Mar 18, 2017 3 min read

CHAMBERSBURG – More than one milestone was achieved Saturday afternoon by the Trinity girls basketball team.

Not only did the Hillers punch their ticket to the PIAA Class 5A semifinals with a solid 44-39 win over Archbishop Carroll, but senior Sierra Kotchman also scored a milestone of her own. She broke the school’s all-time scoring record, and now has 1,669 for her career.

“I wasn’t even worried about that; to win this game was so important to all of us,” Kotchman said. “It’s great to do it in a state game like this. I have great teammates that helped me all four years, and I couldn’t do it without them.”

The victory advances Trinity (22-3) to a rematch with South Fayette, which it beat, 50-43, in the regular-season finale at Hiller Hall.

The semifinal game will be played Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

From the start of Saturday’s game, Trinity knew it was in for a dogfight with the Patriots (20-6), who led 23-20 at halftime after Trinity was outrebounded 13-6 in the first half.

But then the tide changed. Carroll, which usually does well from beyond the arc, had shooting woes in the second half, going just 5-for-20 from the field.

“I thought we had the effort, but the shots just didn’t go in,” Patriots coach Renie Shields said. “We really need shooters to put the ball in the basket. They took a good job of taking away our layups, and the three just didn’t fall today.”

Trinity jumped on Archbishop Carroll’s shooting struggles, and picked up the rebounding effort in the second half. The Hillers finished with a 15-8 advantage on the boards in the second half; Rachel Lemons led the way with eight rebounds, and freshman Riley DeRubbo added six.

“We came out in the second half and really dominated the boards, and it helped us create offense,” DeRubbo said.

Trinity coach Bob Miles said, “We put Jayme Britton in, and she got us started on the offensive boards. They shoot a lot of threes, so when their shots started coming up a bit short, it gave us an opportunity to get some of those defensive rebounds, too.”

The biggest momentum swing came in Trinity’s favor midway through the second quarter. Leading 12-6 at the first buzzer, Archbishop Carroll started the next quarter on a 4-0 run to extend the lead to double figures, but the Hillers answered in the form of Alayna Cappelli. She started her eight-point run with back-to-back three-pointers and capped it off with a steal and a fastbreak layup, cutting the deficit to just two points in a matter of 45 seconds.

“I think that’s what really kick-started it,” Miles said. “We ran a couple sets for her to get a shot, and she wasn’t looking for it. In a timeout, I told her she was to shoot the basketball, and she stepped back and knocked them down.”

Cappelli said, “I think we were in a funk. We didn’t come out on top of it, and we just needed to get a run to get the whole team going. As the point guard, I thought I just needed to get it started.”

Cappelli led the Hillers with 14 points while Kotchman scored 13 and went 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. Trinity finished 18-for-20 as a team.

For Archbishop Carroll, Bella Sorrentino scored a game-high 17 points.