South Fayette girls dethrone Archbishop Wood, win 1st PIAA title
HERSHEY – The South Fayette girls basketball team might have stunned a bunch of people in the state Saturday night, but nobody inside their locker room was surprised.
There’s been a belief within the Lions all season and against four-time defending state champion Archbishop Wood, they never wavered.
In fact, at times, they were dominant on their way to winning their first PIAA title in school history with a 45-37 victory Saturday night in the Class 5A final at the Giant Center.
The Lions (29-2) held the Vikings (22-8) without a field goal for nearly 14 minutes of game time between the second and fourth quarters.
“We probably shocked a lot of people, but I don’t think we shocked ourselves,” Lions coach Bryan Bennett said. “We have a lot of talent, and we believe in ourselves. We have multiple players that are going to play at the (NCAA) Division I or Division II level, and they work so hard. Our team chemistry is absolutely unbelievable, which has been a key to our success the last couple of years, but this group is something special. They’re so close to each other and they care just about the team.”
South Fayette ended Archbishop Wood’s 24-game winning streak within the PIAA tournament. It was a rematch of the 2023 state championship, which the Vikings won 61-54. The Lions used that result as motivation, much like they did last week when they avenged their WPIAL title game loss to Peters Township in the PIAA semifinals.
“It fueled us and finished off our revenge tour,” South Fayette junior Juliette Leroux said.
Ryan Carter made a jumper with 3:58 remaining in the first half that gave Archbishop Wood a 22-17 lead, but the Vikings’ next field goal didn’t come until Emily Knouse made a shot with 5:34 remaining in the game.
In between South Fayette had a 22-3 run, including a 13-2 margin in the third quarter, which gave the Lions a 36-24 lead.. A pair of free throws by Knouse were Archbishop Wood’s only two points in the third.
South Fayette guard Ryan Oldaker said good communication was key for their defensive efforts.
“Honestly, we just like to talk,” Oldaker said. “We like to talk outside of basketball too, but inside of the game especially. We knew we had to switch on them, especially (Carter). She’s such an amazing player, but we knew we had to come out and play our game and I thought we did that.”
Carter, who’s the eighth-ranked sophomore in the country by ESPNW, tweaked her knee in the third quarter and had to be helped off to the sidelines. South Fayette led 30-22 when she left, but she returned in the fourth and finished with a game-high 23 points. Despite Carter’s efforts, the Vikings were not able to get the deficit below eight points in the fourth.
“When (Carter) tried to block a shot in the second half, either when she took off or landed, that’s when it started bothering her,” Archbishop Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “That’s not the kid you want to see go down, not that you want to see any kid go down, but for our offense that’s certainly not the one. Offensively it wasn’t our day. They’re a good team and from a defensive standpoint when we made mistakes they capitalized. We gave up too many layups.”
Oldaker banked in a three-pointer in the fourth to make it 39-25, South Fayette’s largest lead, and converted a layup late to get their lead back to double-digits at 41-31 with 4:02 remaining.
Leroux had 15 points to lead the Lions and Oldaker scored 10.
Bennett said the last time they played Archbishop Wood a slow start did them in.
That was not the case this time.
South Fayette came out strong and built an early 11-5 lead. The Vikings closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to cut the Lions’ advantage to 13-11.
Haylie Lamonde canned a 3-pointer to give the Lions a 17-13 lead early in the second, but Archbishop Wood went on a 9-0 run after that to take a brief 22-17 lead.
Lailah Wright and Oldaker picked up two fouls, which put them on the bench for most of the second quarter, but returned late to help the Lions finish on a 6-0 run and take a 23-22 lead into halftime.
The last two baskets of the half were the result of excellent passing plays. Archbishop Wood double-teamed the ball handler near the halfcourt line, but the Lions worked out of it by finding the open player.
Oldaker scored on a drive to make it 22-21 and Leroux finished a pass from Rexrode in the final seconds. It was a momentum swing going into the break.
“I told our kids if you get trapped just be patient, because you’ll be able to split them and someone will be open,” Bennett said. “I thought our kids did a good job of that. They made the extra pass for a better shot. They’re so unselfish. I just can’t say enough about them.”
Bennett said that the team went to Chocolate World in 2023 the day after the loss and joked that he was in a sour mood the whole time, which the girls on the team remind him of constantly.
This time they went to Chocolate World the day before and the schedule switch seemed to work out well.
The bus ride back home?
That should be pretty fun too.
“I just keep repeating that ‘We literally made history’,” Oldaker said. “We’re going home with gold medals.”