WPIAL Class 3A girls basketball championship: Avonworth uses its stingy defense to stifle Laurel and win its seventh title

Avonworth hung its hat on its suffocating defense all season long.

Another stifling performance Friday saw the Antelopes end the day with gold medals hanging around their necks.

It was a golden afternoon for Avonworth, which combined terrific defense with a strong offensive effort in the paint to defeat Laurel, 48-40, in the WPIAL Class 3A girls basketball championship at Petersen Events Center.

Avonworth (19-5), the No. 4 seed, became only the eighth girls team to win seven WPIAL titles by capturing its first championship since 2018. Second-seeded Laurel (23-3) was aiming to win its first title.

“It feels crazy, honestly,” said sophomore Greta O’Brien, whose team notched their 12th win in a row. “We’ve been working really hard for it. It’s really exciting.”

Laurel, which saw its eight-game win streak snapped, has been outstanding offensively this season. The Spartans came into the game averaging 53.4 points and had averaged 58.3 in three playoff wins. But against Avonworth and its matchup zone, the Spartans were limited to 12-of-44 shooting (27%), committed 18 turnovers, and their 40 points tied for their fewest this season. Avonworth was giving up 35 points a game this season, and just 30 in its first three playoff games.

“They were very aggressive,” Laurel coach Jim Marcantino said. “The matchup zone affected us a lot. We did a good job in spurts moving it, but we had trouble with the matchup zone, and I think that really affected us. We had trouble rebounding the ball, but in the second half we did a much better job.”

After Avonworth led by seven points at the half, the third quarter was a back-and-forth affair. O’Brien’s layup with 13 seconds left gave Avonworth a 29-28 lead heading to the fourth. And then the Antelopes made their biggest surge of the game, scoring the first 10 points of the fourth to take a 39-28 advantage with 4:32 left. Laurel finally found the scoreboard again courtesy of consecutive 3-pointers from Kendra Ruperto and Tori Atkins that trimmed the Avonworth lead to 39-34, but the Spartans then went cold and made only one field goal the rest of the game.

“I think we thought we had a little momentum there, and then we turned the ball over a couple of more times and I think we got in our heads again,” Atkins said. “Every time it seemed like we would get momentum, it would get taken back from us, either from turnovers or they would make a good offensive shot.”

Avonworth was actually at a size disadvantage in the game, but you wouldn’t have known that considering how effective the Antelopes were in the paint. Avonworth didn’t make a 3-pointer — it finished 0 of 4 from beyond the arc — but the Antelopes did hold a huge 28-12 edge in points in the paint (including 20-4 in the first half) and also a 38-37 rebounding advantage. They were 16 of 46 from the field (34%).

“They had size, but none of them are really true posts that dominated inside, so we knew that would be a focal point of our offense,” Avonworth senior Rebecca Goetz said.

Goetz, a 6-foot forward and Avonworth’s tallest player, finished with a team-high 13 points and nine rebounds. O’Brien chipped in 10 points and seven rebounds.

Johnna Hill paced Laurel with 16 points and was the only Spartans player to finish in double figures. Regan Atkins, the team’s leading scorer this season, finished with eight points. Hill and Atkins were a combined 7 of 30 from the field and 3 of 15 from 3-point range.

When Nick Dizon took over as Avonworth’s coach before the season, he quickly was introduced to the style of play the Antelopes prefer to play. They executed that game plan Friday and it resulted in a WPIAL title.

“That’s one thing I noticed right away that they took pride in defense,” Dizon said. “If you play defense you have a chance to win every game.”