GIRLS BASKETBALL: Lansdale Catholic uses fast start, defense to roll past Oakland Catholic in PIAA-4A quarterfinals

MOORE TWP. – It started on defense, the Lansdale Catholic girls basketball team constantly frustrating Oakland Catholic into empty possessions and turnovers early in their PIAA-4A quarterfinals Saturday afternoon.

“We always had good defense but we never recognized how good our length was so once we just got our hands out and stayed in help,” LC senior guard Sanyiah Littlejohn said. “We started to force a lot of turnovers and get out in transition.”

A basket from Littlejohn followed by a 3-pointer by Nadia Yemola. Littlejohn scored the next five before Allie Esposito gave Lansdale Catholic the contest’s first 11 points before the Eagles final broke through on Alayla Bivins’ short jumper.

But that was as close as the Crusaders let Oakland Catholic get.

An Esposito bucket off an offensive put then a Littlejohn three made it 16-2 and LC kept its advantage in double digits the rest of the first half. Lansdale Catholic led 31-16 at the break, opened the third quarter with the first seven points and pulled away further from there, rolled into the semifinals with a 63-29 victory over the District 7 champs at West Branch High School.

“To think that we could mercy rule a team that talented, it came back to be very simple, we preached all year about playing 32 minutes and they kept reminding themselves 32 minutes, 32 minutes,” said Lonergan, in his first season at LC. “That was the first thing Sanyiah said at halftime, it’s zero-zero let’s go out there and get ‘em. We reminded them at halftime, first four minutes let’s open it up, let’s not let them come back in.”

Littlejohn was superb all over the court as Lansdale Catholic (22-5) reached the state semis for the third time in the past four season – the George Mason commit coming up steals, providing quality passes on the break and getting a few tough finishes on drives to fall in scoring a game-high points 22 points.

“I just try to control the pace of the game, get my team, not only myself, open shots, open looks, just try to get my team their shots too,” said Littlejohn, who scored 13 points in the first half. “But again, it was just a defensive effort. If I didn’t have them on the defensive side, I myself wouldn’t have created those turnovers and got those open looks that I got.”

Esposito, who started with sophomore Ali Kaltenbacher unavailable Saturday, added nine of her 15 points in the opening half. Yemola, meanwhile, connected on a pair of 3-pointers in contributing 10 points.

“(Esposito) got the glass covered, that was her words,” Lonergan said. “She got the glass covered for us cause she know that’s one of the big things Ali K brings to this team is both the defensive and offensive glass. We doubled them on the offensive glass without our best offensive rebounder and that’s because Grace (McDonough), Allie E. really picked it up on the offensive rebounding.

The Crusaders advance to face District 7-3 North Catholic – which beat District 7-2 Blackhawk 51-44 – in the semifinals Saturday, March 22 at site and time to be announced. Winner meets either Neumann-Goretti or Audenried in the state 4A final on Saturday, March 29 at Giant Center in Hershey.

“It’s really big for us but we’re not satisfied yet,” Littlejohn said. “We didn’t come this far to just win today and lose Saturday so we just want to keep the winning streak and make it to Hershey.”

Lansdale Catholic reached the PIAA 4A final in both 2022 and 2023 – losing to Archbishop Wood its first trip before topping Blackhawk the next season for the program’s first state championship.

“I think that those past years when we had Gabby (Casey) and Jada (Helm) I was just trying to find my identity, trying to find my role in the team,” Littlejohn said. “But now that we’re seniors and we have to step up, we just want to make a statement. We want to leave our mark on LC, just get one more state win, just go into college ending off with a good season.”

LC held Oakland Catholic (25-4) to its lowest point total of the season after the Eagles posted 80 in their first-round win over Slippery Rock then had 75 in beating Elizabeth Forward in the second round.

Bivins paced Oakland Catholic with 11 points.

“The dribble drive was our number one thing we wanted to stop,” Lonergan said. “And the different stuff that we threw at them was designed to try to keep that from happening and I thought we did a tremendous job cause if you watch this team play, this team gets in that paint. And if you looked at our shot chart, we were the one that had the paint and that was a huge difference in that game is the few points that we gave up inside that green area.”

Instead of making the three-hour-plus drive to West Branch Saturday, Lansdale Catholic came out to the area Friday night, a decision Lonergan credited to LC athletic director BJ Hogan.

The absence of road weary could have been a reason the Crusaders got off the strong start, collecting the first 11 points – six from Littlejohn – and ending the first quarter up 16-4.

“We haven’t played a four-quarter game yet, we haven’t played a full 32 minutes so I think today we well-executed that 32-minute gameplay,” Littlejohn said. “And we just started out every quarter, looking at the score being zero-zero so I think we actually executed a 32-minute game.”

A London Creach basket to open the second quarter’s scoring made it 16-6 but LC responded with a 7-2 burst to go up 25-8 after an Esposito 3-pointer followed by a Littlejohn bucket.

Oakland Catholic recorded the next five to pull with 25-13, however Lansdale Catholic pushed the margin to 17 when a McDonough jumper made it 31-14. A basket by the Eagles’ Zephaniah Troxler-Scott in the final seconds cut LC’s lead to 31-16 at halftime.

The Crusaders proceeded to extend their advantage to 22 with seven straight points out of the break – baskets from Littlejohn and Esposito, a free throw from Littlejohn then Littlejohn hitting a jumper in the lane to put LC’s lead at 38-16.

“They had to be concerned about (Littlejohn) just like we were concerned about several players on their side of the floor,” Lonergan said. “The only difference is, all I have to tell you is there’s only so much you can do because if you’re too tight, well Nadia’s going to knock down a three over there, Allie E’s going to knock down a three over there and Aubrey (Mobley)’s just as aggressive off the drive as Sanyiah is.

“And then if you help off the big, you got Grace that’s going to finish and can also step and hit that 10-foot jump shot if we need it to open it up.”

Oakland Catholic got the deficit down to 19 twice, the last time at 41-22 before the Crusaders scored five straight to go up 46-22 after a Yemola basket. LC capped the third with another 5-0 burst – a Yemola 3-pointer then a Mobley transition two putting the Crusaders ahead 51-26.

LC enacted the running clock after Yemola scored inside off a pass from McDonough to make it 57-26.

Lansdale Catholic 63, Oakland Catholic 29

Oakland Catholic 4 12 10 3 – 29

Lansdale Catholic 16 15 20 12 – 63

Oakland Catholic: Alayla Bivins 3 1 2-4 11; London Creach 4 0 0-0 8; Madi Pullen 2 0 0-0 4; Savanna Daye 0 0 2-2 2; Josie Fontana 1 0 0-0 2; Zephaniah Troxler-Scott 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 11 1 4-6 29.

Lansdale Catholic: Sanyiah Littlejohn 8 1 3-4 22; Nadia Yemola 2 2 0-0 10; Allie Esposito 6 1 0-0 15; Grace McDonough 3 0 2-4 8; Aubrey Mobley 3 0 0-0 6; Kaitlyn Jacoby 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 23 4 5-8 63.