Perfection: Peters Township (30-0) makes history, wins PIAA championship
The Peters Township High School girls basketball team gathers on the court Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey after defeating Garnet Valley 62-49 in the PIAA Class 6A championship game. The Indians completed an undefeated (30-0) season and became the first team from Washington County to win a girls basketball state championship.
Makenna Marisa drives to the basket on Madison McKee.
Eleanor Bailey/the almanac
Jordan Bisignani is one starter who remains from Peters Township’s undefeated and PIAA title- winning team last season.
Isabella Mills
Eleanor Bailey
Isabella Mills, Morgan Marisa and Makenna Marisa celebrate their PIAA championship after Peters Township defeated Garnet Valley, 62-49
Mackenzie Lehman skies to the basket against Garnet Valley.
HERSHEY – Leaning over and talking to his assistant coach, and daughter, Katie Kendall, Peters Township girls basketball coach Bert Kendall beamed with a smile and said only one word.
“Averages.”
Those “averages” showed that the chances of the Peters Township High School girls basketball team regaining its form after a rough shooting performance in the semifinals were good, according to Kendall.
“I just believe in numbers. We study the numbers,” Kendall said. “If we have an off shooting night, then the next night we are going to have an above-average shooting night. That’s just the way it works.”
The Indians were anything but average Friday night.
Makenna Marisa, who admitted she dreamed of playing at the Giant Center, led a dream performance by Peters Township with 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists as the Indians played one of their most complete games all season, defeating Garnet Valley 62-49 to win the PIAA Class 6A championship.
“We’ve had a few (great) performances, but against a really good opponent that was an excellent performance,” Kendall admitted. “I try to think of things I would change or what I could get on them about. Tonight, there weren’t very many.”
The win finishes a perfect season for Peters Township (30-0). It was the Indians’ 26th double-digit victory of its dominant undefeated run. In the process, they became the first girls basketball team in Washington County history to win a state title and only the fourth WPIAL team to win PIAA gold with a perfect record.
“I guess it’s time for it to start sinking in,” Kendall said. “We have been so focused on our next opponent and next opponent and next opponent. We recognized we made history. If you are going to make history, who better to do it with than these kids? This is a family.”
Peters Township made eight of its first 12 shots to race off to a fast start and never looked back against tall and athletic Garnet Valley (29-2).
Marisa and Isabella Mills each scored seven points in the opening quarter, including hooking up on a three-pointer when Marisa rolled off a screen, caught a Mills pass and buried a straightaway three to give Peters Township an 18-9 lead with 1:37 left in the first quarter.
“They jumped us and we got behind early,” said Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods. “We staved it off a little bit but Peters Township made adjustments and weathered the storm. We were getting tired and had matchup problems off the bench.”
Turning up the tempo to its typical fast pace, Peters Township extended its 29-21 halftime lead with a huge third quarter. A wide open three-pointer by Mills and a jumper just inside the arc by Marisa pushed the Indians’ lead to double digits, 34-21 to start the second half.
The closest Garnet Valley would get for a remainder of the game was nine points. Brianne Borcky led the Jaguars with 21 points.
After shooting a season-worst 25 percent in its semifinal win over Upper Dublin, Peters Township went 24-for-47 (51.1 percent), won the rebounding battle against the taller Jaguars and forced them into nine costly turnovers.
“I think the start was huge,” Marisa said. “But we just wanted to keep pressuring and attacking throughout the game. I think that’s what we did. We were just hitting our shots. I thought it was one of our best performances all season.”
Marisa quickly turned her 11 points at the half into 21 by the end of the third quarter, finishing the eight minutes with a lethal crossover dribble to blow by Garnet Valley’s Madison McKee for a layup with 37 seconds left, extending the lead to 47-28.
Peters Township outscored Garnet Valley 18-9 in the third quarter.
“We saw (Makenna) on tape and knew she was good,” Woods said. “She is the real deal. She is all-world. She caused us a lot of problems. To me, the best basketball players are the players who have all the skill but make others around them better. She makes that team excellent. She is the engine. She can score and dish. She is the best player, and we’ve played against some pretty good ones, that we’ve seen all year.”
The Indians showed the balance they had all season with four players scoring in their hot first quarter. They never trailed in the game.
Freshman center Journey Thompson scored 16 points and Mills finished with 14. Marisa, Mills and Thompson had 23 of the 24 field goals made by Peters Township, including several in transition.
“It was the first game where we were going against a team that matched our height or were even bigger than us,” Kendall pointed out. “We felt like we could run. The strategy was to press from the very beginning and force the tempo. (Garnet Valley) posts all their games on YouTube, so I watched every one at least three times. We thought we had the matchups and knew what we wanted to do. That strategy seemed to work tonight.
“I come into our gym every day and looked at our section banner,” Kendall continued. “I wanted to put another number on there. The way our gym is set up, the other wall is for WPIAL (championships). There is no girls basketball banners over there. I try to figure out where (athletic director Brian) Geyer is going to hang it. And recently, I looked over at the state wall. He has to buy one of those, too.”