Trinity loses defensive struggle, PIAA title to Archbishop Wood
Abbey O’Connor and Alayna Cappelli embrace, back, while Sierra Kotchman and Rachel Lemons handle the PIAA runner-up trophy.
Rachel Lemons, Sierra Kotchman and Abbey O’Connor hoist the PIAA runner-up trophy after Trinity’s loss, 34-26, to Archbishop Wood.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Trinity players celebrate their first appearance in the PIAA championship girls’ basketball game in 2017. The Hillers finished runner-up in Class 5A to Archbishop Wood.
Riley DeRubbo attempts to work her way around an Archbishop Wood defender during PIAA championship action.
Sierra Kotchman sheds a tear after receiving her silver medal, the result of Trinity’s 34-26 loss to Archbishop Wood in the PIAA Class 5-A girls’ basketball championship game. Kotchman scored seven points.
Abby O’Connor dishes off a pass while heavily defended by Katie May during PIAA championship basketball action.
HERSHEY – Defensive efforts like this are supposed to win basketball games.
The one the Trinity High School girls basketball team turned in Saturday night against the top-ranked team in the PIAA was the kind that wins state championships.
The only problem for Trinity was Archbishop Wood’s defense was even better.
Archbishop Wood, the District 12 champion and Philadelphia Catholic League powerhouse, held Trinity to only four field goals and slogged its way to a 34-26 victory before a crowd of 7,032 at the Giant Center.
The Vikings became the first 5-A girls champion in PIAA history and won their second consecutive state championship. Archbishop Wood was the 3-A champion last year, before basketball in Pennsylvania was expanded to six classifications.
Trinity’s season ends with a 26-4 record and the distinction of being the first girls basketball team from Washington County to advance to the PIAA finals. The Hillers’ appearance will be remembered as one of missed shots. It wasn’t an artistic masterpiece by any chance, and was one of the lowest-scoring championship games since the three-point shot came to high school basketball. It was anything but an offensive clinic.
“We’ve played pretty good defense all year,” Trinity coach Bob Miles said. “We’re figured if we could not let them go on a big run, and make them extend their possessions, we had a chance.”
And that’s exactly what Trinity did from its 2-3 zone defense – after the game’s first five minutes, when Archbishop Wood make three three-point field goals and forged a 9-1 lead. The Hillers played catch-up all night and had a chance to pull even or take the lead in the fourth quarter.
Trinity held Archbishop Wood (23-7) without a two-point field goal until 4:11 remained in the game. The Vikings shot only 23 percent for the game, made just eight field goals and were 2-for-17 from two-point range. Over the second and third quarters, Archbishop Wood was 2-for-21 from the field.
“If this was a game in December, and not a state championship, I’d be tempted to burn the tape,” Archbishop Wood coach Mike McDonald said. “I guess I’ll have to watch this one sometime to see how I can coach better against the kind of zone Trinity played. We were expecting them to play man-to-man.”
Archbishop Wood did play man-to-man-defense and played it better than any opponent Trinity has faced. The Vikings never allowed Trinity to set an offensive rhythm it could live with and held high-scoring senior guard Sierra Kotchman to seven points and only seven shots.
“We had to take away Kotchman as much as possible,” McDonald said.
Freshman Riley DeRubbo, who was moved to point guard against the Vikings’ full-court pressure defense, looked like anything but a freshman. She scored a game-high 13 points, making 11 of 12 free throws. She also had a game-high seven rebounds.
“They pressure the guards so much that it takes you out of your sets,” Miles said. “We figured that if they let Riley bring the ball up the court, we let her do it. She’s a pretty good freshman.”
Trinity shot only 14 percent (4-for-28) from the field and had just one assist.
However, even with all the missed shots and all the trouble against the Vikings’ defense, the Hillers were still within striking distance early in the fourth quarter.
Archbishop Wood led 9-4 after the first quarter and 14-7 at halftime. The game challenged the attention span of the thousands of Reading High fans who arrived early to get a good seat to watch their team in the 6-A boys final.
The Hillers began driving to the basket and getting the ball inside in the third quarter and drew enough fouls to get in the bonus early in the half. Two free throws each by Kotchman, DeRubbo and Abbey O’Connor cut Archbishop Wood’s lead to 19-15 entering the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t get down on ourselves when they made those three-pointers early in the game,” Miles said. “The kids thought they could do it. We have a resilient bunch. They won’t quit.”
Two more free throws by DeRubbo made it a two-point game, and the Hillers had two possessions with a chance to tie or take the lead but couldn’t score.
Archbishop Wood’s Bridget Arcidiacano, whose brother Archie played on Villanova’s national championship team last year, scored on a layup with 4:16 remaining – the Vikings’ first two-point basket of the game – and it triggered a decisive 9-0 run. Cassie Sebold, who scored a team-high 12 points and with Shannon May played tough defense against Kotchman, made three-pointer and two free throws during the key run.
“What I was thinking at that point was finally, we made some shots,” McDonald said.
Trinity got no closer than six the rest of the way.
“Up until those last few minutes, it was four- or six-point game,” Miles said. “We were right there. We just needed a score.”