Carroll's Girls Fall Just Short In Catholic Finals

The place and the atmosphere was a familiar one for the and Archbishop Wood girls’ basketball teams. It was another Monday night. At the Palestra, one of fabled basketball cathedrals in the country. It was a place and a game that Carroll had grown so accustomed to winning—especially when it came against Wood.

The Patriots had beaten Wood all three times the two teams met in the Philadelphia Catholic League girls’ championship—and it usually came with some comfort room to spare. The Pats had no such luxury this Monday night at the University of Pennsylvania’s Palestra. Wood and Carroll exchanged leads 16 times, and it came down to the final three seconds, when Wood’s Taylor Kaminski snuck behind the Carroll defense and scored a layup to spell a 33-31 victory for the Vikings.

It marked the first time Wood won the girls’ Catholic League championship since 1982, but by no means did it spell an end to Carroll’s season. The Pats dropped to 18-7 overall, and had their 13-game winning streak snapped. But Carroll will advance to the District 12 (Philadelphia City championship) against Central on Saturday at 5 p.m. at Lincoln High School as the Philadelphia Catholic League’s (PCL) Class AAAA representative (Wood is a Class AAA school and will represent the PCL at that level).

It was a nice consolation, knowing that they would be continuing—but the Pats will do it without the trifecta they achieved two years ago, when Carroll won the Catholic League, District 12 and Class AAA state championships.

Carroll was led by Meghan Creighton, who scored a team-high 11 points, followed by a strong game from Sarah Curran, who added 10 for the Pats.

Carroll had beaten Wood during the regular season. 36-31, on February 7. It was a similar type of game as the PCL championship, with both teams amping up the pressure on the defensive side.

“The last time we tied it and took the lead, this time we couldn’t,” said Meghan Creighton, who recovered from a broken collarbone earlier this season to return and is the daughter of Pats’ head coach Chuck Creighton. “That was really the thing this time. The games were alike, but the big thing was we couldn’t make shots. Wood is a great defensive team. You have to give them credit for that. But this is it for us, this has to be our last loss. It’s something we kept telling each other in the lockerroom. This begins a whole new season.”

Carroll’s Emily Fazzini, the Pats’ 5-foot-10 senior center heading to Rider, concurred. Fazzini transferred into Carroll from Conestoga her freshman year and experienced winning the trifecta her sophomore season. She’s still able to win another district title and two state crowns in three years before she graduates.

“That’s the way we have to look at it,” Fazzini said. “I couldn’t imagine anything we did my sophomore year—going on to win everything. We obviously won’t win everything this year, losing this game, but we still have a lot of basketball ahead of us, and a lot to play for, like another district championship and another state title.”