By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com
There wasn’t much at the onset of the season that suggested this would be a season of firsts for the Paul VI girls basketball program. Paul VI returned three starters from last year’s team, but has only one senior and a bunch of newcomers.
Yet, the Panthers beat defending WCAC champion McNamara for the first time in program history on Dec. 11 and set another first on Tuesday.
This time Paul VI won its first ever holiday tournament with a 63-50 victory over Churchill in the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Classic at the Montgomery County public school in Potomac, Md.
In the past seven years, Paul VI has travelled to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla, Disney World, Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Miami among other winter destinations. Five of those seven years they’ve reached the tournament championship game. But the Panthers never hauled home the hardware.
“We’ve always been the one that got left at the dance,†Panthers Coach Scott Allen said. “There’s been heartbreakers, losses at the buzzer. But we’re still in the Christmas spirit, so we’ll take this win into the new year.â€
In the hours leading up to Tuesday’s final, Allen informed the Panthers (9-2) of the team’s inability to close out tournament titles in recent years.
“We have to win,†said junior point guard Jess Escorza, who tranfered to Paul VI from Nortre Dame Academy this year. “We wanted it badly.â€
Churchill (6-2) certainly made Paul VI work for it. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-2 lead before Paul VI scored 14 of the next 16 points. The Panthers got several easy buckets in a row off of turnovers caused by a full court press.
Once Paul VI got the lead in the first quarter, the Panthers never relinquished it. Yet Churchill never allowed the lead to balloon to more than 10 points until the game’s final minute as the two teams went back-and-forth trading important field goals.
“We just played tough and knew we had to pull it out at the end,†said Jasmine Murray, the Panthers’ lone senior.
Murray was pivotal down the stretch as Churchill cut the Panthers’ lead to five points on a Alex Vassila layup with about two minutes remaining. It was the closest Churchill had been since the first quarter.
Murray notched an and-one on a jumper that made the score 57-49 and followed that up with a steal on a lob back to Vassila — a play that plagued Paul VI all game. She then came up with an big offensive rebound and was fouled hard. Murray knocked down the pair of free throws to give the Panthers a 10-point lead
“I’m proud of my kids being able to close,†Allen said. “It was a challenge. They came after us and we came after them and it was a great game all the way to the end.â€
Paul VI had to survive another challenge the night before in the semifinals. The Panthers trailed Butler Area, the No. 2-ranked team in the Pittsburgh area, until about a minute-and-a-half left in the game. Jessica Long hit 1-of-2 free throws with 11 seconds left to force Butler Area into a three-point situation and its final shot missed.
For Churchill, the loss doesn’t have much meaning. Coach Aubree Lawrence saw it as only a way to build more confidence considering the Bulldogs were facing a tough WCAC team.
And despite the loss, the Bulldogs showed that they have more than Vassila and fellow inside threat Marlena Phillips, who combined for 21 points. Churchill was led in scoring by sophomore guard Ashley Nelson with 14 points and got solid guard play from Kristy Tung and Angela Biciocchi.
“I’m very proud of their effort,†Lawrence said. “If you’re going to lose, this is the way you want to go down. If we continue to play like this in our conference, I think we’ll be good to go.â€
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