CRANBERRY TWP, Pa. – Kennedy Catholic knows that in order to be the best, it has to beat the best.
Also see: Jan. 24 Girls Recaps • Jan. 24 Boys Recaps • Live Game File of Kennedy over North Catholic
That is why the defending PIAA Class 2A champion Golden Eagles schedule a brutal non-region schedule.
And more often than not they end up delivering, even in the face of adversity.
That was the case again Wednesday night.
Despite playing on the road against the defending WPIAL Class 4A champion and PIAA Class 4 semifinalist. Despite foul trouble. Despite North Catholic doing its best to take away Layke Fields. Kennedy Catholic found a way to win, 52-42.
“Our culture, our motto at Kennedy Catholic for our girls’ basketball program in order to be the best, you have to beat the best,” Kennedy Catholic head coach Justin Magestro said. “North Catholic, Blackhawk, Norwin, the list goes on of all of our eight non-region games, they are the best. We play them because we know we will get better. Every one of those games are like playoff games.”
Wednesday night was definitely like a playoff game. A playoff game where it seemed neither team was going to give an inch.
And neither did.
But the Golden Eagles (10-3) got strong guard play and used tenacious defense to hold the Trojans (10-5) to 12 points less than their season average of 54 points per game.
“We only concentrate on defense,” Bella Magestro, Justin’s daughter and one of the star guards for Kennedy Catholic, said. “Even if our offense is working, we are going to pressure on defense and we are going to have that pick it up.”
North Catholic, coached by one of the top girls’ coaches in the state in Molly Rottmann, had a game plan to slow down the Golden Eagle offense by slowing down Fields, Kennedy’s star junior center.
The Trojans constantly put two players on Fields and sometimes brought a third over or down for help.
“The first half, they are triple-teaming Layke,” Justin Magestro said. “We try to run everything through her. Ninety percent of the time, she is our first option. But we couldn’t get her the ball because they were triple-teaming her and double-teaming her.”
Fields was held to two first-half points, both from the free-throw line yet Kennedy Catholic still led, 19-17, at the break thanks to eight points from Tori Harvey and seven from Bella Magestro.
Then, early in the second half, the Golden Eagles got Fields going a little bit as she scored the first six points of the half for Kennedy Catholic after a 3-pointer by North Catholic’s Alayna Rocco, a Harvard commit, had given the Trojans a bried 20-19 lead.
“The message at halftime was we had to find the open man that was doubling on Layke, and that girl had to make the shot or we needed to get ball reversal to the opposite side, let Layke repost, and try to get it into her.”
With so much time being spent by North Catholic worrying about Fields, it also opened thing up for the Kennedy Catholic guards.
After the strong first-half performances by Harvey and Bella Magestro, it was Monique Vincent’s turn in the second half, as she scored all 13 of her points after halftime, including a pull-up jumper just beyond the foul line at the end of the third quarter that put the Golden Eagles ahead by eight, 33-25, going to the fourth quarter.
“When our other guards make shots, they can’t double (Layke) or triple her,” Justin Magestro said. “When you have players like Mo, Bella, Tori, every kid at some point during the game stepped up and did something really big and really important.”
North Catholic, though, wasn’t going away without a fight.
Brady Wehner nailed a 3-pointer 16 seconds into the quarter and then hit another triple with 4:38 to play while scoring eight of her 13 points during the first 3 ½ minutes of the frame to cut the Kennedy Catholic lead to four, 39-35.
After Fields scored to make it 41-35, Rocco drained another 3-pointer, one of three for her on the night, to make it 41-38.
But Madison Pfleger, a player the Golden Eagles have had to have step up this year after playing sparingly during the state title run, knocked down a jumper with 1:43 to go to make it 43-38 starting an 11-2 run that put the game away.
“People had to step up,” Bella Magestro said. “No. 0 (Pleger) had some 15-footers. Now they know, they have to guard her.”
Watch Bella Magestro’s full Cole Orthondoctic Associates Postgame Interview
Despite all of the attention on her, Fields still had a double-double with 12 points and 17 rebounds. This despite playing with two fouls most of the first half.
“She played through it,” Justin Magestro said. “She still worked hard. I think she had 10 offensive rebounds (eight unofficially).”
Harvey also had 12 points for Kennedy Catholoci with Bella Magestro adding nine and Pfleger six.
Rocco had 20 points for North Catholic with Wehner adding 13.
“The only thing I wasn’t happy about was our foul shots,” Justin Magestro said. “We have to do a better job.”
Kennedy Catholic was just 12 of 21 from the line, although the Golden Eagles did go 7 of 10 in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.
The Golden Eagles return to Region 1 play Thursday at Reynolds, a team they beat 76-8 Dec. 14.
North Catholic hosts Derry Thursday.
KENNEDY CATHOLIC 52, NORTH CATHOLIC 42
Score by Quarters
Kennedy Catholic 13 6 14 19 – 52
North Catholic 7 10 8 17 – 42
Kennedy Catholic – 52
Pfleger 3 0-0 6, Vincent 3 6-8 13, Magestro 3 2-4 9, Fields 4 4-8 12, Shimrock 0 0-0 0, Harvey 5 0-1 12. Totals 18 12-21 52.
North Catholic – 42
Larson 0 0-0 0, Wehner 5 0-0 13, Rocco 7 3-3 20, Loughery 2 1-2 5, Reitz 1 0-0 2, Mihm 0 0-0 0, Shoemaker 0 2-2 2. Totals 15 6-7 42.
3-pointers: Kennedy Catholic 4 (Harvey 2, Vincent, Magestro). North Catholic 6 (Wehner 3, Rocco 3).
