BY CONOR FOLEY
Times-Shamrock Writer
Forest City faced a 51-34 loss from Sacred Heart in Saturday’s PIAA Class A girls basketball championship first round game.
The Foresters jumped out to a 13-6 advantage after the first quarter, led by nine points from Cassie Erdmann.
Forest City then managed to hold off a strong counter attack from the Lions in the second quarter thanks to some sharp shooting from behind the arc, but ultimately saw their lead fall to 24-21 at the half.
“I thought (Forest City) did a nice getting the ball to where they needed it to go, and they hit threes to open up the game, so that put us in a hole,” Sacred Heart head coach Zach Shuler said. “We knew that they would be able to turn the ball over if we pressured the ball, and that was the difference going into halftime.”
Needing one point for 1,000 in her career, Sacred Heart’s Hannah Rush opened the second half scoring with a layup that brought Sacred Heart within one point of Forest City and seemed to energize her team.
Rush followed her historic shot with a 3-pointer to give the Lions their first lead of the game, 26-25, and after her teammates forced a steal, added another layup.
The two teams matched shot for shot over the next four minutes before Rush, who finished with a game-high 18 points, made another 3-pointer to give Sacred Heart a five-point lead and the Lions never looked back.
“Eventually, they wore us down,” Forest City head coach Carl Urbas said. “We forced some shots in the second half. I think we got a little too comfortable with the lead.
“Unfortunately, we cooled off, made some bad decisions and the momentum just shifted and we weren’t able to stop it.”
Katie Yale’s layup with a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter would be Forest City’s last field goal of the game, as a stingy Sacred Heart defense held the Lady Foresters to a free throw over the final 10 minutes.
Sacred Heart sealed the victory with a 10-0 fourth quarter.
Cassie Erdmann finished with a team-high 12 points and Yale added 10 for Forest City.
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