For the third straight year, the Archbishop Carroll Lady Pats are headed to the Palestra.
Archbishop Wood fell to Carroll last night for the second straight season. Both times Carroll won by 12 points. The 2026 Philadelphia Catholic League Girls Final Four was the exact same as the year prior, just with different seeding and time slots.
The last time the Pats cut down the nets at the Palestra was in 2019. Since then they have appeared in the championship game three times. They will make their fourth appearance Sunday afternoon.
For the Pats, this year is different.
“We’re a special team,” said Alexis Eberz. “I think we had a really good year this year.”
The Pats seniors — Alexis Eberz and Bridget Grant — have seen the Palestra failure every single year, and now have a chance to flip the script. Carroll’s entire starting five is experienced at the Palestra, which is always an advantage for any roster.
In the Monday night playoff battle, Archbishop Wood kicked off the game with high energy, and with nothing to lose against the undefeated top seed, they put up any shot they had, and the shots were falling. The Lady Pats just couldn’t adjust early on and were forced to call a timeout, down 13-3. For the Vikings it was all Colleen Besachio, who was playing her first ever playoff game after missing her sophomore and end of junior season with a torn ACL. Besachio missed the quarterfinal game for the Vikings and seemed to be on a minutes restriction.
Once Besachio sat, Carroll went on their runs, ending the first quarter with an 8-0 run to make the score 13-11. Kayla Eberz made it known after the game that basketball is a game of runs.
“They had their run in the first and then we had our run,” Kayla Eberz said. “We had to stay on top of it and keep going so that wasnt our only run.”
Wood could not continue its momentum in the second quarter, turning the ball over six times with the majority of them being travels. Cate Schumacher, Bridget Grant, and Abbie McFillin all got involved in the first quarter, moving the ball around to capitalize on their offensive possessions. McFillin has not played since the teams first meeting with Archbishop Wood on Jan. 29. McFillin looked like herself on Monday, tacking on 6 points and 4 rebounds.
“Abbie just plays hard,” Head Coach Renie Shields remarked, “There’s no questioning what she’s going to bring to each game.”
The Lady Pats came out of the halftime break on fire, forcing Wood to call a timeout late in the fourth quarter. Kayla Eberz took over the game and had 17 points, putting her squad up 36-28.
“We took really good shots tonight,” Shields said.
The Lady Pats did not take their feet off the pedals, taking down Wood 50-38.
Wood now looks ahead to the 5A district and state playoffs.
The Lady Pats will take on Delco rival Cardinal O’Hara in the PCL Championship on Sunday. The two teams faced off earlier this season in Radnor, with the result being a victory in favor of Archbishop Carroll by a score of 51-28. The last time the two sides met in the championship was in 2022, when, just like this year, Carroll was the one seed and O’Hara was the two seed. Maggie Doogan scored 19 points for the Lions as they took down the Pats 55-30.
Score by quarter:
Archbishop Carroll 11 | 10 | 15 | 14 || 50
Archbishop Wood 13 | 7 | 8 | 10 || 38
Scoring
Carroll: Kayla Eberz 24, Alexis Eberz 12, Abbie McFillin 6, Cate Schumacher 5, Bridget Grant 3
Wood: Colleen Besachio 15, Makayla Finnegan 8, Abbie Kelly 7, Addison Payne 5, Emma Yogis 3
