‘So proud of this group.’ St. Joseph’s girls basketball ends historic season at PIAAs
The St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy girls basketball team came into Tuesday night’s matchup against Williamsburg looking to clinch a berth in the PIAA Class A championship this weekend.
But a stellar night from the charity stripe became too much for the Wolfpack to handle as they fell to Williamsburg, 60-41, at the Altoona Fieldhouse in the PIAA Class A semifinals.
In their two previous meetings, the Wolfpack beat the Lady Pirates, but couldn’t come through for a third win. At the end of the night, it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row.
“In our first game (Williamsburg) had some kids who were not 100 percent when we played them,” St. Joe’s coach Bethany Irwin said. “In the second game, they came up with a pretty good game plan; they shot really well, and we didn’t.”
Still, the PIAA semifinals mark the culmination of the hard work it took to build back the program. Low participation numbers during COVID halted the girls basketball team, and when it restarted in 2022-23, it had a winless season.
The next season, they made it to the second round of the PIAA playoffs with a 25-4 record. Last year, they made it to their first-ever PIAA quarterfinals and finished 26-3.
Tuesday’s semifinal game marked more history for the Wolfpack.
“I am so proud of this group,” said Irwin, a veteran coach who came out of retirement after more than two decades coaching in State College to join the Wolfpack in 2022. “From starting 0-17 to making it to the Western final is pretty good.”
In the first frame, seniors Naomi Crispin and Lauren Himes tallied three points each.
“There was no feeder system,” Irwin said. “The arrived as tenth graders and we had to figure it out and had to find out what their strengths were.”
In the second half, Crispin contributed nine points, including going four of four from the foul line. She finished with 14 points on the night. Crispin celebrated reaching 2,000 career points last month, becoming just the fourth basketball player in Centre County to do so.
“That group of girls, Naomi Crispin: 2,000-point scorer, Aubrey Yartz, 1,000-point scorer and 1,000-rebounder, to accomplish all of that, I think is amazing,” Irwin said. “Who wouldn’t want to have gone one more game, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
Yartz finished the night with 4 points, all from the foul line.
“She is the lone senior to survive that first year of 0-17,” Irwin said. “I give her a lot of credit for sticking it out and trusting the process.”
Williamsburg as a team contributed 20 of their 60 total points from the floor including 13 from three-point-land in the victory.
“Give credit to Williamsburg and how they played,” Irwin said. “I hope they win the whole thing.”
The Lady Pirates played stellar defense for most of the game to hold Crispin to only five points in the first half.
“Their box and one was certainly going to slow down Naomi,” Irwin said. “We could set as many picks as we want, it was just that the rest of them played really well.”
As their historic season concludes, the Wolfpack has a lot to be proud of.
“They are a really good group of girls,” Irwin said. “They are best friends off the court.”
St. Joseph’s finishes the season with a 27-4 overall record and an undefeated 13-0 record in conference play.
Williamsburg moves on to the state finals to face Delco Christian.
