The Lansdale Catholic girls and Philadelphia West Catholic boys completed playoff runs that included taking out top District 2 teams when they won games Saturday afternoon in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Basketball Championships at The Giant Center in Hershey.
Gabby Casey scored 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while leading Lansdale Catholic past Blackhawk, 53-45, in the Class 4A girls championship game to begin the third and final day of championships.
Philadelphia Catholic League champion Lansdale Catholic (28-2) won its five state tournament games by an average of 21.8 points, including a 60-28 semifinal victory over Scranton Prep Tuesday.
The Classics were the Lackawanna League Division 1 and District 2 Class 4A champions as well as the top-ranked Big School girls team in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Basketball Power Rankings of District 2 teams.
Adam “Budd” Clark scored 32 points and Zion Stanford added 30 as West Catholic ripped Deer Lakes, 83-55, in the Class 3A boys final to complete the afternoon session.
West Catholic (20-10) had its second-closest game of the tournament in the second round when it downed Holy Redeemer, 56-47. The Burrs also had tournament wins by 36 in the first round and 16 in the quarterfinals.
Holy Redeemer (26-3) was the No. 1 Small School boys team in the Super Six.
Lansdale Catholic trailed by as many as seven in the second quarter, but took charge with a 16-5 third quarter. The Crusaders clinched the win with the game’s last seven points.
Playing just the 5 starters the entire 32 minutes, Lansdale Catholic got into the paint for 36 of its points.
Clark, a 5-foot-10 point guard, shot 16-for-18 from the floor.
Stanford, a 6-5 senior guard, was 11-for-16 from the floor, 1-for-2 on 3-pointers and 7-for-9 on free throws.
Night games
Archbishop Wood won its third straight girls state championship with a 61-54 victory over South Fayette in Class 5A.
The Vikings had won the previous two state titles in Class 4A, knocking out Scranton Prep along the way.
Ava Renninger went 9-for-11 while leading Archbishop Wood with 21 points.
Deja Evans added 17 points and Kara Meredith had 13.
The Vikings shot 62.9 percent from the floor (22-for-35).
The championship weekend concluded with an overtime game between Class 6A boys teams that entered with combined 58-4 records.
Reading downed Philadelphia Roman Catholic, 63-56.
Aris Rodriguez led the way with 16 points while Ruben Rodriguez added 8 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals.
Xzayvier Brown hit the second of two free throws for Roman Catholic with one second left in regulation to force overtime, tied at 53-53.
Brown scored a game-high 23 points while the help of 12-for-15 free throw shooting.
Reading finished 32-1.
District 2 recap
The tournament ended with District 2 teams going a combined 26-19, including 25-18 when not playing against each other and 15-9 by girls teams.
Dunmore’s Thursday night victory, 42-30 over River Valley, gave the district its first state basketball title since the Abington Heights boys in 2018 and the first girls title by a district team since Bishop Hoban in 1999.
The district had four other state semifinalists and five teams who had their season end with losses to the eventual state champions.
Abington Heights and Holy Cross joined the Holy Redeemer boys in losing to the champion.
The Lake-Lehman girls lost to Dunmore in an all-District 2 state quarterfinal.
MORE COVERAGE
Thursday/Friday notes: PIAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: District 2 crew officiates opener – NEPA Sports Nation.
