Shady Side Academy girls basketball coach Jonna Burke didn’t think the pressure was on the Bulldogs during the PIAA Class 4A semifinals.
Shady Side Academy had already proven three times it could beat Greensburg Central Catholic. She didn’t think winning a fourth time would be easy, but didn’t feel the strain would be on her players either.
“I saw a few of their players say the pressure was on us to beat them, but I thought the pressure was on them,” Burke said. “But they came out and did what they had to do. I’m pretty sure they are going to win a state title. It’s hard to swallow. It takes a long time to get there, if you ever do. You have to have the right combination of skill and chemistry. I thought we had those things.”
The Centurions executed their gameplan perfectly March 16 at Norwin, knocking off the Bulldogs, 49-27, to move on to the state title game for the first time since 1997.
It ended a dominant two-year stretch for Shady Side Academy. The Bulldogs went 54-5 and were 28-0 in section play. Shady Side Academy reached the state championship game for the first time last year and won the WPIAL Class 3A title this year.
Karis Thomas ended her career with the school record of 2,114 points.
Cassie Sauer also wrapped up her career with more than 1,000 points. Burke appreciated both of their efforts.
“This senior class in particular, and obviously Cassie and Karis, have been the cornerstone of everything that we’ve done the last three years,” Burke said. “Since they were freshmen, they came in and instantly got better. This last two-year run has been something special.”
Against GCC, Shady Side Academy was limited to five points after halftime. In the first three meetings between the teams, the Bulldogs averaged 57 points per game.
GCC was dedicated to making sure that didn’t happen again.
“Defense,” Centurions guard Erica Gibble said. “We won with defense. The pressure was on them to beat us four times, not on us to beat them one time.”
Burke said the Bulldogs tried a number of different ways to snap out of the funk. Nothing worked.
Burke said having to play a team for a fourth time is a different kind of challenge.
“It’s not ideal,” Burke said. “You would never choose to play the same team four times in one season. We aren’t the only team it happened to. I credit their defense. We couldn’t shoot the ball. It was like everything we tried didn’t work.”
While Shady Side Academy will lose more than 3,000 points from the roster, the Bulldogs’ long playoff run allowed a lot of younger players to get experience. Morgan Kane, a 5-foot-7 guard, and Jocelyn Long, a 5-4 guard, were two freshmen who saw a lot of minutes.
“We got an extra seven games in this season,” Burke said. “That’s invaluable. You can’t get that experience anywhere except having those games. That automatically puts themes in a situation where we started next season and they are experienced.”
Bill Beckner Jr. contributed to this report.