Bishop McCort girls press past Mercer in PIAA Class 2A victory
· Yahoo Sports
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - The Bishop McCort Catholic girls basketball team advanced all the way to the Class-AA state title game one season ago.
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The Crimson Crushers brought back four key contributors from that team and this year’s squad is anchored by that group.
Bishop McCort (18-8) opened up state tournament play with a convincing 60-29 win over Mercer at the school’s Bradley Center Friday night, marking the final home game for the senior class of Kalina Bailey, Reese Bair, Emma Preuss and Ava Zucco.
“Our four seniors that we have, I’ve been playing with them since like kindergarten,” said Zucco after recording 14 points in the win over Mercer. “We have known each other forever and I haven’t known anything else other than to play with these guys with the ‘Lady Crushers’ on my shirt. And playing for Coach Hahn, it’s been such a great career and it’s honestly so sad to think no more home games, but I’m ready to make a state run.”
Making another deep run in the PIAA tournament has been the stated goal for this team all season and the District 6 champs got one step closer to that goal with a 31-point win in the opening round.
“These four girls from the summer on said, ‘Coach, we’re getting back there.’ and that’s the way they lead,” veteran Bishop McCort coach John Hahn said.
“I can definitely say this team is run by four seniors.
“They got everyone’s heads on straight and the younger ones want to win for the seniors as bad as the seniors want to win.”
Bishop McCort opened up a 28-16 halftime lead, but the Crimson Crushers were not exactly sharp in the way they built that 12-point advantage.
Bishop McCort shot only 11 of 34 (32%) from the field in the opening two quarters.
Halftime adjustments were made and the offense started to flow much better for the home team.
Bishop McCort connected on its first three attempts from long range with Preuss, Bair and junior Zoey Ferguson (18 points) all burying triples.
“I think we knew what we wanted to get done tonight and we came out kind of slow obviously and didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half, but we had the shots and knew they just had to fall,” Preuss said after recording 14 points on Friday.
Bishop McCort, known to play at a frantic pace at times, did not have its full court press on in the first half.
That changed after the break and it helped fuel a 16-0 run to break the game wide open.
“I told the coaches that I hated seeing (Mercer) walk the ball up,” Hahn said of his adjustment. “I pressed the one time to see how the react and it was a turnover, so we came out of halftime and said we’ll try to press them and try to get them to move up a little bit.”
The maneuver worked as the Mustangs only made five field goals after halftime. Mercer was led in scoring by standout sophomore Jenna Guenther, who ended the game with 13 points.
Bishop McCort Catholic advances to the second round of the PIAA Girls 2A state playoffs on Tuesday and will take on Chartiers-Houston, the third-place team out of District 7, at a time and site to be announced.