Bishop Guilfoyle’s Mary Haigh tries to muscle her way to the basket against Bishop Carroll defender Sarah Miller.

Bishop Guilfoyle’s Mary Haigh tries to muscle her way to the basket against Bishop Carroll defender Sarah Miller.

02/25/26 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /
Bishop Guilfoyle’s Morgan Ruggery battles Bishop Carroll’s Avery Myers for a rebound.

02/25/26 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski /
Bishop Guilfoyle’s Mary Haigh is pressured by Bishop Carroll’s Sarah Miller.

CRESSON — Bishop Guilfoyle Academy’s girls basketball team has a lot of players that can take over a game at any given time.

But throughout the Lady Marauders’ run the last three seasons, the main cog in getting the most out of all those options has been junior Morgan Ruggery.

Wednesday night in the District 6 Class 1A championship game against Bishop Carroll Catholic at Mount Aloysius, Ruggery picked up her second foul in the first quarter with 1:12 to play and her team trailing by three points.

Rather than take her out of the game, BG coach Kristi Kaack trusted Ruggery and kept her in the game.

Ruggery rewarded that trust by orchestrating a 15-0 run to start the second quarter in what turned out to be a 63-46 victory.

Ruggery scored six of the 15 points and set up several others as BG took control of the game.

“She’s earned that now as a junior. We can trust that we can leave her out there, and she’s going to have the ability to not foul,” Kaack said. “We just know her offensive presence is so good for us, and we didn’t want to take that off the floor. Her IQ is just unbelievable. Whether it’s her actually making the basket or getting someone else open and setting them up, we always feel more comfortable when she’s on the floor.”

Despite having two fouls, Ruggery was still aggressive getting to the basket and kicking out to teammates and even came away with a couple of steals defensively.

“(Kaack) told me to play smart, keep my hands down and play disciplined defense,” Ruggery said. “That stuck with me, and I knew I had to be more disciplined and did that the rest of the game.”

Senior Gia Adams continued her hot postseason with four 3-pointers, including three during the second quarter in which BG outscored Bishop Carroll, 23-11.

“I think my confidence has gone up with my shooting,” Adams said. “We all kind of score, so we’re all contributing. I appreciate my teammates finding me when I’m open to hit those 3s.”

Bishop Carroll got as close as within eight points in the third quarter, but Anberlyn Petrecca — who scored a game-high 18 points — made a layup, and Mary Haigh hit a 3-pointer, and the Lady Huskies never threatened again.

“We talked all week that this was just another game,” Bishop Carroll coach Nick Smith said. “But it’s hard to talk like that when you haven’t beaten them for a couple years. The first quarter, I thought we did great, just like the first half of last game. We played, and then all of a sudden, they got hot, and we were down. They are a great defensive team. We have trouble running our offense against them. We came up with some different things, and we still couldn’t get into anything. They are a well-coached team, and they are definitely in our head. We just have to get over that hurdle at some point.”

Bishop Guilfoyle connected on 10 3-pointers in the game, including a pair from Layona Williams, who added nine points.

“We all hit shots today,” Ruggery said. “It’s hard to stop five kids on the floor. Gia Adams — she couldn’t miss. It’s really fun when we’re playing like that.”

Bishop Carroll, which led 13-10 after one quarter, got 11 points each from Emily Lucko, Adelyn Myers and Ava Pablic.

“We talked about how they were going to get hot and start hitting shots,” Smith said. “They made shots, and we didn’t score for five or six minutes. That will kill you against them. They are probably the best team in the state, so that’s something we practiced against. We went cold, and that was the turning point.”

The Lady Huskies are now 0-5 against Guilfoyle over the past two seasons with one regular season loss, two losses in the District 6 final, a loss in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship and a loss in the PIAA semifinals.

“We have to go back to work,” Smith said. “The state playoffs start next Saturday. That’s now the goal. One game at a time. Hopefully the plan is to see them down the road again at some point. Hopefully we can be victorious in that one, but they are a heck of a team and hard to beat.”

Bishop Guilfoyle won its third District 6 title in a row and 29th overall after losing to Williamsburg in the final in 2023.

“We know this is a tough district, especially the top four teams,” Kaack said. “We know we’ll probably see (Bishop Carroll) again along the way of trying to win another state championship, but for these kids, the discipline they show, and the way they show up to work every day knowing they will face tests like this — I’m so proud of them.”

Bishop Guilfoyle and Bishop Carroll will both host first-round PIAA playoff games on Saturday, March 7.

But for BG, Wednesday night was about celebrating.

“It feels awesome,” Adams said. “To do it three years with the same group, it’s amazing. Our chemistry is just as great on the floor as it is off the floor, and I think that really feeds it. With it being my senior year, I love that we ended (districts) with a win.”

BISHOP CARROLL (46): Delauter 1 0-0 2, Lucko 2 6-6 11, Miller 3 0-0 7, Ade. Myers 3 4-4 11, Pablic 4 2-4 11, Av. Myers 2 0-3 4. Totals — 15 12-17 46.

BISHOP GUILFOYLE (63): Williams 3 1-2 9, Ruggery 4 3-4 12, Petrecca 8 1-2 18, Yeskey 2 0-0 4, Haigh 2 0-0 5, Adams 4 0-0 12, Homan 1 0-0 3. Totals — 24 5-8 63.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bishop Carroll 13 11 11 11 — 46

Bishop Guilfoyle 10 23 20 10 — 63

3-point goals: Bishop Carroll 4 (Lucko, Miller, Ade. Myers, Pablic); Bishop Guilfoyle 10 (Adams 4, Williams 2, Ruggery, Petrecca, Haigh, Homan).

Records: Bishop Carroll (23-3); Bishop Guilfoyle (24-2).

Officials: Joe Scialabba, Klayton Heffner, Tony Hutzell.