By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

IRWIN — Union Area entered Saturday afternoon’s PIAA Class 1A quarterfinal matchup as the defending state champion.

So, it would have been easy to understand if a young Bishop Guilfoyle squad came in nervous and needing a few minutes to settle in.

Instead, the opposite happened as the Lady Marauders, who play mostly freshmen and sophomores, came out with a defensive intensity combined with knocking down four outside shots.

The Scotties were the ones on their heels as BG set the tone from the tip and held off a fourth quarter rally before eventually pulling away at the foul line in earning a 60-43 victory in a very physical battle at Norwin High School.

“It’s huge for a group that’s so young and inexperienced,” Bishop Guilfoyle coach Kristi Kaack said. “We had a couple of kids that were on the floor today that had a taste of the state playoffs last year. But, for most of these kids, it’s their first year and first go at it. I was really impressed with the way that they came out today.”

The win moves the Marauders into the semifinals against fellow District 6 foe Williamsburg, a 54-53 winner over Berlin Brothersvalley, on Tuesday at the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse at 7 p.m.

The meeting will be the third of the year as Guilfoyle captured both — 41-37 on Dec. 19 (without the Lady Pirates’ all-state player Ayla Hileman) and then 46-42 in the district championship.

“They (Bishop Guilfoyle) had a really good schedule that they played,” Union Area coach Rob Nogay said. “I knew from film that they were going to be one of the better opponents that we’ve played. We played 6A schools, we played 4A schools and they are good.”

After two BG steals on the defensive end and a missed shot on offense, Stella Yeskey found Morgan Ruggery on a backdoor cut to give the Lady Marauders a 2-0 lead at 6:39.

Guilfoyle never trailed the entire game as Ruggery, who finished with 14 points, followed that with a 3-pointer — the first of four for her team in the opening stanza.

After another forced BG turnover, Union finally got four quick points on a Mia Preuhs putback and pair of free throws by Kelly Cleaver to close to 5-4.

A trey from Gia Adams, who tallied 10 points, started a 15-2 stretch that included five more miscues by the Scotties as well as two makes from deep by Maurie Querry that pushed the lead to 20-6.

“We knew that they (Union Area) won it last year so they were hungry for another one,” Querry said. “We just played for each other. I think the nerves were honestly behind us, and we were just excited for the opportunity.”

Miera Gunn hit a pull-up from Union before Ruggery nailed a free throw line shot to give Bishop Guilfoyle a 22-8 advantage after the first eight minutes.

Querry, who finished with a team-high 18 points, and Ruggery combined for 15 of the 22 points as BG had seven steals to throw the Scotties’ offense out of rhythm.

“Just the way we executed on the defensive end, I think we took them (Union) out of what they are normally comfortable doing,” Kaack said.

Union settled in and began the second quarter with the first seven points — five of which came from star senior Kelly Cleaver — to get to 22-15 nearly halfway through.

A floater from Yeskey got the Marauders going with a 7-0 spurt of their own to make the score 29-15.

Both teams scored 11 points in the quarter to allow Bishop Guilfoyle to keep its 14 point lead (33-19) heading into the half.

“We knew we had to relax and just get the shots that we wanted, which I think we did,” Ruggery said.

The Lady Marauders came out of the break locked in as they made eight of the first 10 points of the third to get the largest lead of the game of 20 (41-21) when Yeskey hit a pair of free throws with 2:15 on the clock.

Cleaver, who had game-highs of 24 points and 10 rebounds, recorded all nine points for the Scotties as the senior Millersville University commit hit a shot to get her team to 44-28.

With time winding down in the third, Querry received a pass, took a quick look at the clock and shot a 26-footer from the back volleyball line that fell in to send BG into the final stanza with a 47-28 lead.

“It felt great,” Querry said. “I just shot it. It’s nice to have teammates where we get excited for everyone.”

Down 19 and with nothing to lose, Union went all-out in its defensive aggression and it worked as the Scotties forced Guilfoyle to turn the ball over seven times in the first nearly four minutes of the fourth.

“We just told them to get after it,” Nogay said. “We were in this position in every state playoff game we played in last year as we were trailing at halftime. … (I said to) ‘just dig down deep because this could be the end of it, this could be the last run, and it’s been a great ride for us for three years. This could be it, so how do you want to go out? Do you want to go out hard or do you want to go out folding up’?”

Four of those came via steals and one on a five-second inbounds violation.

“They fought back and were coming out with some intensity,” Ruggery said. “So, we wanted to make sure we got the ball in and work it (around), so we don’t turn the ball over.”

While the Scotties’ defense turned up a few notches, the District 7 champs parlayed that into 11 unanswered points to close within single digits on a Cleaver steal and layup with 5:42 remaining.

Most of the time, the Lady Marauders had trouble getting the ball past the 3-point line in the backcourt which allowed the 11 points from Union to come in quick fashion.

However, when Querry saw Alana Lightner finally get behind the defense, the freshman tossed it out and Lightner made the layup while getting fouled.

“That was a very heads-up play just to see that she was running the floor,” Kaack said. “That’s the nice thing is that one through five all our kids run the floor. She’s a quicker post player, so usually she’s beating her defender up the floor.”

Lightner, a sophomore, made good on the foul shot with 4:18 showing to put her team up 50-39.

From there, Bishop Guilfoyle was able to come out of the media timeout with a different plan of breaking the pressure which worked.

“I think our kids were a little bit timid then with that pressure,” Kaack said. “We told them, ‘you never know how officials are going to call it — either really tight or let them play a little bit. So, you’re going to have to start coming through some kids and catch the ball’. After a few minutes, we settled in a little bit.”

The Lightner bucket was the last field goal that BG needed to score as it went into a four-corners plan of milking the clock down.

The result was a parade of free throws and the Marauders delivered as four different players combined to knock down 10-of-12 to close out the final 3:53.

With Guilfoyle holding an 18-point lead at 57-39, Union finally got on the board again when Kylie Fruehstorfer hit a shot with 1:27 to go.

The field goal ended an over four-minute scoreless stretch by the Scotties.

Union, which ended its season at 21-6, had Preuhs hit a pair from the line to set the final with 38.4 left.

Bishop Guilfoyle is back in the semifinals for the first time since they won the state title in 2021 and a year after they bowed out in the second round.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (60): Adams 2 4-4 10, Querry 5 4-4 18, Ruggery 4 5-8 14, Yeskey 3 2-2 8, Lightner 3 1-1 7, Petrecca 1 0-0 2, Lechner 0 1-2 1. Totals–18 17-21 60.

UNION AREA (43): Cameron 0 0-0 0, Fruehstorfer 2 2-2 6, Cleaver 10 4-6 24, Preuhs 2 3-3 7, Gunn 3 0-0 6, Nogay 0 0-0 0, Fisher 0 0-0 0, Eppinger 0 0-0 0, Pavelko 0 0-0 0. Totals–17 9-11 43.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Guilfoyle 22 11 14 13 — 60

Union Area 8 11 9 15 — 43

3-point goals: Bishop Guilfoyle 7 (Querry 4, Adams 2, Ruggery); Union Area: none.

Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (27-3); Union Area (21-6).

Officials: Craig Stahl, Tony Rullo, Jake Fleegle.