Putting it to rest

Lady Little Lions finally defeat pesky Oakland Catholic in state playoffs

Gordon Brunskill

ALTOONA — Leading by 14 points with six minutes left, the State College girls’ basketball team should have felt pretty safe their season was going to continue.

But Oakland Catholic started to chip away, and the rim seemed to get smaller and smaller for the Lady Little Lions.

After seeing the Eagles rally to tie the game, Chrissy Cooper and Meghan Hart combined to hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final 38 seconds and give State College a 44-40 victory Friday night in their PIAA Class AAAA first-round contest at the Altoona Fieldhouse.

“It feels real good to be moving on to the Sweet 16,” said Cooper, who led the Lady Little Lions with 15 points along with five steals and four assists. “Hopefully we get further than we did last year.”

The Lady Little Lions (17-6), who lost in the second round to Methacton a year ago, will face Fox Chapel in the same round Tuesday at a site and time to be announced. The Foxes (21-5), the District 7 runner-up, beat Schenley 64-52 Friday.

Natalie Torretti added 13 points, Courtney Nellis tossed in eight points and Kate McDonald pulled down seven rebounds for State College, which broke a seven-game losing streak stretching more than a decade against Oakland Catholic.

Colleen Kiss drained four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 16 points for the Eagles (18-9), who were their own worst enemy with 24 turnovers. Most were thanks to the Lady Little Lions’ 18 steals.

“It was pretty exciting to be on the defensive end of that,” Cooper said. “That turned into our offense and we were able to work off that.”

Chief among the thieves was Hart, who swiped the ball six times, and was constantly in the Oakland Catholic passing lanes.

“I was trying to predict,” Hart said. “All they were doing was passing back and forth. I told myself I wanted to anticipate the pass, see if I could get an edge on it.” Their last two steals sealed the win.

After the Eagles’ Clare Berenato drained one of two free throws with 1:11 left to knot the game at 40, Cooper hit one of two from the stripe with 38 seconds to give State College the lead for good. Oakland Catholic’s Maria Tassari launched a quick 3-point attempt at the other end that was off the mark, with Torretti grabbing the rebound and quickly getting the ball to Cooper, who was fouled.

She made both from the line, and on Oakland Catholic’s next possession, an inbounds pass from under the basket was launched too long. Hart grabbed the ball and drew a foul, sinking one of two for the final margin. On their next possession, the Eagles’ entry pass into the paint was picked off by McDonald to end their hopes.

“We didn’t come with a lot of seasoned kids,” Oakland Catholic coach James Dudas said. “It’s a whole new world for some of these kids. I thought they made a heck of a comeback so I don’t want to dwell on the mistakes they might have made in the second quarter. I would like to compliment them for the way they made it a ball game in the fourth quarter.” Dudas’ team put on quite the rally.

A Torretti bucket put the margin at 40- 26, and it looked pretty safe.

But the Eagles figured out how to attack State College’s 1-3-1 defense, putting Tassari and Kiss on the same side to stress the defense, and the pair combined for three 3-pointers. Berenato added a layup and Ally Schmidt had a put-back bringing the margin to 40-39 and set up the final sequence.

“You kind of see your season slip by for a second there,” Cooper said. “But you’ve got to look positive. We picked up our defense a little bit.”

“It was a little frustrating to watch,” said coach Bethany Irwin, who switched to a 2-3 zone to shut down those long-range openings. “We couldn’t find the right offenses. We were making great defense, but we were making some hard turnovers. We had a big lead and watched it dwindle.”

What didn’t help was the team’s normally reliable foul shooting was embarrassingly off the mark. Aside from the 4-for-6 showing by Cooper and Hart in the final seconds, the team was 0-for-8 in the quarter, including missing the front of two one-and-bonus situations.

“Free throws and layups are the easiest shots but the hardest shots to make in tight situations,” Hart said. “That was hard but I was glad I hit that last one.”

The Lady Little Lions, who were scoreless for 6:10 and never had another field goal after Torretti’s bucket at 6:48, entered the game making 66 percent from the line.

“I don’t try to emphasize it as much,” Irwin said. “We shoot them at practice and most of the time we’re hitting our goals in practice. We just have to pretend it’s a practice. We’ve got to finish those.”

State College’s defense made some big plays in the second quarter, forcing eight turnovers while Oakland Catholic missed each of its three shots during a seven-minute stretch. Two Kiss late buckets prevented a double-digit margin at halftime, though the Lady Little Lions stretched it even more during the third quarter.

They know it wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but they are nonetheless happy their season will last at least into next week.

“It’s a great feeling to go to the sweet 16,” Hart said. “I don’t want the season to end at all. It’s too much fun.”