They’re at it again.
Archbishop Carroll girls basketball claimed a 60-41 second round state playoff win over Wilson High School Tuesday night at Spring-Ford high school. The win sends the Lady Pats to the state semis for the third consecutive season and fourth time in the last five years.
It also marks the second consecutive season the team has been tasked with mounting a state tournament run on the heels of a Philadelphia Catholic League championship loss.
“I think losing the PCL is a big thing,” said junior forward Alexis Eberz, who finished the night with a team high 23 points. “Our mentality is very different in practice. Everyone comes and gives their all. But it’s definitely different knowing how much it hurts.”
It’s been a long three weeks since that not so fateful afternoon at the Palestra where the Lady Pats fell to Neumann-Goretti 50-43 in the Catholic League title game. Since then the club has claimed a 6A District XII title and now has punched its ticket all the way to the state quarterfinals with wins over Council Rock South (61-42) and now Wilson.
This is something that Carroll is all too familiar with. After falling short in the Catholic League title last season to Archbishop Wood in double overtime, the team made a run all the way into the state quarterfinals and then fell to Parkland, 48-37.
In 2023, the Pats failed to make it to the Catholic League title but still made one of the best state playoff runs in school history, claiming a 6A title over Cedar Cliff, 43-37.
The short story is that the Lady Pats are no stranger to this stage. It’s one Renie Shields and company have been on time and time again. It’s rinse and repeat for Carroll, which has constantly had to tweak and adjust game plans following big game losses and even wins down the stretch of this season. If there is one thing Carroll can do, it’s adjust, and that showed in a big way Tuesday night.
Carroll trailed for a majority of the first quarter, with Wilson holding a slight yet steady lead while a couple open shots fell for the Lady Pats.
While at no point did Carroll waiver, the Lady Pats still trailed through most of the second quarter while Wilson held onto a one possession lead for a majority of it. However, as it ticked into the final minutes, Carroll took a lead off of a Kayla Eberz three and never looked back.
“I think we took rough shots in the beginning,” said Alexis Eberz. “We had a couple turnovers and stuff like that but I think we knew what we needed to do coming in after halftime; we had to pump it up on defense because we were too lackadaisical, and then taking easier shots and making layups because we took a lot of quick threes and stuff like that.”
With its one-point lead, Carroll took it and ran with it back into the second half. As the girls focused more on shots in the paint and getting every board possible, they’d grow their lead to four by the midway point in the quarter. With a few more well-selected shots, Carroll continued to grow its lead slowly, as it reached seven by the end of the third quarter.
As the game moved into the final period, the Lady Pats took the opportunity to step on Wilson’s throat with a few big buckets, moving the lead into double digits for the first time at 49-39.
“We held the ball at the start of the fourth quarter,” said Alexis Eberz. “We tried to move the ball around and wait until they’d double us, and took better shots.”
Soon enough, the lead was up to 15 and then 19 by the end of the things. Carroll outscored Wilson, 14-2 in that final period as the defense stepped up big time in one of the most important spots all season. For the final minute, the Lady Pats walked and dribbled the ball out with a nearly 20-point lead.
With the victory, Carroll moves on to the Elite Eight quarterfinals to take on Central Dauphin for a matchup with District III’s number three seed. That game will take place this Friday with a location and time still TBD.
