opponents have been this season.

“We knew what we were up against coming into this game,” Otto-Eldred coach Shawn Gray said. “We saw them on film, and we knew how physical, skilled, and well-coached they are, and they got us in all three of those phases today.

“They’re super quick and super long, and we don’t face that up in the North part of the state,” added Gray, whose team endured the three-plus hour trip to Altoona from Bradford County, near the New York state border.

Next on the agenda for BG is an Aquinas Academy team that the Lady Marauders defeated in last year’s state tournament en route to winning their second straight gold medal in Hershey.

“We played them last year in the second round, and they had some younger kids then,” Kaack said of the Aquinas Academy team, which hiked its record to 22-3 with its 58-40 first-round state playoff win over Northern Bedford Saturday. “They will have a little bit more of a veteran team this year, and I know that the game will be a challenge for us away from home.”

OTTO-ELDRED (30): Prince 1 1-2 4, Hakes 0 4-4 4, Francis 3 5-6 13, Smith 1 0-2 3, Van Scoter 1 1-2 4, Edminster 1 0-0 2, Bickford 0 0-0 0, Johnston 0 0-0 0, Irons 0 0-0 0. Totals – 7 11-16 30.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (71): Ruggery 5 1-2 11, Haigh 3 0-0 7, Petrecca 4 0-3 9, Adams 6 0-0 15, Williams 4 2-4 12, Yeskey 3 0-0 6, Homan 3 0-0 7, Geishauser 1 0-0 2, Hite 0 0-0 0, Steward 0 0-0 0, P. Ronan 0 0-0 0, Seaman 0 0-0 0, B. Biaconi 1 0-0 2, K. Biaconi 0 0-0 0. Totals -30 3-9 71.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Otto-Eldred 9 9 5 7–30

Bishop Guilfoyle 26 18 19 8–71

3-point goals: Otto-Eldred 5 (Francis 2, Prince, Van Scoter, Smith); Bishop Guilfoyle 8 (Adams 3, Williams 2, Petrecca, Haigh, Homan).

Records: Otto-Eldred (21-6); Bishop Guilfoyle (25-2).

Officials: Don Moss, Tony Warynovich, Bryan Jaynes.