Holy Cross rolls past Bishop McDevitt in PIAA Class 2A opener
The Lancers turned the ball over 13 times in the first quarter and allowed 33 points in the opening period which led to a convincing 68-25 victory for District 2 runner-up Holy Cross, at Archbishop Wood.
There was no sugar coating it. It was a tough night for Bishop McDevitt on Friday in the opening round of the PIAA Class 2A girls’ basketball tournament.
The Lancers turned the ball over 13 times in the first quarter while allowing 33 points, leading to a convincing 68-25 victory for District 2 runner-up Holy Cross, in a game at Archbishop Wood High School.
No matter what defense McDevitt (11-14) threw at the Crusaders (17-9), they had no answer for sophomore forward Kaci Kranson, who scored 16 of her game-high 28 points in the first quarter.
Kranson notched a pair of foul shots and a layup during Holy Cross’ 11-0 run to open the game, then keyed a 17-0 scoring run with a follow shot, a three-pointer from the left of the key and a pair of free throws to give the Crusaders a 30-7 lead.
“She was good,” Lancers coach Dan Greenberg said. “She’s very fundamental. I’ve got to give their coach a lot of credit, too. His team was well disciplined. They really didn’t even play with emotion. They just played basketball. They were a machine.”
The machine slowed down a bit in the second quarter, but kept right on rolling. Kranson scored six more points in the quarter and had 22 markers at halftime.
Holy Cross’ defense was equally as impressive in the first half. McDevitt, the District 12 runner-up, could not break the press in the first quarter, then couldn’t find its shooting range against the man-to-man in the second quarter. The Lancers converted just 2 of 12 shots in the second quarter and fell behind, 46-12.
A three-pointer by Kranson with 5 minutes, 59 seconds left in the third quarter gave the Crusaders a 56-14 lead and put the mercy rule into effect. The clock ran the rest of the game and time ran out on McDevitt.
Amiyah Dixon scored 12 points and Caroline Cunnane added 9 for the Lancers. They are the only seniors on a very young team.
“I really feel bad because they had to do everything this year,” Greenberg said of his seniors. “They had to rebound, they had to bring the ball up the floor, they’re two of our best passers. They didn’t complain.”
Holy Cross 33 13 17 5 - 68
Bishop McDevitt 7 5 6 7 - 25
HC: Kaci Kranson 28, Abbey Lentowski 16, Emily Ferguson 7, Caitlyn Bestrycki 6, Molly White 4, Julia Goetz 2, Ashley Capone 2, Morgan Quinn 2, Meghan McDonnell 1.
BM: Amiyah Dixon 12, Caroline Cunnane 9, Morgan Harris 2, Sianii Posey 1, Emma Obfenda 1.