Carroll Concludes Season With Loss In States

The memorable bus rides, the silly pranks, and all the little zany idiosyncrasies that only teammates know about each other started to fade in blurry, teary eyes. The girls’ basketball team found it difficult to look at each other as they walked off the court Friday night at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center, because it hurt too much.

It’s a team that achieved so much this season, pushed along early by their coach until they found an identity of their own. The Patriots reached the Catholic League championship. They won the District 12 championship. And for the second time in three years, Carroll reached the PIAA state championship, this time as a Class AAAA school. It was a team buoyed by strong seniors and won 23 games.

They were resourceful, tenacious, often times dominating, and always fun to watch.

The Pats did so much this season, yet no one was able—nor willing—to reflect on every moment after Carroll saw its season come to a screeching halt in a 47-46 loss in the state title game to Mount Lebanon, which won the Class AAAA state championship for the third-straight year.

The game was actually a rematch of a game played earlier this season between the two teams. Mount Lebanon won that first meeting, 54-52, in overtime on January 15, much like it won this game—just barely.

“It hurts,” said Carroll senior Emily Fazzini, who will continue her career in college at Rider. “I’ll miss the girls I played with and the good times. We had a great run. It would have been nice to finish it with another state championship.”

Carroll coach Chuck Creighton made sure he got his message across to his team after the game. He told them how proud of them he was. He mentioned all the good things they achieved this year.

This fabulous team will miss Fazzini, a tough, hard-nosed defender that was able to score and did everything from rebound to throw herself on the floor for loose balls, along with fellow senior Jen Carney, but the Pats will return Sarah Curran, Meghan Creighton and Rachel Pearson.

Mount Lebanon took away one of Carroll’s most effective weapons—the three-point shot. The Pats were 2-for-6 from three-point range in the first half, and were only able to get off three treys in the second half. The Pats played catch-up much of the game, until it finally came down to a Carney drive that failed in the final few seconds.

“There’s a lot of things we can look back and feel proud about,” Fazzini said. “But I’ll miss playing with this team.”