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JOHNSTOWN -- Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic's girls basketball team has a lot of big games and pressure situations ahead of it over the next few years, but the Lady Marauders don't have much varsity experience yet.
Chalk Friday night's 61-57 loss to Bishop McCort Catholic at the Bradley Center as a major lesson.
Bishop Guilfoyle overcame a slow start to lead by three at halftime and went up by as many as 12 in the third quarter before McCort went on a 15-4 run to end the third down by just one.
Stella Yeskey scored the final two of her 10 points on BG's first possession of the fourth quarter to make it 42-39, but the Lady Crushers scored the next 11 points to take control of the game.
"They play very aggressively and played us full court," Bishop Guilfoyle coach Kristi Kaack said. "We talked about a couple of the turnovers we had, and we didn't feel like we handled the ball very well out of that. That leaked into other areas of the game, but I thought we settled into the game and did a nice job. But our third-quarter turnovers came back to haunt us."
In all, the Lady Marauders turned the ball over 27 times. Early on, it seemed as though BG was going to eventually win the war despite the turnovers, because several McCort players found themselves in foul trouble in the first half.
"I like to come with pressure, but you have to be under control," Bishop McCort coach John Hahn said. "You can't have dumb fouls, and we had a couple of them. But I am hanging my hat on our defense, and I want the girls to be aggressive and go get it. Sometimes we go a little too far, but to me, defense is going to be what gets our offense moving. When we have to set up in a halfcourt offense, we can struggle."
Hahn's assessment proved accurate as most of McCort's points during its comeback came off turnovers and from the free-throw line, where the Lady Crushers went 22-for-30. Gianna Gallucci, who scored a game-high 27 points, was 11-for-12 from the line. Teammate Ava Zucco finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
"The Gallucci kid for them is really good, and you can see her senior leadership," Kaack said. "When they went down, there was no panic. They are a team that scores quickly, and for us, when they started to make that run, we started to speed up our game on the offensive end and started to turn the ball over. We came back, but ultimately those turnovers got us. We were 50-50 whether we were getting a possession or not, and you're not going to win when you don't have possessions to shoot the ball."
Despite falling down by nine points in the fourth quarter, Bishop Guilfoyle cut it to three on Gia Adams' steal and three-point play with 1:17 left. Adams had a chance to make it a one-point game on a 3-point attempt with 32 seconds left, but it rimmed out and McCort made its free throws down the stretch to remain unbeaten at 17-0.
"These girls just don't quit, and they want it as bad as I want it," Hahn said. "This was a huge game for BG, and it was a huge game for us. We both want a shot at playing for the Laurel Highlands (championship). We're in each other's way, and we just knew we had to come with energy the whole game. We said in the third quarter we'd catch them by the fourth, and we were down one. Once we got the lead, I felt a lot better."
The teams could meet again, back at Bishop McCort, in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference semifinal playoffs. McCort is currently the top seed on its side, and BG is second on its side.
"The energy was definitely there," said freshman Morgan Ruggery, who led BG with 14 points. "It will prepare us for when we get on the road in the playoffs. We'll learn from this game. We brought it to them, but they came right back. We'll learn that we have to slow it down and get some good shots and play defense when they are doing that. We're excited to hopefully get another chance at them."
The Lady Marauders suffered just their second loss and are now 17-2 but still hold the top ranking among Class 1A teams in District 6 as the postseason nears.
"I thought it was great to play in this game," Kaack said. "That was one thing we were really excited about was coming here and having that atmosphere and playing a team like McCort on the road so we can start to prep for districts and state playoffs. As far as that goes, I'm really glad they got that experience tonight."
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (57): Querry 1 4-4 7, Ruggery 3 6-7 14, Petrecca 2 0-0 5, Yeskey 5 0-0 10, Lightner 3 0-0 6, Adams 2 1-1 6, Gofus 0 2-2 2, Lechner 2 0-0 6, Homan 0 1-2 1. Totals -- 18 14-16 57.
BISHOP McCORT (61): Kar. Bailey 0 0-0 0, Gallucci 7 11-12 27, Beppler 4 4-4 15, Berkebile 0 2-4 2, Zucco 6 3-4 15, Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Kal. Bailey 0 2-4 2, Pruess 0 0-2 0. Totals -- 17 22-30 61.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bishop Guilfoyle 11 16 13 17 -- 57
Bishop McCort 12 12 15 22 -- 61
3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 7 (Ruggery 2, Lechner 2, Query, Petrecca, Adams); Bishop McCort 5 (Beppler 3, Gallucci 2).
Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (17-2); Bishop McCort (17-0).
Officials: Wayne Warfel, Vicki Markiewicz, Terri Piatek.
JV: No game.