MONROEVILLE, Pa. – Kennedy Catholic had a pretty simple offensive game plan for its PIAA Class 2A girls’ quarterfinal matchup with Bishop McCort on Friday, March 15, at Gateway High School in Monroeville.
Get the ball to Layke Fields and let the 6-foot junior do her thing.
Fields hit her first seven shots, 11 of her first 12, and finished the game 13 of 17 en route to a game-high 28 points, as the Golden Eagles advanced to the PIAA semifinals for the third straight season – and for the second time in a row in Class 2A – with a 60-35 Mercy Rule win over the Crushers.
“She’s unstoppable,” Kennedy Catholic head coach Justin Magestro said. “And, just as important, our guards get her the ball. As far as I am concerned. We have some of the best passing guards in to the post in the entire state, and (Layke) plays off our guards. Our coaching staff has done a great job working with her footwork, her hands, her positioning. We move her away from the basket sometimes. We have done a lot since last year to try to develop her game.”
Fields knew she was going to be called on early and often against a Bishop McCort team she scored 30 on in last year’s quarterfinals, a 60-48 Kennedy Catholic win.
“It feels amazing knowing I am coming through for my team,” Fields said. “My coach told me in practice yesterday that I was going to be big in this game because I had 30 against them last year. I had 28 this year. I knew I had to come in and play my hardest to go to the Final Four.”
It wasn’t like Bishop McCort (26-3), the third-place team out of District 6, didn’t know Fields was going to play a key role.
The Crushers started out by double-teaming and triple-teaming Fields.
But all that did was open up the outside for Monique Vincent, who drained five more 3-pointers giving her 10 in her last two games. She finished with 19 points.
“That’s huge,” Magestro said. “When we execute our sets, you have to pick what you want to do (on defense). You either want to double Layke and leave Mo wide open or you want to leave Layke one-on-one and cover Mo. We just know as a team we have seen a lot of this all year around. We’ve seen double teams, triple teams, teams playing straight-up zones. Our coaching staff takes a lot of time preparing for all the different things. When you have a weapon like Layke and you have a shooter like Mo, you have a lot of different options. And, we have girls who can pass the ball as well.”
Fields acknowledged that Vincent’s hot hand helped open up things for her.
“It really did,” Fields said. “I love the way she is shooting right now. It takes the double team away from me. They would take someone off somebody else to come guard me. Now they can’t do that because my guards are hitting outside shots. I love it.”
While the offensive end was about Fields and Vincent, the game was truly won on the defensive end.
Kennedy Catholic (23-4), the D10 champion, limited Bishop McCort to its lowest point output in 36 games while limiting the Crushers to 26.7% from the field (12 of 45) their lowest mark of the season. Bishop McCort entered the game averaging 64.4 ppg while shooting 34% from the field.
“I thought our defense was absolutely phenomenal,” Magestro said. “I really respect Bishop McCort, their coaches, their players. They are very, very good. To hold a team to 18 points in the first half and 17 in the second half. My hats go off to our defense. That is what we preach. If we can be consistent defensively every night, we have enough scoring power to put ourselves in a position to be very good.”
After falling behind 7-5 midway through the first quarter, Kennedy Catholic basically owned the rest of the game.
A 16-0 run by the Golden Eagles that included seven points from Fields and six from Vincent opened up a 14-point lead, 21-7, 1:16 into the second half.
Bishop McCort answered with a quick 6-0 spurt to get within eight, 21-13.
But Kennedy Catholic finished the first half with a 14-5 run that included eight more points from Fields to take a commanding 35-18 halftime lead.
The Golden Eagles then did the unthinkable – at least to the outside observer – of putting the game into the 30-point running-clock Mercy Rule in the third quarter when they opened the quarter on a 15-2 run while limiting Bishop McCort to one field goal in the quart, a basket by Cami Beppler with 7.7 seconds left in the frame.
Fields said she could easily imagine what happened happening.
“Yes,” Fields said. “Because we just get better every year. Knowing we have the same people. And next year, it is going to be worse because we have the same people again. It is just feeling good knowing we are this good, and we can get another state championship.”
Another state title is still two wins away, and the Golden Eagles will have to go through a familiar foe that has circled the semifinal game on the calender for an entire year – Greensburg Central Catholic.
The WPIAL champions, after a slow start, beat District 5 champion Everett, 56-26.
Last season, Kennedy Catholic beat Greensburg Central Catholic, 56-44, on its way to the PIAA title.
“Just play defense,” Magestro said when asked what it would take to make a third straight trip to Hershey (the Golden Eagles lost in the 1A title game in 2022). “Just continue our defense. That’s all we preach. We preach defense. We feel if we can defend some nights the hoop looks really big offensively and the ball goes in. Sometimes it doesn’t. But, if you can consistently play great defense, you have an opportunity to be in every game. I think that is what we have been doing. That’s what we are going to focus on. One game at a time. We are 0-0, and we have one more game I care about. That is going to be on Monday.”
Monday’s semifinal contest will be at a site and time to be determined with the winner meeting the winner of the Marion Center vs. Minersville game for the state title at noon Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
NOTES: Fields finished off another double-double, her 21st of the season and the 43rd of her career … Kennedy Catholic shot 55.8% (24 of 43) and somewhat cleaned up the turnovers that plagued it in the second-round win over Portage turning the ball over 13 items, including just eight from the second quarter on … The Golden Eagles’ defense was so good that it limited Bishop McCort’s leading scorer, Gianna Gallucci, who entered the game averaging 21.3 ppg, to eight tallies, her second-lowest output of the season …. Cami Beppler led the Crushers with 10 points … There was some confusion over the final score. The main scoreboard said 34 but the books all showed 35. The discrepancy came in Beppler’s point totals. On the auxiliary scoreboard that tracked individual points, she had 10, which is what the books had her for as well. Expect for one book, which had her for nine. The difference was a made free throw by Beppler with under a minute to play in the third quarter and Kennedy Catholic up 50-20. She hit the first one and missed the second but the book nearest the scoreboard operator at her missing the first. After a lengthy discussion among media members and a review of the NFHS video of the game, Bepler hit the first of two shots.
KENNEDY CATHOLIC 60, BISHOP MCCORT 35
Score by Quarters
Kennedy Catholic 13 22 16 9 – 60
Bishop McCort 7 11 5 12 – 35
KENNEDY CATHOLIC – 60
Madison Pfleger 0 1-2 1, Monqiue Vincent 6 2-2 19. Bella Magestro 2 1-3 5, Layke Fields 13 2-3 28, Lochlyn Shimrock 1 0-0 2, Sophia Gorgasz 0 0-0 0, Tierney Scullin 0 0-0 0, Allison Perry 0 0-0 0, Akira Cameron 0 0-0 0, Tori Harvey 2 1-1 5, Clarissa Conner 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 7-11 60.
BISHOP MCCORT – 35
Karalyn Bailey 1 0-1 2, Emma Preuss 1 0-0 3, Gianna Gallucci 2 4-4 8, Reese Bair 0 0-0 0, Belle Toth 0 0-0 0, Ava Zucco 1 0-0 2, Cami Beppler 3 3-10 10, Zoey Ferguson 2 0-0 4, Kalina Bailey 2 0-0 6, Elle Berkeibile 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 7-15 35.
Three-pointers: Kennedy Catholic 5 (Vincent 5). Bishop McCort 4 (Bailey 2, Beppler 1, Preuss).
