HARRISBURG — Bishop McDevitt found itself in a tight game Friday night against a resurgent Mechanicsburg squad. As they’ve done all season, the Crusaders found a way to grind out a victory.
Bishop McDevitt’s unblemished season, which includes a Penn Manor tip-off tournament title and the recently-won Warwick holiday tournament championship, continued Friday with a 45-34 win.
The Crusaders (9-0, 5-0), who have been getting it done on the defensive end during their stellar start to the season, held Mechanicsburg to single-digit quarters in each of the last three periods.
Much-improved Mechanicsburg (7-2, 3-2) had some costly turnovers in the final minutes, which resulted in some empty possessions. The Crusaders took advantage to collect the critical Mid-Penn Keystone division win.
The Stars:
Bishop McDevitt’s Olivia Fasick scored a game-high 17 points. She also blocked a few shots.
Treasure George chipped in with 10 points for the winners.
Logan Nutt and Talia Gilliard each had 10 points for Mechanicsburg. Rylee Everett had eight points.
Game-deciding moments:
Gilliard sunk a pair of free throws to trim Mechanicsburg’s deficit to two with around three minutes to play. Bishop McDevitt, leading 36-34, came back with a pair of 2-point buckets from Fasick and Alexia Thomas to go ahead by six with two minutes to play.
Mechanicsburg then turned the ball over on two straight possessions, and went into foul mode to try and catch the Crusaders. Bishop McDevitt, which closed the game on a 9-0 run, was able to convert from the foul line and ice the win.
They said it:
Bishop McDevitt head coach Kevin Dupes, on what’s led to the early-season success: “We’re playing really good defense. That’s what we concentrate on. We have girls that can score but we wanted them to play better defense. We just don’t want anybody to beat us off the dribble. We’re playing good help defense and we’re trying to shut people down. In the second half they scored 15 points. I think that’s pretty good defense.”
Dupes, on McDevitt’s ability to grind out wins: “Every game we’ve played so far has been a grind. We’re used to it. We just have to keep playing. We practice for these situations in practice all the time. They’re used to playing in that situation.”
Mechanicsburg 10 9 9 6 – 34
Bishop McDevitt 13 6 13 13 – 45
Mechanicsburg (7-2) – Gilliard 10, Nutt 10, Everett 8, M. Schrass 3, A. Schrass 2, Hurst 1
Bishop McDevitt (9-0) – Fasick 17, George 10, Thomas 6, Chisholm 5, Mosten 3, Johnson 2, Keller 2