Mar 20, 2019 4 min read

McMURRAY – Three minutes left until the Peters Township High School girls basketball team could take the floor for pregame warmups at Bald Eagle High School for the PIAA Class 6A semifinals, Indians coach Bert Kendall walked back into the hallway near the locker room to find his team dancing to “The Macarena.”

Call ’em relaxed, call ’em confident.

Two hours later, the Indians mounted a late comeback – just as they did in the WPIAL title game – for a 51-46 overtime win against defending state champion Upper Dublin.

Makenna Marisa scored 14 points and Isabella Mills had 12.

It was just another night for Marisa, Mills and Peters Township.

Marisa and Mills, both seniors, have done much more than any of the Indians’ 29 boxscores, each showing a win, could indicate. They’ve quickly brought together the starting five, which first played together in a summer basketball camp at West Virginia last June, and helped it become a unit that will play for the PIAA championship Friday night against Garnet Valley (29-1) at the Giant Center in Hershey. Tipoff will be 6 p.m.

Peters Township takes its starting five, which features the two seniors in Marisa and Mills, sophomore guard Jordan Bisignani, freshman center Journey Thompson and lacrosse-turned-basketball player Mackenzie Lehman into a game against Garnet Valley’s five starting seniors from who have played together since the youth leagues, according to Jaguars coach Joe Woods.

“We have the same goal,” Mills said about helping to unite the team. “We want to win. It doesn’t matter how we got there.”

The Indians, who have an undefeated record (29-0) and are trying to become the first Washington County girls basketball team to win a state championship, are turning dreams into reality and embracing every minute of it.

“Last year, I only dreamed of going to states,” Marisa said. “It sounds cheesy but I dreamed of playing in that big arena in Hershey. Honestly, I kind of always thought it would just be a dream. But now it has come true.”

Earlier this season, Peters Township became the only girls team in Washington County history to finish a WPIAL regular season undefeated.

Since then, the pieces that have joined Marisa and Mills have played huge roles in getting the Indians to the state title game. Lehman scored the tying and game-winning baskets that gave the Indians first WPIAL championship. Bisignani finished with double-digit points in consecutive state playoff games against Bethel Park and Norwin. Thompson made the game-tying free throw with 9.7 seconds left that tied Upper Dublin and sent the game into overtime.

Marisa and Mills have done their part all season. Marisa leads the Indians with 20.6 points per game, while Mills is averaging 13.7 points.

“They need to realize how good they are,” Marisa said of the other contributors. “Jordan could have done that all season. It shows when she has the confidence because she is huge for us. In that big moment, we knew Journey could make that shot. More importantly, she knows she can make it. Kenzie is naturally athletic, and once she came on the basketball court that athleticism took over. They are just so talented.”

The difficult part for Peters Township hasn’t been the games. It has been maintaining the same mentality, day-in and day-out, at practice, especially when the wins continued to stack up.

“It’s a long season,” Kendall said. “I’m putting a lot on them to get everybody together. The kids respect them. They know that when they bear down, tell them to knock everything else off and get going, that’s what gets done. It’s building a winning culture. Instilling a winning culture and expecting to win. These seniors expect that. Now our freshmen expect that. It’s as much about culture and a positive attitude that this is what we do, we win basketball games.”

Treating one another like family and spending time together outside of the daily grind of basketball has helped Marisa and Mills develop their leadership roles. The two aren’t afraid to challenge one another during games and have developed a bond after playing together since the second grade.

“With it being our senior year, we have made the most out of it as we possibly could have,” Mills said. “We are undefeated, won the WPIAL and have made it to states. We are even past our expectations. This is our last game no matter what. We have to do it together. We have done everything together. We have to leave it all out there.”