PIAA GIRLS AAA Too-strong Villa Maria too much for Grove City

The Eagles got off to a bad start; their season ends with a 25-6 record.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SLIPPERY ROCK -- For the Grove City High girls basketball team, it was a case of deja vu all over again. Well, almost.
In the Eagles' first meeting with Villa Maria Academy, they fell behind early, battled back to make it close, then faltered down the stretch in a nine-point loss.
However, in the second meeting, in a PIAA Class AAA playoff on Saturday, the hole they dug was too deep in a 62-30 loss to the Victors.
Villa Maria (26-4) set the tone of the game early. After a 4-all tie, the Victors ran off 16 unanswered points for a 20-4 lead before Hannah Gargasz of Grove City closed out the first period with a bucket.
Bottom line: "They just have a powerful roster with a lot of good players on their team," said Grove City coach Roger Flynn. "We always seem to run into somebody like that at the end of the year and it is tough to beat a team like that.
"We couldn't afford to get off to a bad start and that is exactly what happened. They put the ball in the basket, they are very well-coached and once they got that big lead, it was very difficult to fight back with all of their height and talent."
The Eagles did manage to cut their deficit to 11 midway through the second quarter. However, the Victors responded with an 11-6 run to close out the first half, enabling them to take a commanding 37-21 lead at the break.
"We did make a little run at them in the second quarter, but they came out strong and reasserted themselves in the third period," said Flynn.
If the Eagles were going to claw their way back into the game, they had to make at the start of the third period. However, Villa Maria wouldn't cooperate, scoring the first five points of the third period en route to outscoring Grove City 12-2 during the eight minutes.
"We knew we had to make a run at them to begin the third period and it just didn't happen," said Flynn. "But really, the tone of the game was pretty well set during that first six or eight minutes. They got that commanding lead, and against a team with that much talent, it is pretty hard to make a comeback."
Dominant: Not only did the Victors control the scoreboard, they also dominated the boards as they finished with a 31-14 edge.
"They just extended our defense, they did a good job of keeping us away from the basket and they certainly out-rebounded us," said Flynn. "With them controlling the boards, that forced us into taking a lot of bad shots.
"I was really proud of the effort by our kids. They fought as hard as they could and I wanted them to play as hard as they could right up to the final buzzer."
Villa Maria will play Mercyhurst Prep for the fourth time this season, Wednesday in the Western final, with a trip to Hershey on the line.
Grove City finished 25-6.
"We had an outstanding season," said Flynn. "We had nine seniors who played great and gave us outstanding leadership all season long. It was a tough way to finish the season, but you don't measure your season on one game. We measure our season on how we play all season so I am extremely proud of our players. We played hard, but today, they were just too tough."