HERSHEY — Asked how long it would take her to eat the 1-pound chocolate bar that was tucked under her arm like a math textbook, Jayla Peterson pulled back.
“I don’t even like chocolate,” the senior guard from Greensburg Central Catholic said. “They can all have it.”
But what about Hershey, where chocolate and state champions are made?
“Oh, I love Hershey,” Peterson said, smiling as she looked around Giant Center on Thursday night following GCC’s 52-41 victory over Holy Redemeer in the PIAA Class 3A girls basketball title game.
Along with carrying around heavy candy bars, GCC players wore gold medals around their necks and passed around the PIAA trophy, it’s gold basketball draped in a net that officials cut down after the win, a win that marked the first state title for GCC since 1996-97 and the first PIAA basketball championship for a team from Westmoreland County since the Terrelle Pryor-led Jeannette boys won in 2007-08.
Monessen had been the most recent girls team to celebrate a state crown in 2003-04.
“It’s unbelievable,” said GCC coach Chris Skatell, who was under the weather this week, as was his staff, but perked up after some rest. And the big win. “From when we started in November, this was our end goal. It will take a little while to have it all sink in.
“The trophy is heavier I thought. So is the (gold) medal.”
Told their gym was too small to host a 3A state playoff game in the first round — a byproduct of the PIAA moving GCC up from 2A as part of its competitive balance formula following GCC’s back-to-back state semifinal trips — GCC hit the road and dominated.
The Centurions devoured Cranberry (66-14), ripped past Northwestern and power-five guard Makayla Presser-Palmer (50-36), downed Trinity (65-51) and rolled past rival Shady Side Academy (49-27) to reach their first state final in 29 years.
After two misses in the 2A semifinals in 2022-23 and ’23-24, the Centurions finally got their turn to celebrate state.
The championship win capped not only a memorable run and season but also the careers of three seniors: Erica Gribble, Peterson and Abby Dlugos.
Gribble, arguably the best player to come out of GCC with her school-record 2,380 points and scholarship to Division I Richmond, has said since her freshman year winning a PIAA title was on her bucket list.
Gribble had 18 points in the championship, and Peterson added 17.
GCC trailed by one early in the third but stretched the lead to 11 late in the fourth, making 12 of 18 free throws in the final quarter.
“It’s great to be able to cap it off this way, with the two WPIALs and now a state,” Gribble said. “This is a wonderful way to end my high school career.”
Gribble’s future coach, Richmond’s Aaron Rousell, was at the championship and congratulated Gribble afterward.
Her sister, Alayna, the former Norwin standout, made the trip from Philadelphia to watch her sister — and father, assistant coach Dan Gribble — get the win.
Peterson will head off to play at Division II Wheeling, and Dlugos, who made a strong comeback this season from a knee injury, will play at Division III Westminster.
“We had three seniors who led this team,” Skatell said. “They knew what we needed to do.”
Maybe it was fitting that GCC played a team called Holy Redeemer. The Centurions redeemed themselves after a loss in the WPIAL championship with five wins in the state tournament by an average of more than 20 points.
Emotionally rocked by a 57-40 loss to Shady Side Academy, the girls refocused for a state run.
“We’ve been playing with confidence,” Peterson said. “We wanted to win the WPIAL, too, but this was a dream for us. It’s a blessing to get here and win. It’s a gift.”
The big loss to Shady Side was offset by a big win over the Bulldogs in the semis. GCC didn’t let the emotion or magnitude of that win affect their play against Holy Redeemer.
“It’s all part of it,” Skatell said. “Our seniors have played a ton of games, so they know what to expect. They kept getting better and better.”
The last four years, which undoubtedly will go into the history books as “the Gribble era,” GCC was 92-26 with two WPIAL titles, a WPIAL runner-up and now a state championship.
GCC is set to bring back two starters: upstart scorer Avery Jones and active junior forward Nolan Althof.
Junior guard Morgan Skoloda also played a key reserve role in the postseason as a pop-out 3-point shooter. Her 3 with 2:45 left in the third put GCC ahead to stay Thursday night.
Jones, who averaged 13.4 points in the PIAA tournament, will inherit a key leadership role next season.
“Winning (the PIAA title) is surreal,” Jones said. “We knew we could win if we played together and took care of the ball.
“(The seniors) have been amazing, and I have learned so much from them.”
Many wondered who the GCC player on crutches was during the postgame celebration.
She is freshman Skylar Ashbaugh, who sustained an injury playing cup soccer and will have surgery next week.
Ashbaugh joins her mother, Anna (Weber) Ashbaugh, as a GCC state champion.
The elder Ashbaugh was on the ’97 team, as was Theresa (Dannhardt) Skoloda, the mother of Morgan Skoloda.
Current players will likely get something the girls from ’97 did not: championship rings.