West Catholic girls top Archbishop Wood in OT for Catholic League title

Doubt was swirling around the Palestra on Monday evening before the Catholic League girls’ basketball championship game.

Most of that doubt was surrounding West Catholic. After all, the Burrs had not been to the championship game since winning the title in 1998. Meanwhile, it was virtually a home game for Archbishop Wood, since the Vikings had appeared in 11 of the previous 12 title games. And playing in the Palestra is a daunting task under the best of circumstances.

It didn’t matter that West had beaten Wood by 10 points on Feb. 4 to hand the Vikings their only league loss. This was different. This was the championship.

But there was no doubt in the hearts and minds of anyone associated with the Burrs, who got 30 points from junior guard Destiney McPhaul to lead them to a 65-60 overtime win. West Catholic also got 16 points from junior guard Ciani Montgomery, and 15 from senior guard Tamiah Robinson to account for almost all of its scoring.

“It means a lot,” McPhaul said of winning the championship. “At the beginning of the season, everybody was doubting us. We went on a winning streak, nobody believed in us. We started winning, a lot of people doubted.”

There was not a shred of doubt in McPhaul. She came alive in the second half, especially down the stretch. She scored 11 of the Burrs’ 13 points in the last 3 minutes, 40 seconds of regulation and, with the sellout crowd rocking the building, McPhaul calmly drained a pair of free throws with 8.2 seconds left to tie the game, 56-56.

“I knew I was going to make them," she said. "But I was like, ‘I can’t miss.’ It was a lot, but I knocked them down.”

The Vikings (18-7) still had a chance to win in regulation. After a West steal and ensuing turnover, Wood got the ball back with 3.2 seconds. But a shot by sophomore forward Ryanne Allen bounced off the front of the rim.

In overtime, McPhaul set the tone early by draining a no-doubt-about-it three-pointer from NBA range to give the Burrs (15-5) a 59-56 lead.

“It was a big one,” McPhaul said of the shot. “I was feeling it. I knocked it down, we got it. I knew if we sent the game to overtime, it was ours.”

The game wasn’t quite in the bag yet. Free throws by Izzy Larsen (20 points) and Kaitlyn Orihel (23) cut the lead to 59-58 with 1:20 remaining in OT. But McPhaul came through once again with a layup with 1:03 left for a 61-58.

Montgomery iced it with a pair of free throws with 42.9 seconds left, and McPhaul and Robinson offset a layup by Orihel with two free throws to close out the scoring.

McPhaul had a little trouble cutting down the net, but she would like to get another shot at it.

“I want to win another one next year,” McPhaul said. “I want to win one every year.”

No doubt.

West Catholic 19 7 15 15 9 - 65

ArchbishopWood 10 14 13 19 4 - 60

WC: Destiney McPhaul 30, Ciani Montgomery 16, Tamiah Robinson 15, Safara McIntyre 4.

AW: Kaitlyn Orihel 23, Izzy Larsen 20, Bri Bowen 7, Ryanne Allen 5, Noelle Baxter 3, Lindsay Tretter 2.