Mustangs battle to end in loss
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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
IRWIN -- Trailing by 23 with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter, the Portage girls basketball team was determined not to be remembered as a team that faded away.
The Lady Mustangs, led by five senior starters, decided if they were going down in a blaze of glory, they might as well take the whole gym with them.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Jenna Burkett ignited the fire, and it continued throughout the end of the third and deep into the fourth quarter as Portage cut Kennedy Catholic's lead down to six before finally falling, 54-43, at Norwin High School Tuesday in the second round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs.
"I realized that if we were going to lose this game, I didn't want to lose it by a blowout," Burkett said. "I had it in my heart that we were going to win. But in the back of my mind, I thought that if we were going to lose, we weren't going down without a fight."
Portage played even with Kennedy Catholic through the first quarter and trailed by just five when the game changed with 5:25 to play before halftime.
Burkett, who had been sitting out since picking up her second foul with 5.2 seconds left in the first quarter, had just returned to the game 23 seconds prior and was whistled for a charge. She sat out the final 5:25 of the second quarter and did not return until a couple minutes into the third.
Kennedy Catholic closed out the half on a 14-2 run with Portage's only basket coming on a Cami Burkett layup with 15 seconds left. The Lady Eagles opened the third on a 10-4 run to make it 43-20.
"All year, we have seemed to go offensively how Jenna goes," Portage coach Lance Hudak said. "When Jenna is feeling it, it seems like the other girls have a weight off their shoulders. They are a lot more confident to do what they do offensively. When she's not in there and not scoring for us, sometimes we press a little bit and try too hard. I think that happened in the second and third."
Burkett's return paid off offensively as she scored the final seven points of the third quarter to give the Lady Mustangs a chance.
Portage followed by going on a 9-2 run to start the fourth quarter on baskets by Alex Chobany, Cami Burkett, Jenna Burkett and a 3-pointer by Brooke Bednarski that cut the lead to single digits, but Kennedy Catholic responded with back-to-back scores that pushed it to 49-36.
But with Portage's press defense forcing turnovers, Jenna Burkett got it going again with a 3-pointer and a pair of jumpers to make it 49-43 with 2:59 left to send the gym into a frenzy and make Hudak lightheaded.
"I had to sit down, because I got a little head rush from jumping around and getting too excited," Hudak said. "With four timeouts and just how inspired we were playing and how the ball was falling offensively, how they looked really rattled, I felt really good about it."
Tori Harvey fouled out for Kennedy Catholic, and Portage got another turnover, one of its 20 forced for the game, but missed two chances offensively to cut into the six-point deficit. With 1:51 left, Kennedy star junior Layke Fields, who finished with 22 points, calmed the crowd by making a layup.
Portage was forced to foul and never scored again.
"The energy was up," Chobany said. "We had a lot of hope. We were really motivated and knew we could get it. Unfortunately, we just couldn't make it all the way back."
Kennedy Catholic, the defending PIAA Class 2A champion, will play Bishop McCort on Saturday in the PIAA quarterfinals.
"For the first two and a half quarters, we played really well," Kennedy Catholic coach Justin Magestro said. "But they have five seniors and are resilient and didn't want to lose. They didn't want it to be their last game. We are a little younger, and I thought their senior leadership shined through for them. I want to give their coach and team credit. They played hard and made it a game at the end. We have to learn from that."
The loss ended the spectacular careers of Portage's starting five of Jenna and Cami Burkett, Bednarski, Chobany and Ashlyn Hudak.
"We played together our whole lives, and the most important thing to me is their friendship and having them have my back and us having each other," Chobany said. "We'll always have that. I'm so proud of this group of girls and so happy I got to play with them."
Jenna Burkett finished with a game-high 23 points despite not playing the equivalent of more than a quarter.
"I could not be more proud of a group of girls ever," Hudak said. "These seniors have been together since kindergarten; they are developed from within our town to get the product you saw tonight and the heart you saw tonight."
Portage will have a new group of starters next season, but Hudak said they will be ready to carry the torch.
"These underclassmen have accepted their roles and have been the key to this season," Hudak said. "From what they contributed on the court during games, at practice and how they have made this group better is unbelievable."
The ever-growing tradition at Portage that includes a run to the PIAA semifinals that involved this senior class two years ago and also ended in a hard-fought loss to Kennedy Catholic has garnered attention across Pennsylvania.
"We are known as a state power in small-school girls basketball without a doubt," Hudak said. "They should be so proud of that. I just had two community members come up and say how proud they make our town watching them play. Being a state power is great to hear, but being able to go back to Portage tonight and go to Stager's or one of the other stores and hear the happiness and kind words from their biggest fans means everything."
KENNEDY CATHOLIC (54): Fields 10 2-3 22, Magestro 2 1-4 6, T. Harvey 3 0-0 7, Pfleger 0 0-0 0, Vincent 5 1-2 16, Shimrock 0 3-4 3. Totals — 20 7-13 54.
PORTAGE (43): Hudak 1 0-0 2, Chobany 2 0-0 5, Cam. Burkett 2 0-0 4, Bednarski 3 1-2 9, J. Burkett 9 1-2 23, Myher 0 0-0 0, Noll 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 2-4 43.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Kennedy Catholic 13 20 10 11 — 54
Portage 13 3 11 16 — 43
3-point goals: Kennedy Catholic 7 (Vincent 5, Magestro, T. Harvey); Portage 7 (J. Burkett 4, B. Bednarski 2, Chobany)
Records: Kennedy Catholic (22-4); Portage (24-4).
Officials: Dean Gilmore, Alec Piechinske, Nick Lancaster