Archbishop Carroll girls basketball wasn’t supposed to be here.
Nonetheless, the Lady Pats will go to the Philadelphia Catholic League championship game after they upset defending PCL title holder Archbishop Wood 57-45 Monday evening in a contest many had counted them out of prematurely.
“I’m very proud of this group of girls,” said Patriots head coach Reine Shields. “They practiced really hard all week in preparation for this game against Wood and we knew how good Wood is. We knew how we had to execute and they just really did it. I just couldn’t be more proud of how they played tonight.”
The Pats had struggled all season against the upper echelon of the Catholic League, notably falling to Wood just a few weeks prior 52-41 in Radnor. Aside from a pair of gritty wins over Cardinal O’Hara and Lansdale Catholic, Carroll struggled against what was seen as the league’s top two clubs in Wood and Neumann-Goretti. Neumann, which punched its ticket to the title as well, handled Carroll earlier this season 52-43 in South Philadelphia.
In Carroll’s first matchup against the Vikings just a few weeks prior, they came out slow and were never able to get back into the game as Wood kept them at arm’s length for a majority of the contest. The Vikings took advantage of Carroll in the paint and owned them in the rebounding department.
“We knew what we had to do,” said junior guard Alexis Eberz. “They’re a really good team. We had to clean up a little bit but we were able to lock in on offense and especially on defense. We knew what we had to do and we got stops.”
In Monday’s rematch at Villanova University’s Finneran Pavilion, it seemed as though the Carroll girls played with a relaxed sense to them. The game kicked off as many would expect, with both sides jockeying back and forth and with Wood superstar Ryan Carter going to town on offense with a few huge buckets.
In the second quarter, the Pats were able to pull away, much to the credit of freshman forward Kayla Eberz and sophomore guard Abbie McFillin. They finished the night with 16 and eight points respectively, while Eberz owned the paint on both ends of the court and racked up seven rebounds, six of which came on the defensive end as Carroll was able to take away second chance shots from Wood.
Although Wood made a defensive switch, taking Carter off of Alexis Eberz, the Patriots star took off. The junior started to heat up as her team trailed by only one going into the second half.
“When I saw they took Ryan Carter off Lex (Alexis Eberz), I knew we had to get Lex the ball,” said McFillin. “We know she scores better than anyone else on our team.”
That she does. In the third quarter, Alexis Eberz led the Lady Pats with 15 points. By the end of the period, Carroll led the contest by six at 42-36.
While Alexis Eberz seemingly couldn’t miss on offense, it was the Patriots defense that kept the Vikings at bay, holding them to 13 in the third quarter and forcing a couple big turnovers that began to turn the tides of the game further Carroll’s way.
“We’ve been working really hard at practice,” said Kayla Eberz. “We really knew what we had to do to stop them and it showed on the court today.”
Wood began the fourth quarter on a 4-0 run before Carroll went on a run. That run was kicked off by a few huge buckets from Alexis Eberz. It really started to grow in the final minutes as the Pats got into the bonus, which resulted in both Eberzes heading to the foul line on multiple occasions. Kayla Eberz drained two huge foul shots with about 1:27 to go, which put Carroll up by eight. Alexis Eberz went nine out of 10 from the line, with a majority of those makes coming in the final quarter of play.
As the clock continued to tick down the Pats only grew their lead, eventually bringing it all the way to 12 as they closed the night out.
With the huge victory, Carroll will head to the PCL championship for the third time in four years (2025, 2024, 2022) as it looks to claim its first PCL title since 2019. Carroll will take on Neumann-Goretti, a club the team fell to earlier this season, at the Palestra this coming Sunday at 12:30 PM.
