Title time: Peters Township has one more step to take
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Makenna Marisa is averaging more than 20 points per game this season.
Eleanor Bailey
Journey Thompston (23) battles for the rebound with North Allegheny players.
Peters Township freshman center Journey Thompson is averaging 12.7 points and 7.9 rebounds this season.
Bert Kendall hasn’t thought about how far his Peters Township High School girls basketball team has made it in the playoffs.
He won’t think about it until the clock strikes zero in the final quarter of tonight’s PIAA Class 6A championship game against Garnet Valley.
Tipoff at the Giant Center in Hershey is 6 p.m.
Kendall knows of the history Peters Township has made. The Indians were the first team in Washington County to finish a regular season undefeated. They have prolonged that unblemished record long enough to win a WPIAL title, make a run through the PIAA tournament and land in the finals.
He also knows more history can be made with one more win.
Peters Township (29-0) could become the first Washington County girls basketball team to win a state championship. The only other team to play for state supremacy was Trinity two years ago. The Hillers lost to Archbishop Wood, 34-26.
The Indians, who are only one of two unbeaten girls’ teams in the state, could become only the fourth WPIAL team to win the PIAA title with a perfect record. The only other teams to go undefeated were Mount Alvernia in 1983, Mt. Lebanon in 2009 and Seton LaSalle in 2012. Chartiers Valley could achieve the same feat in the Class 5A championship Saturday.
“It’s been a blast,” said Kendall. “The girls are great. We are just having fun. We are very competitive and expect to win. We are going to go out there, do what we do and have fun doing it.”
Peters Township advanced to Hershey for the first time with a 20-point win over Harrisburg in the first round, its fourth victory over Bethel Park in the second round, another double-digit win over Norwin in the quarterfinals and a come-from-behind 51-46 overtime victory over defending state champion Upper Dublin in Monday’s semifinals, a game where the Indians shot a season-low 25 percent from the field. It was only the fourth time this season they shot below 40 percent.
The challenge Garnet Valley (29-1) offers is size the usually taller Indians haven’t seen this season. The Jaguars have three players – Emily McAteer, Brianne Borcky and Madison McKee – who are at least six feet tall. McAteer is the all-time leading scorer in Garnet Valley history, averaging 15 points per game in her senior season. Borcky is averaging 10 points.
“Obviously, that’s part of our attack,” said Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods. “That is one of our strengths, but it’s just one part of our game.”
Woods also said the Jaguars haven’t seen a team that could compete with their size. That is until Peters Township, which has four starters at or above 5-11.
“We have to rebound,” said Kendall. “I say that a lot for most games but this game especially. It’s fundamentals like boxing out. I do feel like we can get out on the break. Once we rebound, we have to get the outlet pas and go. We like playing with a lot of tempo and play our game.”
Morgan Falcone and Jillian Nagy are the two starting guards for the senior-dominated Garnet Valley, which suffered its lone loss of the season to Villa Maria Jan. 26. The Jaguars, who are also playing in their first state title game, lost in the second round each of the last two seasons to the eventual champion.