Feb 18, 2007 By Jim Wexell For The 3 min read

ALVERTON – Because first-place teams meet fourth-place teams, the first round is the blowout round of the WPIAL playoffs. But on Saturday, fourth-place Vincentian turned the tables and blew out first-place Geibel Catholic, 86-52, at Southmoreland High School, and it might not have been that close.

“That was a good fourth-place team,” said Geibel coach Patrick Klocek. “They play in the toughest section.”

Vincentian finished fourth in Section 4-A and entered the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs with an 11-12 overall record. Geibel, the first-place team out of Section 2-A, entered at 16-6. And then the opposite happened.

Vincentian was bigger, faster and smarter and was clearly the better basketball team. Players came off the bench and Vincentian didn’t miss a beat. Klocek said he knew Vincentian was better than its record, but was he still shocked by the result?

“I don’t think,” he said. “Could we win the game? Yeah, we could’ve won the game. We’d have had to play pretty well to win the game. They were bigger than us, way bigger than us. I mean, they start three 6-footers. If we played a team that’s bigger than us all year it’s been something we’ve had to deal with. Sometimes our skill’s been enough.”

It wasn’t Saturday afternoon at Southmoreland High School. Geibel’s last lead was 5-2 before Vincentian took command at 24-17 by the end of the first quarter.

Geibel stayed within 10 points until late in the first half, and the 11-point halftime deficit didn’t appear insurmountable. But Vincentian continually beat Geibel’s pressure in the third quarter and forward Jackie Cortese took command of the game. She scored 15 points in the third quarter, and with a 23-4 run to end the quarter, Vincentian put the game away.

Reserves from both teams played most of the fourth quarter as 11 Vincentian players reached the scoring column. Cortese led all players with 24 points. Junior guard Mia White led Geibel with 20.

Klocek was asked if it was a bitter way to end the season, and he shook his head in the negative.

“Geibel hadn’t won a section, before these past two years, since 2000,” he said. “There were some rough times, a lot of struggles, in-between 2000 and 2006. The seniors from last year and the seniors from this year are the reason we got back to competing for section titles. That’s one step. You’d always like to win a playoff game, but …”

But … was this loss just a speed bump in Klocek’s grand scheme?

“We’re going to lose some good players,” he said. “The seniors gave us good leadership. You couldn’t ask for four better seniors to be a good, positive influence on a freshman class, and there are nine freshmen on the team.

“It’s always tough to lose the last game of the year, but I always tell kids that when they see each other down the road, they won’t remember back to a loss, but maybe it’ll be something that happened on the bus or at practice. At Senior Night some of our seniors said their most memorable moment was when we got stuck on the bus coming home from Avella. We got to bed at 2:30 that night. I don’t know of too many kids who say their most memorable moment is winning a game, unless it’s the championship.”