HERSHEY \u2014 Oakland Catholic coach Henry Schechter knew he had to get Saturday\u2019s PIAA Class 4A title tilt against Neumann-Goretti at a pace his team could control.<\/p>\n
What he didn\u2019t know was he\u2019d have to try to do it without his star Josie Fontana.<\/p>\n
Fontana was forced to sit for a long stretch of Saturday\u2019s PIAA Class 4A final due to foul trouble, and Philadelphia Catholic League power Neumann-Goretti had the moment it needed to take control.<\/p>\n
Despite a spectacular shooting performance by Oakland Catholic\u2019s Madi Pullen, the Saints\u2019 speed started to show in the second quarter and carried through the rest of the game.<\/p>\n
Neumann-Goretti withstood an early 12-3 deficit to open the game and used a sharpshooting second quarter (6 of 11) to pull away and claim a seventh state title with a 53-48 win over WPIAL champion Oakland Catholic.<\/p>\n
Fontana did not have her typical impact thanks to the foul issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat hurt us a little bit,\u201d Schechter said. \u201cReally on the boards, they started getting some second and third chance opportunities, I think when she was out, she\u2019s been our best player all year so obviously when she is not on the court, that hurts us.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Fontana on the bench, Oakland Catholic shot 1 of 11 in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Pullen was the bright spot for the Eagles, scoring a game-high 24 points by hitting 8 of 13 shots, including 6 of 10 from 3-point territory. Fontana, a Richmond recruit, was limited to eight points and seven rebounds for the Eagles. Oakland Catholic shot 14 of 40 from the field overall.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Pullen) is an elite 3-point shooter. I\u2019ve coached kids who are really good, elite 3-point shooters on the high level. That kid can shoot and she is a big-time shooter too,\u201d Schechter said. \u201cShe is just a really great kid. She is so well-liked in our school and on our team. It really did bother her the last couple of games that she wasn\u2019t shooting well. She put her mind to it and had a tremendous game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schechter said he had a feeling Pullen would have a strong game after struggling vs. Blackhawk in the semifinal win on Tuesday night. But the game flipped at the 4:53 mark of the second quarter when Fontana picked up her third foul.<\/p>\n
Immediately after Fontana exited the game, a Chrisette King basket in the paint gave the Saints a 19-17 lead they would not relinquish.<\/p>\n
Oakland Catholic was able to pull within one with 3:56 to go in the third on a Pullen bucket, but that was as close as the Eagles would get the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
Neumann-Goretti needed only 12 field goal attempts over the final two quarters to play keep away. The Saints hit 7 of 12 over the final 16 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a very good team. They are quick, I think we just needed to communicate a little more,\u201d said Pullen, who will return next season along with Brooklyn Rozier and Luci Lamendola.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super proud,\u201d Pullen said, fighting back tears. \u201cThis is a great team, sad it ended this way, but it\u2019s been a great year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reginna Baker led the Saints with 18 points, while Azzure O\u2019Conner added 16. Pullen was the only Eagles player in double figures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HERSHEY \u2014 Oakland Catholic coach Henry Schechter knew he had to get Saturday\u2019s PIAA Class 4A title tilt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-230599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}