Latrobe girls can’t make early lead stand up vs. Oakland Catholic

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, January 21, 2019 | 9:48 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

For as well as Latrobe started Monday night, visiting Oakland Catholic finished just as strong.

A big third quarter helped the third-ranked Eagles overcome a sluggish first half and stave off the hard-charging Wildcats, 57-45, in Section 3-5A girls basketball.

As the game wore on, Latrobe could feel the upset slipping from its grasp.

“They have three Division-I recruits,” Latrobe coach Mark Burkhardt said. “To beat them, you have to play almost a perfect game.”

Senior guard and Rochester recruit Alexis Sestric scored a game-high 20 points, including nine in the third quarter when Oakland Catholic (14-2, 8-1) outscored Latrobe, 20-11, on the way to its fourth straight win.

Latrobe (9-4, 5-4) was plagued by turnovers, made just 3 of 10 free throws and could not regain the lead after losing it early in the third.

“We’re not a top-five team yet in WPIAL 5A,” Burkhardt said. “We have to be able to play better than this against those caliber teams. When you make mistakes against those kind of teams, you don’t get away with it.”

Latrobe had 18 points in the first quarter but managed just 19 in the second half.

When the teams played just before Christmas, Latrobe took a 17-13 lead after one quarter but let the Eagles rally for a 69-50 win.

The Wildcats looked to be in control with a double-digit lead in the first half this time, but the Eagles used open-court pressure to force turnovers and take command.

“We weren’t playing defense like we normally do in the first half,” Oakland Catholic coach Brianne O’Rourke said. “I don’t know. Maybe it was the bus ride. If the offense is not producing, our defense usually does its job and gets us going. That is what happened tonight.”

An 11-0 run in the third shifted momentum the Eagles’ way. Sestric scored three straight hoops off turnovers, and senior Jayde Boyd, who is headed to Fairleigh Dickinson with senior teammate Sierra DeAngelo, made a 3-pointer, and, suddenly, Oakland Catholic had a 39-33 lead.

Boyd opened the fourth with five straight points to push the advantage to 48-37. She finished with 13 points.

The Eagles went ahead by 11 twice in the fourth and had an answer each time Latrobe inched closer.

Sophomore guard Rachel Ridilla’s three-point play cut it to 50-42.

Ridilla and the number three were synonomous in this game.

She made five 3-pointers and led Latrobe with 18 points. She hit again from the wing to make it 52-45 with 2 minutes, 45 seconds remaining.

“We knew from the jump that (Ridilla) could shoot it,” O’Rourke said. “She was on tonight. We kind of lost her a bit.”

But Eagles junior Margaret Terry, who scored nine of her 10 points in the second half, hit a 3, and Boyd followed with a layup for a 57-45 advantage with 1:43 left.

Latrobe jumped out to an 18-7 lead as senior guard Kayla White scored seven points in the opening quarter and helped key a 9-0 run.

It was 21-11 in favor of the Wildcats when Oakland Catholic took a timeout, regrouped and ran off seven of the game’s next nine points to shave the margin to 23-18.

The Eagles scored the final five points of the first half, including a buzzer-beating layup by Sestric to make it 26-23 at the half.

Freshman forward Anna Rafferty had 10 points, and White finished with nine for Latrobe, which had won six of seven.

The schedule does Latrobe no favors: The Wildcats now brace for No. 2 Penn Hills on Thursday at home.

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Latrobe, Oakland Catholic