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Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic boys basketball coach Chris Drenning was the first to admit his offense wasn't what he would like it to be after Tuesday night's win over Richland in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals.
But his defense …
The veteran coach really liked what he saw from his defense at the Pleasant Valley gymnasium.
The Marauders held the Rams to six points in each of the second and third quarters in a 55-37 victory which propeled the team into Friday's title game against Westmont Hilltop.
"The last time we played (Richland), they struggled against our matchup (zone) and we played it well tonight," said Drenning, whose team beat the Rams during the regular season by double digits. "The big thing with them is you have to take care of their penetration, and our matchup helps us do that."
It was a tightly-contested game in the first quarter. Every time BG (16-3) took a lead, the Rams were there to even the score. Patrick Haigh scored eight of his team-high 20 points in the frame for the Marauders, while Sam Penna kept Richland in it with eight points.
"I think we both kind of felt that the winner of this game was going to have a real good shot at winning districts," Richland coach Matt Shaffer said. "They are a well-coached team. There's not much more you can say about them. They're good."
BG began to pull away in the second quarter, outscoring the Rams 16-6 for a 28-18 halftime lead. Haigh dropped in two more 3-pointers and finished with six trifectas in the game.
"That is as good as any layup you can shoot. He's that good from there. You saw him," Drenning said of his sophomore. "The thing about him is that he doesn't get nervous. If he gets trapped, he passes his way out. He is smarter than his age. He is unselfish, and he doesn't hurry. He's really good."
The BG offense struggled in the third, scoring just nine points, but again, the defense did its job. Richland didn't score its first points of the quarter until the 3:18 mark.
"It's tough to play good defense for two minutes and you don't get rewarded," said Shaffer, whose club trailed 37-23 going into the final frame. "(BG) shot like that the last time we were here. We didn't execute as well as we should have offensively in the first half, and we paid for it in the second half."
Besides Haigh, BG got a solid effort down low from Michael Woolridge, who scored seven of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
"He's done a good job finishing around the basket all year," Drenning said of his 6-foot-9 senior. "I don't know how many rebounds he finished with, but he has been great all year on the boards. He has a really good presence around the rim."
Game notes: Penna finished with 15 for the Rams, who also got 13 points from Trent Rozich. … The site of the BG-Westmont game will be determined later this week. … During the season, the Marauders beat the Hilltoppers, 46-32, in Johnstown.
RICHLAND (37): Levander 0 3-4 3, Penna 5 2-2 15, Stahl 1 0-0 2, Batch 1 0-0 2, Rozich 4 5-8 13, Stem 1 0-0 2, Hirsch 0 0-0 0 Totals -- 12 10-14 37.
BISHOP GUILFOYLE (55): Haigh 7 0-0 20, Ko. Kiesewetter 0 0-0 0, Smith 1 0-0 3, Khoza 3 0-0 8, Wood 3 1-2 8, Mi. Woolridge 6 1-1 13, A. Yanoshak 1 1-4 3, Ma. Woolridge 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 21 3-7 55.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Richland 12 6 6 14 -- 37
Bishop Guilfoyle 12 16 9 18 -- 55
3-point goals: Richland 3 (Penna 3); Bishop Guilfoyle 8 (Haigh 6, Smith, Wood).
Records: Richland (9-8), Bishop Guilfoyle (16-3)