Feb 24, 2022 4 min read

ROGERSVILLE – The more you win, the harder you lose.

That was evident Thursday night in the aftermath of Bishop Canevin’s stunning 67-63 victory over second-seeded West Greene in the WPIAL Class A girls basketball quarterfinals.

There were plenty of tears and many looks of stunned disbelief from the West Greene players.

How did that happen? Especially after leading by 13 points early in the fourth quarter. And on the Pioneers’ home court, where their seniors had never lost a game.

It wasn’t supposed to play out this way. Which left West Greene head coach Jordan Watson to make sense of an unlikely final seven minutes of play.

“We had the lead. A 13-point lead. We did have a couple of kids in foul trouble and couple who had to come out of the game because of injuries. There were a lot of stops in play and we just couldn’t keep the momentum going,” Watson said. “Give Bishop Canevin a lot of credit. Most teams that are down 13 fold the tent and lose by 20.”

Bishop Canevin (15-9), however, wasn’t ready to close shop. Instead, the Crusaders put together an unlikely comeback, outscoring West Greene 24-7 over the final seven minutes. The win sends the Crusaders into Monday’s semifinals.

“All year we’ve been telling out kids that we have play us, which means we have to play our style,” said Bishop Canevin’s first-year head coach Maddie Bazelak. “We did that in the fourth quarter. We played with a trust in one another that we’d get the job done.”

Freshman guard Rachel Boehm and junior Ashley Lippold were most responsible for fueling Canevin’s comeback. Boehm scored a team-high 28 points that included 11 in the pivotal fourth quarter. Lippold had a double-double of 21 points and 14 rebounds.

“We felt Bishop Canevin was a four-seed, so we looked at this game as a semifinal,” Watson said. “That’s a good team we played.”

That team found itself trailing 56-43 after West Greene’s Anna Durbin opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer off a set play, the same one she scored on to start the third quarter.

Durbin finished with a game-high 30 points, which included 17 in the third quarter when West Greene pushed a 30-27 halftime lead to 53-43.

But the Pioneers (18-4), who received a first-round bye and were playing their first game in 14 days, went cold the rest of the way, making only two more field goals and converting just 3 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter.

“We didn’t shoot well,” said Watson, whose team showed signs of rust. “I’ll always take a bye. This is the sixth year in a row that we’ve had a bye and we won the five previous quarterfinal games.

“We had two good scrimmages before this. We felt it was going to be a 50-50 game going in. If we played Canevin, we might win five and they might win five. They just made more plays than we did tonight.”

After Durbin’s three-pointer, Canevin put together an 11-0 run to close to within 56-54. Josie Bochicchio scored five of her eight points during the run.

A driving basket by Durbin made it a four-point game, but Boehm made two wide-open three-pointers, the latter giving the Crusaders a 60-59 lead. West Greene tied it on a free throws by Brooke Barner, who had 10 points, but Canevin’s Amber Cross made a three from the top of the key to give the Crusaders the lead for good at 63-60 with 2:06 to play.

“We gave up 67 points, which is way too many,” Watson said. “Scoring 63 should be enough to win. We didn’t take care of the basketball and we didn’t hunker down and get the key stops and rebounds you must have.”

The loss snapped West Greene’s 14-game winning streak. In the unique format used by the WPIAL, the Pioneers now become the Crusaders’ biggest fans.

If Bishop Canevin can make it to the WPIAL championship game, then West Greene will qualify for the PIAA playoffs.

“Not all is lost,” Watson said.