Kayla McBride - By Paul Burdick
By Chris Rossetti
STATE COLLEGE – Kayla McBride wasn’t going home from State College without PIAA championship gold.
The Villa Maria senior and Norte Dame recruit scored 17 straight points in the second half and 19 of the Victors final 22 points to help Villa Maria to its second straight PIAA Class AA girl’s championship with a 52-44 win over York Catholic Friday afternoon at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. It was the second straight season the Victors topped the Fighting Irish, who have been in the last five championship games with three wins, for the title.
“Being a captain, being a senior, I just did what I had to do,” McBride said. “I felt like I had to take over, I did and we pulled out the win.”
Thanks to McBride, who scored a game-high 29 points, Villa Maria was able to hold off a furious comeback attempt by York Catholic, which trailed by 20, 22-2, 9:10 into the game but got as close as a point, 45-44, with 2:26 left.
“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Villa Maria head coach Scott Dibble said. “I believe in these kids. I believed in them from the start of the season. I give York a lot of credit. Those kids battled their butts off. They worked hard defensively and downed some threes down the stretch.”
Kady Schramm was a big reason for the Fighting Irish comeback, as the all-state junior guard scored 13 of her team-high 21 points in the contest’s final 10:07.
“Kady Schramm put her team on her back and wasn’t going to let it get away,” Dibble said. “It was a hard fought game on both sides. But I’m pretty excited, pretty pumped that we won our second one.”
York Catholic’s comeback attempt actually started in the first half when the Fighting Irish closed the half with a 15-4 run to get within nine, 26-17, at halftime. Then, after Villa Maria restored the lead to 14 points in the third quarter, York Catholic went on a 23-10 run to get within the point late in the game.
But Villa Maria got two free throws from McBride, her 16th and 17th consecutive points for the Victors with 2:15 to play to start a game-ending 7-0 run that saw all seven points come from the line.
“They are No. 1 in the state for a reason,” York Catholic head coach Kevin Bankos said. “Its tough to overcome such a big deficit.”
McBride completed a double-double with 11 rebounds, while Kaylyn Maruca added eight points and seven assists and Ashley Prischak eight points and four steals.
Brittany Hicks added 13 points and five rebounds for York Catholic.
Despite the loss, York Catholic would seem to be in great position to make a sixth straight trip back to the title game next year. Four of the Fighting Irish’s five starters were underclassmen three sophomores and Schramm, the junior.