Wyomissing shot down by powerhouse North Catholic, ends season at 28-3
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
BELLFONTE – The effective 3-2 zone defense that carried Wyomissing to its first county and district championships finally met its match.
Harvard commit Alayna Rocco and a seasoned North Catholic team shot it to pieces in handing the Spartans a 60-27 defeat in a PIAA Class 4A quarterfinal Saturday afternoon at Bald Eagle High School in Bellefonte.
The Spartans finished 28-3 and compiled arguably the best season in program history.
Rocco hit her third 3-pointer of the first quarter around the two-minute mark to give North Catholic an 18-4 lead. Rocco finished the quarter with 15 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the field and 4-for-4 shooting from the foul line as the Trojanettes led 25-9 after one.
North Catholic (25-3) hit five 3’s in the first quarter and went 10-for-19 on 3’s overall.
“When you get blitzkrieged like that in the beginning of the game. . . ” said Spartans coach Aaron Anders. “They didn’t miss a shot. We were there. We were on them, but it wasn’t our day.”
Things didn’t get much better in the second quarter as the Trojanettes outscored the Spartans (28-3) by 13 behind senior Tori Drevna’s eight points, including two 3’s. North Catholic led 44-15 at halftime.
All of North Catholic’s players hovered around 5-11 and were skilled; Akron commit Dacia Lewandowski had the difficult task of being the primary defender on Amaya Stewart, but the rest of the team did a great job crashing down in the paint. Offensively they were able to shoot freely over Wyomissing’s defenders on the wing.
North Catholic also used quick passes in and out of the foul-line area to get open looks.
“We have kids that can shoot but we watched their defense and tried to see where the holes were,” North Catholic head coach Molly Rottmann said. “We thought that if we go to the seams, jump-stopped, and moved the ball we could get some short corner action to draw the big girl out. I think the kids did a great job of executing that today.
“Those were the two things we focused on: Attacking the zone and stopping No. 31 (Stewart).”
Stewart finished with 10 points, her lowest scoring output of the postseason, and had six rebounds and a block.
The WPIAL champion Trojanettes will face Blackhawk, a 40-34 winner over Fairview Saturday, in the semifinals Tuesday. It’ll be a rematch of the WPIAL championship.
A team constructed of talented sophomores Stewart, Audrey Hurleman, and Alexis Hardy with upperclassmen leadership from Maddie Campbell, Lexi Loeb, and Annie McCaffrey took the Spartans to new heights as they won their first county and district titles in program history.
“At the beginning of the year, the whole idea was to get to states for these seniors,” Wyomissing head coach Aaron Anders said. “These seniors are the ones who have created the culture. I’m just really proud of them.”
Seniors Campbell and Loeb are on to new journeys as their high school basketball careers have concluded. Campbell is leaning toward majoring in political science and Loeb plans to go to nursing school in their life-after-basketball plans, but the impact they’ve made on the hardwood will reverberate through the program for seasons to come.
Campbell played in 25 games and Loeb 15 as freshmen on a team that went 18-8 and lost to Bermudian Springs in the District 3 Class 4A fifth-place game.
They went 12-7 the next season making it to the BCIAA championship and districts, where they lost to Bermudian Springs in the first round.
The Spartans went 13-10 last season as Campbell and Loeb shifted from talented underclassmen to upperclassmen looked to for guidance and leadership. Stewart, Hardy, and Hurleman were all freshmen and McCaffrey was a sophomore; the talent and potential was clear even if Wyomissing again lost to Bermudian Springs in the first round of districts.
Campbell and Loeb planted those seeds for success and reaped the benefits this season.
“They have so much potential,” Loeb said of her teammates returning next season. “If they keep doing what we’ve been doing season and keep up the energy, they can be really good.”
Neither of the impact seniors put up gaudy numbers — Loeb’s 6.7 scoring average last season is the highest either had — but the importance of leading a group of underclassmen that knows it is talented cannot be overstated.
“It was just about adjusting from the role I had my freshman and sophomore year,” Campbell said. “I shifted into more of a leadership position my junior and senior year. I think I did a good job.”
Even when the going got tough Saturday, the culture remained. No bickering between teammates. No finger pointing. The clapping, cheering, and support continued.
“It’s a testament to when you get a team believing in each other and really, really, really just caring about and loving one another,” Anders said. “You can get so much out of that and we got a lot out of this group. The beautiful part is we had that senior leadership, but the team is young. There’s a lot of excitement for Wyomissing basketball.”
It’s on to next season for Stewart, McCaffrey, Hurleman, and Hardy while Campbell and Loeb move on to the next parts of their lives. The memories made and accomplishments achieved will remain in the history books forever.
“I’m really proud of this team and how far we’ve come,” Campbell said. “And the fact that we’ve grown and gotten here together.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 9 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 27 |
| North Catholic | 25 | 19 | 13 | 3 | 60 |
| Trojanettes (25-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Rocco | 6-8 | 4-4 | 3-5 | 1 | 3 | 19 |
| Lewandowski | 5-12 | 3-5 | 3-4 | 0 | 1 | 16 |
| Waskiewicz | 1-3 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Walker | 2-4 | 2-2 | 0-2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Drevna | 6-9 | 0-0 | 4-6 | 3 | 0 | 16 |
| Loughry | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Tavella | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Shoemaker | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Larson | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Pawlowciz | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Luff | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 20-39 | 10-13 | 10-18 | 11 | 13-16 | 60 |
| Spartans (28-3) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Stewart | 3-6 | 4-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 10 |
| Campbell | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| McCaffrey | 3-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 8 | 6 |
| Hurleman | 0-2 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Hardy | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| A. Loeb | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Zechman | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Marshall | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Brunner | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| B. Loeb | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Noey | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Maggs | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Anders | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 10-30 | 7-9 | 0-6 | 4 | 23-27 | 27 |
Turnovers: Wyomissing 29, North Catholic 12.
