Archbishop Wood gets coach, team honors

At the beginning of the season, Archbishop Wood coach Jim Ricci acknowledged that his team might be under a little pressure to repeat as PIAA Class AAA girls' basketball champion, with 14 of the 15 players from that title team back.

Winning the state title again helped the Vikings earn the designation of The Inquirer's team of the year and Ricci as coach of the year.

The Vikings also won the Catholic League championship by beating Archbishop Carroll and the District 12 Class AAA crown and finished with a 27-4 record.

Surprise team. Villa Joseph Marie wasn't even on the radar screen at the beginning of the season. The Jems struggled just to keep their heads above water playing in the very competitive Athletic Association of Catholic Academies.

No one was surprised when the Jems had a 7-10 record near the end of January. The surprise came when they went on to win 10 of their last 13 games.

They almost made it 11 when they pushed Mercyhurst Prep for three quarters before falling, 58-46, in the PIAA Class AAA semifinals. Mercyhurst went on to lose the state final to Archbishop Wood.

Biggest upset. Boyertown, which was somewhat of a surprise team, too, this season, gets the nod for its 42-41 victory over Mount St. Joseph in the PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinals.

The Mount, having moved up to AAAA this season, had won the District 1 championship and appeared to have a good chance to make it at least to the state semifinals.

But the Bears, under second-year coach Jason Bieber, had other ideas.

"This has been a heckuva season," said Bieber, whose club finished with a 25-5 record after losing to Archbishop Carroll in the semifinals.

The Bears never got to the state playoffs last season. They were eliminated in the district tournament.

Mary Jo Horgan, Mount St. Joseph's standout guard and The Inquirer's player of the year, described the shocking loss as one in which "we made a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes."