ST. MARYS, Pa. – There was no heartache for the St. Marys girls this time around, only elation.
Rewatch the game:
After letting a double-digit lead slip away in last season’s Class 4A title game loss to Punxsutawney, the Lady Dutch were able to hold off the Lady Chucks, 51-41 for the 2024 4A crown.
“It feels a lot different this year,” said St. Marys’ Maura Caskey, who had 11 points in the win. “Punxsy is a good team and it was a heck of a game.”
St. Marys (21-5) trailed just once in the game, 4-3 after a Danielle Griebel 3-pointer for Punxsutawney at the 5:03 mark of the first quarter.
The Lady Dutch built a double-digit lead on a bucket from Snelick that made it 21-10 at the 4:35 mark of the second quarter. Caskey hit a 3-pointer and then Snelick scored six-straight points to give St. Marys the 11-point cushion
St. Marys led 32-19 early in the third quarter after a Snelick basket, but Punxsutawney, like they have in both previous meetings this season, had a run in them.
A Danielle Griebel 3-pointer late in the third quarter brought the Lady Chucks back to within four, 35-31.
Caskey’s 3-point play extended the lead back to seven, 38-31 with 7:19 to play, but again, the Lady Chucks (19-4) didn’t go away.
A Griebel 3-pointer cut the lead to two, 43-41 with 3:20 to play, but St. Marys closed the game on a 8-0 run, with Snelick scoring four of those points.
“I think we’ve had a great year so far,” said St. Marys coach Zane Adiyeh. “We’ve played ECC three times, we’ve played Punxsy twice coming into this, DCC twice, Ridgway’s really good this year. We’ve won most of them and a lot of them were close like this. We’re good at the end of games. A lot of teams get nervous at the end of the game, but we’re pretty good at having a single digit lead going into the fourth quarter and I think that prepared us for today.”
The double-digit leads against the Lady Chucks was nothing new, as the Lady Dutch did that twice in the regular season, ultimately splitting the regular season series.
Allegheny Grille of Foxburg Player of the Game Jayssa Snelick.
“The last two games we’ve played, it was 58-51 and 58-53 and both times we were up by 14 and 17 at halftime and both times they came back,” Adiyeh said. “They’re a very good team, a very good shooting team. They’re great defensively and good at putting pressure on. We were able to build a lead and we did a good job dealing with it in the second half.”
Snelick led St. Marys with 20 points in addition to Caskey’s 11, Molly Hanslovan had eight and Alexa Schneider and Taylor Gornati seven each.
“We couldn’t give up,” Schneider said. “We had to keep fighting and keep going and that’s what we did.”
Griebel finished with a game-high 23 points for Punxsutawney.
“She’s been our leader on the court,” said Punxsutawney coach Mike Carlson. “She can hit those deep 3’s and get that zone extended when were not hitting much else. Last game for her, it’s tough to lose a point guard like that.”
Snelick: We grew as the year went on as players We had younger girls playing with us and at practice we worked together as one solid team, fixing our mistakes when we made them.
For St. Marys, it’s on to the PIAA Class 4A tournament, where they will face the No. 5 team from the WPIAL (TBD) on Saturday, March 9.
“It feels great,” Snelick said. “We knew what we had to do. When we were getting sloppy, we brought the energy back towards our teammates and worked really hard and communicated really well and it feels amazing.”
