Malia Tate-DeFreitas and her Steel-High teammates likely earned an assist Saturday afternoon without stepping on the court. Because once Tri-Valley slayed the two-time defending Class A champions, nothing would stop the growling Bulldogs from claiming their first.
Dynamic 5-7 point guard Juli Weber shared game-high honors with 6-4 teammate Tara Nahodil Saturday as the District 11 champions concluded a magical girls' basketball campaign with a 59-42 championship victory over Vincentian Academy.
In a battle marked by speed and Tri-Valley's unrelenting pursuit of glory, a show-stopping 23-4 run covering most of the third and fourth periods cleared the final hurdle. Gritty forward Taylor Troutman added 12 points and six rebounds in the entertaining finale in Hershey.
“It means everything to us seniors. It's everything we worked for since sixth-grade, our whole entire team,” said Weber, undeniably the heart and soul of Bob Felty's championship crew.
“Oh my god, our whole town had signs outside of everyone's house. They painted our bus and were out wishing us luck before we left. Everybody was involved. It was a great win for us and our community.”
VIDEO: TRI-VALLEY'S GOLD MEDAL CEREMONY
While Vincentian brought a similar style, and established talent of its own, to Giant Center, the Royals extended 3-2 zone was doing a bang-up job defending Nahodil for the first 16 minutes.
But despite some early-game jitters, the Dawgs were able to lean on Weber and use key assists by Kylie Spickler (5 assists) and Troutman (3) to steal a 25-24 halftime lead.
That was with Nahodil, who nailed the game-winning shot against the Rollers in the quarterfinals, idling at a single field goal. And after Tri-Valley connected on just 5-for-12 attempts from the line in the second period. One small adjustment, however, made all the difference in the second half.
Combating the stout work by Vincentian forward Brenna Wise (18 points, 18 rebounds) and sharpshooter Abbey Bartoszewicz (10 points), Tri-Valley stayed patience and finally punched through.
Clinging to a 33-31 lead with 3:26 left in the third, Nahodil's bucket and Weber's deuce off a steal ignited a 12-0 sprint to the fourth. Nahodil, the Seton Hall recruit, totaled 10 in that period alone.
“We wanted to try and establish Tara because we felt we could get her on ball reversal. And we executed perfectly in the second half,” Felty said.
“I couldn't be prouder, but I've been saying this all along. Every girl that I've ever coached at Tri-Valley has worked at a state-championship level, so this game was sort of for all of them, too. This team was just a little more talented than the other teams I've coached.”
No kidding.
The flood gates stayed open early in the fourth as Weber's 18-foot jumper counter Kiersten Elliott's leaner. Nahodil added seven more points during another 12-0 run that buried Vincentian in a 56-33 hole with 4:48 left.
“Everything we do involves Tara. We're going to get to her at some point,” Weber added. “No one can shut her out. She's a dominant player. Once we established her we knew we were going to win.”
After shooting 32-percent in the opening half, the Royals only managed a 7-for-27 effort from the field in the final 16 minutes. With Tri-Valley maxing out its defensive pressure, it was hardly enough for the young WPIAL champs.
VIDEO: TRI-VALLEY SENIOR POINT GUARD JULI WEBER
VIDEO: TRI-VALLEY COACH BOB FELTY
VIDEO: FORWARD TAYLOR TROUTMAN ON WINNING GOLD MEDAL
“The second half, I think is where their experience kicked in, and they kind of took advantage of us a little bit,” Vincentian head coach Ron Moncrief said. The Royals count just one senior, Bartoszewicz, among its top seven players.
“To their credit, they kept pouring it on us. I thought we did a good job of limiting the big girls in the first half, bur [Weber] did a great job of penetrating and just took over.”
Weber added nine rebounds and Nahodil eight for Tri-Valley, a whopping 13 of 18 from the field in the second half. The Dawgs banked 24 points off 22 Vincentian turnovers.
“Everything just fell into place. My teammates Juli and Tara came up big for us,” Troutman said. “It was so emotional. We needed to just calm down, relax and get the nerves out. It was amazing.”
VIDEO: VINCENTIAN SKIPPER RON MONCRIEF
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