Erica Gribble scored nine of her game-high 25 points in the third quarter to spark Greensburg Central Catholic to a 57-42 victory over Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 3A girls basketball tournament.
The Richmond-bound commit, who has scored more than 2,000 points in her high school career, scored seven straight points in the third quarter after an OLSH run gave the Chargers a momentary one-point lead.
“That turned the game around,” OLSH coach Don Eckerle said after the game. “Our momentum was shot by that seven-point run.”
The loss leaves the sixth-seeded Chargers with an overall record of 18-6, but they remain alive in the WPIAL tournament. They’ll play at 7 p.m. Friday at the Angela Activities Center against Waynesburg Central, which lost to No. 2 seed Beaver Falls, 68-45, Wednesday.
Also falling in Wednesday night’s quarterfinals were eighth-seed Avonworth and fourth-seeded Quaker Valley, which dropped a 57-54 decision to No. 5 seed Seton LaSalle.
The consolation bracket is needed to determine the last two WPIAL qualifiers for the PIAA tournament. The top six finishers in the WPIAL advance to the PIAA tournament.
Eckerle characterized Wednesday night’s clash with No. 3 seed Greensburg Central Catholic as a game of runs, but the Centurions put theirs together at the ends of quarters.
OLSH came out hot in the opening quarter, with Lola Garner scoring nine early points, but Greensburg Central Catholic used a late run to take a 19-14 lead. The Chargers got to within one after a spurt of their own in the second quarter, but the Centurions answered again with a run to lead 34-27 at halftime.
That led to the pivotal third quarter, when OLSH scored the first eight points to take a one-point lead. But Gribble came up with two steals that she turned into layups and added a 3-pointer for good measure to put her team up by six, and the Centurions wound up with a 50-38 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
“That’s why she’s a Division I player,” Eckerle said of Gribble. “She’s one of the top players in the WPIAL.”
Despite the outcome, Eckerle said overall his young team played well.
“We kept a lot of people interested for a long period of time,” he said.
Garner finished with a team-high 19 points for OLSH. Ainsley Jones backed up Gribble with 16 points and Jayla Peterson added 12 for Greensburg Central Catholic.
(This story was updated Thursday, Feb. 19, to add the opponent, location and game time of OLSH’s consolation bracket opponent.)
Be First to Comment