SPRINGFIELD, PA – In front of an electric, packed house at the Cardinal O’Hara Gymnasium, Neumann Goretti and Cardinal O’Hara put on a show that was well worth the price of admission as the Saints of Neumann Goretti out muscled the Cardinal O’Hara Lions, 51-37.

It was a battle between two of the PCL’s top teams and defense was the name of the game. Each team played their own brand of physical basketball doing their best to limit the opposing team’s explosive offense.

Neumann Goretti jumped out to the early 7-0 lead, but O’Hara would quickly answer. By going to a press against Neumann Goretti early on, the Lions were able to catch the Saints sleeping and force a couple of early turnovers helping the team to pull within two of the Saints; this would be the closest O’Hara would get to leading throughout the entire game.

While O’Hara’s transition defense was the main thing keeping them in the game, Neumann Goretti’s entire defensive onslaught is what kept O’Hara at arm’s length for the game’s entirety. A normally sharp shooting O’Hara team was held to just one lone three pointer for the entire game. Neumann Goretti was tenacious in covering every shot; making sure not a single Lion was able to make an easy shot on the night.

What had the makings of a tight contest after a 15-13 first quarter quickly got out of hand as Cardinal O’Hara would get out scored 21-9 over the course of the second and third quarters. The final scored probably would have been much uglier had it not been for an impressive 15-point fourth quarter showing from Cardinal O’Hara’s Hannah Nihill, who tied Neumann Goretti’s Ashley Jones for a game high 23 points.

While Neumann Goretti’s defense was incredibly constrictive, missed opportunities also played a big part in O’Hara’s defeat as the team routinely missed their open shots in the limited occasions they presented themselves.

Judging by the stat sheet, player of the game honors would go to Neumann Goretti’s Ashley Jones, who finished with a game high 23 points, an impressive 14 of which came from the foul line. Despite Jones’ big day, Neumann Goretti coach Andrea Peterson felt wrong in calling just one-person player of the game.

“It’s tough to say because all of our kids are player of the game and it’s tough to say because I really stress with these kids that we’ve got to defend and everyday we harp on defending and these kids came out and did exactly what we wanted them to execute. That’s why they’re all players of the game because sometimes at that age it’s tough to get them all, but today they were locked in and did exactly what we wanted them to do,” said Peterson.

After a poor offensive performance, which saw a plethora of missed shot opportunities, Cardinal O’Hara head coach Linus McGinty had one simple request of his girls going forward.

“…just keep shooting,” said McGinty.

While this is a big win for the girls of Neumann Goretti, Andrea Peterson knows that the road a head of them is long and does not get any easier from here on out.

“We leave tomorrow for the hall of fame game, but I told these guys we can’t settle. This game was huge before going onto a huge road trip, but we’ve got to continue this momentum we have. We’re fighting some injuries right now, but the kids who were injured kind of fought through it, they knew this was a big time game and they rose to the occasion for it.” said Peterson.