Myers

EBENSBURG — Bishop Carroll Catholic, common knowledge holds, dealt with a tough stretch through the 2½ weeks that led up to the PIAA Class 1A girls basketball playoffs.

Junior Adelyn Myers admitted the Lady Huskies struggled to not take DuBois Central Catholic seriously early in their 47-30 first-round victory against the third seed from District 9 on Saturday at home.

“Definitely being able to play our best game against every team is a challenge. But I think we managed to pick up the game a little bit toward the second half,” she said, referring to the notion that District 9 tends to struggle in statewide competition.

The Huskies face Farrell in a second-round playoff game on Wednesday at Clarion University. The District 10 champion Steelers eliminated Sewickley Academy, 57-45, on Saturday.

“For the first game in a week or so, we’ll take the win. But we’ll go back to the drawing board tomorrow for Wednesday,” Carroll coach Nick Smith said.

Bishop Carroll led, 6-3, at the end of a first quarter that was punctuated by the glacial pace set by the Cardinals. If one-week layoff did not pose problems for the Huskies, the visitors’ style of play did.

“We had a week off (between the District 6 finals and Saturday) and I think it kind of showed. They are a good team playing a great game plan, slowing the game down. We haven’t really seen that this year. It kind of threw us off our offense a little bit,” coach Smith said.

Bishop Carroll built a 23-9 lead despite being outrebounded, 15-8, in the first 16 minutes.

“I don’t think we shot the ball well enough in the first couple of quarters when we had the opportunity. But I thought we executed perfectly,” DuBois Central coach Jordan Hoover said.

Emily Lucko, the Huskies’ leading scorer, played roughly half of the game. Coach Smith said he wanted to dig deeper into the bench and substitute more freely.

“Not having her out there kind of hurt us. But we got through it,” Smith said.

Lucko scored eight points. Fortunately for Bishop Carroll, Myers led all scorers with 20 points. She hit 8 of 10 from the floor and was 3 for 4 at the free throw line.

“That’s the good thing about our team; when most of our top scoring players aren’t playing the game they usually do, someone else picks up. We don’t rely on one player or a couple of players. We all can do what we have to do to win,” Myers said.

Bishop Carroll, which was outrebounded, 22-21, led nearly the entire game despite the challenge DuBois Catholic posed with its deliberate style.

“They slowed it down. We’re not used to coming way out (on defense). We prefer to play in. So that kind of threw our defense and our press off a little bit. We didn’t look that great tonight. But we did cause some turnovers,” Smith said.

“If you had told me we had a rebounding edge at halftime, I would have thought we had a really good chance of winning the game,” Hoover said.

The Huskies forced 21 turnovers while they committed only six.

“The message was rebounding and limiting our turnovers. If I had any issues, it would have been some of the unforced ones,” Hoover said.

“Extra pressure and better defense and (creating) turnovers definitely helped us take over,” Myers said.

DuBois Catholic drew within nine, 34-25, when Jillian Morgan hit a basket at the 6:46 mark in the fourth quarter. Bishop Carroll responded, however, with a 7-2 run that restored its double-digit lead. Ella Elensky led the Cardinals with eight points.

Coach Hoover informed the girls at the end of the game that he plans to step down so he can devote more time to his family. Hoover had coached the DuBois Central girls the last three seasons and in 2018-19.

DUBOIS CENTRAL CATHOLIC (30): Sebring 2 1-2 6, Baummer 2 0-0 4, Morgan 3 0-0 7, Elensky 2 3-6 8, Gritzer 0 0-0 0, Perri 0 0-0 0, Youngdahl 1 3-5 5, Martini 0 0-0 0. Totals — 10 7-13 34.

BISHOP CARROLL (47): Delauter 0 2-2 2, Lucko 1 6-6 8, Miller 1 4-4 7, Ad. Myers 8 3-4 20, Pablic 1 3-6 6, Av.Myers 2 0-0 4, Saxion 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 18-22 47.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

DuBois Central Catholic 3 6 11 10 – 30

Bishop Carroll 6 17 10 14 – 47

3-point goals: DuBois Central Catholic 3 (Sebring, Morgan, Youngdahl), Bishop Carroll 3 (Miller, Ad.Myers, Pablic).

Officials: Edward Donel, Denise Grove, Anthony Rullo.

Records: DuBois Central Catholic (19-5), Bishop Carroll (24-4).