BETHLEHEM — Joe Gavio is confident that his Hazleton Area team will return.
The Cougars showed many reasons why Gavio could make that statement during the remaining 3½ quarters of their 55-46 PIAA Class 6A girls basketball second-round playoff defeat to Cardinal O’Hara at Liberty High School on Tuesday night.
Against a team with much more experience in both general and state tournament play, the Cougars were essentially on equal footing after a rough start in the first 2:49.
“I was proud of our kids and how hard they played,” Gavio said.
Hazleton Area is known for disrupting opponents with their full-court pressure defense.
However, on Tuesday the Cougars struggled to move the ball up the floor in the beginning.
Six turnovers in less than three minutes to start the game put Hazleton Area in a difficult position that they couldn't quite recover from.
Cardinal O’Hara, who had won state titles in 2021 and 2022, took a 9-1 lead in the first 2:49, with the final six points directly resulting from turnovers.
“We had a rough start,” Gavio said.
Hazleton Area never managed to take the lead again after a 1-0 advantage, but they did come within two points in each of the last three quarters.
A young Cougars team, consisting of two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior, competed evenly with a more experienced team of three senior starters and two NCAA Division I commits, along with another player likely to end up there.
“They won two state championships with that senior group,” Gavio said. “They’re really good. I liked the way we came back. … We were right there.
“I liked the way our kids matured. That’s a very good team.”
The Cougars made the game interesting despite having 20 turnovers compared to their opponents' 9. They initially closed the gap by causing issues with their press, but overall the Cardinal O’Hara backcourt was too skilled for Hazleton Area to get their usual easy baskets from steals.
Instead, they had to work for their shots, which they did well enough to have three players score in double digits.
Freshman Kaitlyn Bindas led with 12 points. Alexis Reimold contributed 11 points, three assists, and three steals. Sophia Shults added 10 points, along with six rebounds, four blocked shots, and three assists.
Sophia Benyo, another freshman, grabbed the most rebounds in the game with 11.
Junior Molly Rullo, an early verbal commit to Drexel, led Archbishop Ryan with 17 points. She scored 10, including two 3-pointers, in a 4:23 span of the fourth quarter after Kayla Lagowy’s layup brought Hazleton Area within two for the last time, 39-37.
La Salle commit Joanie Quinn scored 10 points in the final 6:44 of the half and totaled 13 points, along with three steals. Carly Coleman also scored 13 points.
