Wolfpack overwhelms Lady Gators in state playoffs
CONNELLSVILLE TWP. — Geibel Catholic was able to hold up despite the loss of star center Mallory Clemmer for five quarters.
After battling Serra Catholic down to the wire in a one-point loss in the WPIAL Class A championship game eight days ago, the Lady Gators fought hard to hang with St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy in the first quarter of their PIAA first-round playoff game on Saturday.
Geibel finally ran out of gas while playing without the injured Clemmer against the much bigger and deeper Wolfpack in the second quarter at the Swamp.
Once St. Joseph’s seized control, the result was inevitable.
Naomi Crispin tossed in 25 points and Aubrey Yartz followed with 20 as the Wolfpack put five players in double figures in racing away to a 91-35 victory.
St. Joseph’s (25-3), the third-place team from Distict 6, advanced to Wednesday’s second round against Clarion Limestone while Geibel’s season came to a close with a 23-3 record and only six healthy players.
It was the final high school game for Lady Gators senior Emma Larkin who shattered the school record and broke the Fayette County mark for career points this season.
Larkin scored a team-high 19 points to finish with an astounding 2,541 while also ringing up 606 rebounds, 489 assists, 395 steals and 41 blocked shots as a four-year starter.
She wasn’t quite ready to look back on her career following Saturday’s defeat.
“No, because I didn’t want to come into this game thinking that this was my last game,” Larkin said. “I think when I go home it’ll all set in.”
She was happy to end her career on her home court.
“Last year we traveled four hours to Otto-Eldred on the New York border (for a PIAA first-round game),” Larkin pointed out. “It was so nice to be here with our own crowd on our home court.”
The Lady Gators gave the home crowd something to cheer in a competitive first quarter that had six lead changes.
After the Wolfpack’s Alexia Luckovich opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, Geibel answered with a basket by Larkin and two free throws by junior Janiah Darnell to go up 4-3. Freshman Alexa Morgan countered baskets by St. Joseph’s Jacee Cunningham and Yartz with a steal and layup and then a 3-pointer to give the hosts a 9-7 advantage.
The Wolfpack went in front again with four straight points by Crispin but freshman Emaleigh Horn’s 3-pointer gave Geibel a 12-11 lead.
Two free throws by Layla Fetzer put St. Joseph’s in front to stay and it ended the quarter up 17-14.
“We played a great first quarter,” said Geibel coach and Emma Larkin’s mother Sara Larkin. “They just outmatch us size-wise without Mallory. Their one big, she’s big, she’s physical, and then the other one plays more like a guard inside.
“It’s hard to matchup like that when you’ve got three freshmen (Morgan, Horn and Paige Dolan) on the floor that don’t have a ton of experience. They were giving it everything they had but we knew coming in it was going to be tough.”
The Wolfpack out-scored the Lady Gators 24-2 in the second quarter to take a commanding 41-16 halftime lead. St. Joseph’s scored the final 20 points of the half after a bucket by Emma Larkin cut the lead to 21-16.
The Wolfpack exploded for 33 points in the third quarter in taking a 74-33 lead.
The much smaller Lady Gators were forced to heave shots from the outside and did sink five 3-pointers in the frame with Emma Larkin hitting three in a row at one point, along with a pair of free throws, and Morgan swishing a pair of treys.
Geibel’s lone points of the fourth quarter came on Larkin’s final basket.
“It’s heartbreaking to go out the way we just went out,” Sara Larkin said. “They killed us. But the better team won. Like I told them, unless you’re winning the state championship you’re ending your season on a loss. Kudos to St. Joe’s, I hope they win it all. I have a feeling somebody out of District 6 is going to be the one that wins it.”
Luckovich followed Crispin and Yartz in the Wolfpack scoring column with 19 points. Lauren Himes (11) and Cunningham (10) also reached double digits.
Morgan made a trio of 3-pointers in tallying 11 points for Geibel.
Sara Larkin reflected on the season.
“Our girls worked hard all year, such improvement from the beginning of the season,” she said. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t get to have Mal out there to actually give them a better game. But I’m proud of the way this team has worked and we definitely accomplished our goal. We got to the Pete.”
The Lady Gators’ goal was to play in the district final at the Petersen Events Center and did bring home some hardware with the runner-up trophy.
“That means a lot to the girls, it means a lot to the school,” said Sara Larkin, who noted steps several players made during the postseason.
“Look at Alexa,” she said of Morgan, who also tallied 15 points with three 3-pointers in the WPIAL championship game. “Alexa’s shooting the ball. She should’ve been shooting the ball like that all year but I couldn’t get her to do that because they rely so much on Mallory and Emma putting the ball in the hoop.
“Janiah working her butt off underneath for the rebounds. That kid is a workhorse. The freshmen aren’t freshmen anymore. Let’s see what happens next year. They’re going to come out very experienced. This whole playoffs I feel like the freshmen have been able to settle down, are a lot more composed.”
Geibel returns six of its seven players, including sophomore Nolace Petrosky who was its lone player off the bench on Saturday, for next season.
Sara Larkin lauded her daughter, who’ll be playing at Belmont Abbey College next season.
“She has had a great career,” Sara Larkin said. “I think she’s a little frustrated. Clearly she didn’t want to end like this either. But she knows how much hard work she’s put into this and we were able to put the program back on the map. You can’t ask for anything more than that.
“The individual things are amazing. I’m really proud of her for that. But I think she’s more happy about the fact we did what we did this year. We got to the Pete, we had an opportunity to win it, down one with 14 seconds left on the clock, especially when we didn’t have Mal, nobody thought we could even compete in that.
“I think she’s happy ultimately with how we did this year. And again kudos for her, she had a great career.”