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Carroll girls easily win AAAA crown

STATE COLLEGE - For the first time in four years, there's a new queen of PIAA Class AAAA girls' basketball.

The Archbishop Carroll girls' basketball team won its first PIAA title since 2009. (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)
The Archbishop Carroll girls' basketball team won its first PIAA title since 2009. (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)Read more

STATE COLLEGE - For the first time in four years, there's a new queen of PIAA Class AAAA girls' basketball.

Rebounding from a one-point loss in 2011 to a Mount Lebanon team that had won each state title since 2008, Archbishop Carroll downed Oakland Catholic, 56-37, to win the AAAA championship Friday night at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center.

"I told them before the game, I felt we beat ourselves last year, and this year, we didn't beat ourselves," Patriots coach Chuck Creighton said. "I told them we're going to go out and play our game.

"The fact that they lost last year certainly helped us. Because they knew that feeling. So they could kind of start the game with that sour taste in their mouth."

After falling behind, 9-6, midway through the first quarter, the District 12-champion Patriots (29-2) controlled nearly every facet of the game against the District 7 runner-up Eagles (28-3). The Patriots went on an 18-4 run to close the first half, taking an 11-point lead into the locker room. They shot 52.9 percent from the field for the game, compared to 27.3 percent for the Eagles.

"They've been incredible," Creighton said. "They came in with an incredible senior class, and they're going out with an incredible senior class. I couldn't be more proud of them."

The Patriots outscored the Eagles by 32-24 in the second half, limiting them to 2 for 11 on three-point attempts.

Patriots senior guard Rachel Pearson finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, going 3 for 5 from three-point range. Junior forward Sarah Curran added 16 points and seven rebounds.

Senior guard Meghan Creighton, daughter of the coach, had 10 points, four assists, and seven rebounds in her final high school game. She and Pearson will continue their basketball careers at Drexel next season, with Curran planning to join the following season. Creighton and Pearson were teammates on the 2009 Patriots team that won the Class AAA state title against Lampeter-Strasburg.

Coaching his daughter for the final time as a high school coach, Chuck Creighton said there was no better way to end his daughter's high school career than with a state title. She began that career with a championship in 2009, and she finishes with one.

"Five years ago when I first started coaching Carroll, I didn't even know Meghan would go to Carroll, but the fact that she did, there's no way that you could write a script like that," Chuck Creighton said.

In their first appearance in the state final since 2005, the Eagles were outrebounded, 31-24, and turned the ball over 14 times. Senior guard Bobbi Baker was the team's leading scorer with 13 points, going 4 for 15 from the field.

Archbishop Carroll   14 10 14 18 – 56

Oakland Catholic   9 4 11 13 – 37

AC: Shannon Shields 2, Meghan Creighton 10, Rachel Pearson 14, Keara McNulty 2, Sarah Curran 16, Olivia DeRogatis 8, Kerri Hunt 2, Kristie Costantino 1, Ann McKnight 1.

OC: Bobbi Baker 13, Rachel Vigliotti 11, Iffie Uwazie 4, Corey Taglianetti 3, Jess Mrdjenovich 3, Nicole Johnson 3.