Photo for the Mirror by Roger Kerekes Bishop Guilfoyle’s Anberlyn Petrecca works down court against Bishop Carroll’s Avery Myers.

LORETTO — After having not met during the girls basketball regular season, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy and Bishop Carroll Catholic could meet three times in a matter of a little more than a month if both teams have their way.

During Saturday night’s Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship at Saint Francis University’s DeGol Arena — won by Bishop Guilfoyle 53-44 — both sides struggled to put points on the board until 4½ minutes in when Anberlyn Petrecca knocked down a jumper.

However, it was the Lady Huskies who took control as they raced to an 18-7 lead by the second thanks to nine points of her team-high 14 points in the first by Adelyn Myers.

That was before Lady Marauder coach Kristi Kaack took a full timeout.

“If anyone watches me coach, I don’t call a whole lot of timeouts unless I’m like I really got to get into them right now,” BG coach Kristi Kaack said. “I felt like we were beating ourselves. I said they’re not taking you out of what you want to do, we just missed a couple of shots.

“You could see the confidence on their faces that it was going down. Our defense has always helped our offense. Just allow that to happen and we’ll be okay.”

From there, Bishop Guilfoyle took control and didn’t look back. The Lady Marauders outscored Bishop Carroll 46-26 from that point on as they grabbed back-to-back conference championships.

“I think we always had it in us,” Lady Marauder Morgan Ruggery said of the comeback. “I just think we came out and played the game they wanted us to (in the first half) instead of playing our game. Coming out from halftime we really picked up our defense and we slowed our game down. We got the shots we wanted.”

Petrecca helped jumpstart the efforts with a putback before Morgan Ruggery got the bonus free-throw opportunity to cut the deficit to 18-15 at the half. Ruggery led BG with 15 points.

In the third quarter, the Lady Marauder offense took off as Gia Adams drained a 3-pointer to give the Marauders a 31-28 lead.

“I think we have such an advantage down low on them,” Kaack said. “We just told them fight for those second chance opportunities. I thought Stella (Yeskey) and Anberlyn did a great job of that.

“It might not have been them scoring, but they were earning an extra opportunity to give the ball to somebody else.”

“We were doing a great job defensively (in the first half),” Bishop Carroll coach Nick Smith said. “It got away from us a little bit, and they’re a heck of a team. I’m so happy with what we did tonight. We did have some stretches where they hit, we did not. Great defensive effort on our part, great game by BG.”

Ruggery finished with 15 points to lead BG while Petrecca added 11.

Moving to the fourth, the back-and-forth battle resumed. Emily Lucko got a jumper to fall as she scored a game-high 18 points. That was followed by Sarah Miller’s bucket which pulled the Lady Huskies within one at 33-32.

BG pulled away for good midway through the frame as Layona Williams and Hannah Homan both buried 3-pointers to extend that lead to 41-34.

From there, Ruggery put the icing on the cake as she drew a bonus free-throw and added a putback to stretch the advantage to 48-38.

“A lot of times Morgan Ruggery tends to lead us,” Kaack said. “When you get deep into the playoffs, people know that and they’re going to key on her. I thought we did a really nice job around her picking her up and in the second half she was able to get to the hoop a little bit more.”

Before both teams can think about a potential second matchup in the district playoffs, they have games of their own they have to get through.

BG holds the top-seed a bye in Class 1A and will host the winner of Monday’s game between Blacklick Valley and Williamsburg on Thursday at 6 p.m. BC, meanwhile, holds the No. 2 seed and will host No. 7 Purchase Line tonight at 7 p.m. With Bishop Guilfoyle’s first-round bye, it has already clinched a spot in the PIAA playoffs.

“I hope it’s chapter one,” Smith said of Saturday night’s contest. “We have to get through Monday now. The first round of districts is what we’re looking at. We don’t get through that, this game doesn’t matter.”

“We said to the kids starting (Friday) there are no more easy games,” Kaack said. “Every game is going to be a fight, everyone showing up to win. We have to have the mentality to win or go home. We were so thankful we got Central Cambria (last Thursday night). They’re a tough team, they’re long, they’re athletic much like Bishop Carroll.”

BISHOP CARROLL (44): Delauter 0 0-0 0, Miller 2 0-0 4, Ad. Myers 6 0-2 14, Lucko 4 8-8 18, Pablic 0 2-2 2, Olienyk 0 0-0 0, Av. Myers 3 0-0 6. Totals — 15 10-12 44.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (53): Ruggery 5 5-8 15, Haigh 2 0-0 5, Petrecca 5 1-2 11, Yeskey 2 2-2 6, Williams 2 3-4 8, Adams 1 0-0 3, Homan 2 0-0 5. Totals — 19 11-16 53.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Carroll 9 9 10 16 — 44

Bishop Guilfoyle 5 10 16 22 — 53

3-point goals: Bishop Carroll 4 (Ad. Myers 2, Lucko 2), Bishop Guilfoyle 4 (Haigh, Williams, Adams, Homan)

Records: Bishop Carroll (21-3), Bishop Guilfoyle (22-2).