Rick O'Brien: Loss lesson learned for O'Hara girls

The glow of a No. 1 national ranking lasted only a few days.

In the middle of last week, the Cardinal O'Hara girls' basketball players learned they were rated as the top team in the country by the ESPN.com and HoopGurlz.com Web sites.

Then, on Friday, as if all the attention and hype had jinxed coach Linus McGinty's talent-filled squad, the Lions served up a clunker and lost at home to Catholic League rival Archbishop Wood.

The underdog Vikings, playing without the burden of a No. 1 ranking on their shoulders, buried eight three-pointers and shot 18 for 28 from the free-throw line to snap O'Hara's winning streak at 12 games.

Lost, at least for the moment, was the high from a stellar run in the prestigious Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona, which included four hard-earned victories and a championship. Wins on that trip came against national powers Regis Jesuit (Colo.), St. Mary's (Calif.), and Bolingbrook (Ill.).

Did the Lions take Wood for granted? Was the pressure of being at the top too much? No, said Stephanie Holzer, a 6-foot-4 center with dominant low-post abilities.

"The bottom line is that good teams sometimes come out flat," said the Vanderbilt-bound Holzer, who poured in 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds yesterday as the defending Catholic League champions got back on track with a 63-43 nonleague win at Notre Dame Academy. "We had a bad game, and they had a good game."

Against the Vikings, who struggled in a holiday tournament and went into the game with a modest 6-4 record, O'Hara fell by 53-41. It was a rare setback - and a surprisingly low offensive output - in Springfield, Delaware County.

"We didn't come out with our usual defensive intensity," senior point guard Danielle Callahan said. "Still, it was two pretty good Catholic League teams battling it out. When that's the case, pretty much anything can happen."

Said McGinty, who has notched more than 600 coaching victories and is in his 15th year at O'Hara: "Wood played exceptionally well. They had a great game plan. Give them credit."

McGinty said in the preseason that this possibly could be his best O'Hara team. That's a big statement, considering the tradition of success at the school. The Lions twice went 27-1 in the mid-1990s. Last year, en route to another league title, they were 25-2.

Losing to Wood, said senior guard Alicia Manning, "actually may have been a good gut check for us. Winning the Catholic League championship and doing well in states are the main goals."

Ah, the state playoffs. Some already have penciled in O'Hara as the PIAA Class AAAA state titlist. As McGinty and his players learned Friday night, that is something that will have to be earned.

If that's the lesson learned from a disappointing setback, then it's a valuable one for this highly touted and capable group.