Published: March 15, 2008 12:21 am            

Colts fall in PIAA championship game

STATE COLLEGE — Golden dreams turned to silver for the Northern Cambria girls basketball team Friday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Colts ran out of gas, falling to two-time defending champion York Catholic (34-1) 52-40 in the PIAA Class AA championship. The loss snapped a 28-game win streak for Northern Cambria (29-2).

“It’s hard,” Northern Cambria coach Eric Thomas said after the game. “They play with so much heart and desire and just couldn’t get it done. I think some of that was fatigue, the last two games, I really started seeing that. I told them if they gave 100 percent, win or lose, that’s all we can ask for.

“I know they’re disappointed right now with silver, but how many teams get this opportunity and go this far? I told them to soak it all up. It was an excellent season.”







Senior Brittany Sedlock and sophomore Breanna Kochinsky each scored 11 points for the Colts. Sedlock added eight rebounds and four steals.

“It was a dream come true to play in the championship game,” Sedlock said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. It’s really hard that we lost, but once everything settles down, we’ll realize what an accomplishment it was. There are a lot of girls, a lot of teams, that never get to experience that and we’re really fortunate to make it this far. I’m really proud of my team.”

Janae Dunchack had eight points while Ariel Rocco supplied six points, six rebounds and three steals. Jen Valeria contributed four points and four assists.

“For some reason, we were very tired (Friday),” Valeria said. “York was a better team than us (Friday). I think they had a lot of quickness and we weren’t really expecting that. They got back and they rebounded well, too.”

Three of the Fighting Irish players scored in double figures, led by freshman guard Kady Schrann with 12 points.

Ashton Bankos added 11 points and Jenny McGann added 10 with Kelly Rhein grabbing nine rebounds.

“We told them that we needed 32 minutes of hard work from our team, and I think we got that,” York Catholic coach Kevin Bankos said. “I think that Northern Cambria was one of the best team-rebounding groups that we’ve seen. They are so fundamentally sound at blocking out.”

Northern Cambria led after the first quarter, clinging to a 12-11 advantage. The Colts were ahead by as many as five points in the second quarter before the Fighting Irish began chipping away at the lead.

York went ahead for good at the 5:32 mark of the second, on a layup by McGann, ending the period with a 30-23 halftime advantage.

The Irish switched to a zone defense in the second.

“I thought we played a great first quarter,” Thomas said. “We’ve struggled a little bit all year against a half-court zone. We tried to make some adjustments at halftime. Zones can give us fits at times. If we’re not hitting from the outside, we can be in trouble against a bigger team because we’re not very big.”

York went back to a man defense in the third, but Northern Cambria could only get as close as five points, ending the quarter trailing by eight, 39-31.

“I think if a couple more of our shots would have fallen, it would have been a different game,” Sedlock said. “It was frustrating.”

In the fourth, a 3-pointer by Mary McGann with 6:57 left seemed to take the wind out of the Northern Cambria sails.

The Irish were 6 of 11 from the free-throw line.

        

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