HERSHEY – Ever since the 2020 PIAA basketball championships were canceled by the pandemic, most of the story of Class 5A girls basketball has been written by two teams: South Fayette and Archbishop Wood.
The Lions entered Saturday afternoon’s championship contest against the Vikings looking to be the primary authors of the most recent chapter of that story.
South Fayette never trailed while taking the title for the second-straight season, defeating Archbishop Wood, 45-35, in the finals at Giant Center. It was an appropriate epilogue for three starting seniors who have held the quill while helping create the Lions’ success: Ryan Oldaker, Juliette Leroux and Haylie Lamonde.
Oldaker led all players with 15 points, Leroux added 10 and Lamonde had six.
“I feel like it was a lot of pressure,” said Oldaker, who will be playing at Marist next year. “It’s like a one-in-a-million opportunity. … This season, we played teams from Ohio and Florida, and it prepared us for this state run.”
South Fayette (30-1) had beaten Archbishop Wood, 45-37, in last year’s finals as well, though the Vikings had won the 2023 championship contest 61-54, part of a four-in-a-row stretch.
Getting both of their gold-medal victories against a program as successful as Archbishop Wood only made the success that much sweeter.
“Beating a team like this means so much more,” said Leroux, who will be headed to Florida Atlantic. “Coming out strong in both (state final) games, that was so important.”
The Lions never trailed and only had to face ties at 2-2 and 7-7, but the sequence that put them in control came early in the third quarter.
Coming out of the locker room with a 23-19 lead, South Fayette went on a 7-3 mini-run to open the second half. Oldaker had a layup and free throw to start the rally. After Abbie Kelly hit a 3-piont shot to get the Vikings (16-13) back in it for a moment, two free throws by Ella Vierra and a layup by Leroux pushed the lead to 30-22.
Eight points may not sound like too large of a deficit on the surface, but with the Lions holding the Vikings to just 38% shooting from the floor and holding a 26-13 advantage on the boards, there wasn’t much chance for the District 12 champ to get back in it.
“I don’t want to be cocky about it, because (Archbishop Wood) is a great team, but I thought we were the more athletic team,” said Leroux, who had a game-high seven rebounds.
Few would have argued with that assessment, especially once Leroux hit a layup, followed by an Oldaker 3-pointer, to help the Lions to a 36-27 lead with under six minutes to go. The Vikings were never closer than seven points in the final minutes.
“I’m proud. I’m amazed. I have so many words right now I don’t know which to say,” Oldaker said. “It just means everything to me.”
Ella Vierra, one of two underclassmen in the Lions starting five, scored eight points and blocked two shots.
Lamonde, who will be going to South Carolina Upstate, and Leroux both played all 32 minutes.
Kelly led the Vikings with nine points.