North Catholic wears down Lady Raiders, 58-29
PITTSBURGH — There are plenty of reasons why North Catholic’s girls basketball team is the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.
“They’re long, they’re athletic, they’re tall, they handle the ball well and they shoot well,” said Waynesburg Central coach Dave Sarra, who watched his team succumb to the Trojanettes in their district semifinal game, 58-29, on Saturday afternoon at North Hills High School.
“And they’re smart defensively. You do one thing and they adjust like that.”
With all those special ingredients it’s not surprising that coach Molly Rottmann’s team will be playing in its eighth consecutive WPIAL final and seeking its fifth title in that span.
Alayna Rocco led North Catholic (18-5) with 22 points and Anna Waskiewski followed with 15 points. Both players also pulled down nine rebounds as the Trojanettes dominated the boards with a 41-15 advantage.
Dacia Lewandowski added nine points for North Catholic, which will face No. 3 Freedom in Thursday night’s final at the Petersen Events Center.
Kaley Rohanna led the fifth-seeded Lady Raiders (17-5) with 12 points. Clara Paige Miller and Emily Bennett each scored five points.
The Trojanettes jumped out to a 12-2 lead with Waynesburg’s lone bucket in that span coming from Rohanna. The Lady Raiders scored the final four points of the opening quarter on a Rohanna 3-pointer and a Bennett free throw to get within 12-6.
Miller’s driving basket to open second-quarter scoring made it 12-8.
Rottmann wasn’t pleased with her squad’s play in the early going and she used a timeout to express that to her players.
“I told them we were settling and suddenly becoming very selfish,” Rottmann said. “We weren’t working the plan, we weren’t working the ball, we were just randomly being individuals out there shooting the ball, and they weren’t even good shots.
“I thought they settled down after that and did a better job of sticking with the game plan and working a little harder to find the open person.”
The Trojanettes outscored Waynesburg 14-2 the rest of the quarter to go up 26-10 at halftime and were never threatened again.
“We didn’t match up well with them,” Sarra said. “We played hard but eventually their athleticism and their length breaks you down.
“We started out in man then went to a zone. The zone actually slows them down. It makes them at least pass the ball more but they find seams.”
North Catholic led 42-20 at the end of the third quarter and took its biggest lead of 56-25 late in the fourth quarter on a free throw by Waskiewski.
The main highlight of the final frame for the Trojanettes was a basket by Anastasia Peterson.
“We’ve had an emotional couple days,” Rottmann pointed out. “No. 4’s (Peterson) mom passed away last night. So it’s been a rough week and we had an emotional morning.”
Rottmann commended the Lady Raiders.
“I think Waynesburg is a good team,” she said. “They’re well coached. They have some really good players in 15 (Rohanna) and 33 (Miller). They’re tough kids. I thought they were physical. They competed. I thought they did a nice job.”
Sarra, whose team was coming off an exhilarating 71-68 double overtime victory over South Park in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, felt his team had nothing to be ashamed of.
“We had a battle on Wednesday at South Park and I don’t even know if we got our legs back,” Sarra said. “We tried to have two easy practices. We qualified for the state tournament so we’ll give them a few days off and let them rest up.
“The girls worked really hard. They earned the right to be here. I thought we should’ve had a higher seed but that’s fine. You can’t control that. So we did what we needed to do to get to the semis. I’m happy for the girls.”