Mar 17, 2025
03/15/25 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Bishop Carroll’s Emily Lucko puts up a shot over Williamsburg’s Regan Prough.
By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
Bishop Carroll Catholic freshman Emily Lucko has only scored 20 points in a varsity basketball game twice so far, but they happen to have both come when the Lady Huskies needed it the most.
Lucko scored a career-high 23 points to lead a young Bishop Carroll team to the PIAA semifinals for the first time since 2018 with a 60-47 victory over Williamsburg on Saturday at the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse.
“She is maturing so much in basketball from the beginning of the year until now,” Bishop Carroll coach John Strittmatter said. “At the beginning of the year, she was my sixth player off the bench. Now, she’s a starter that has grown and grown. I’m so happy for her.”
Lucko’s growth has mirrored Bishop Carroll’s as a team.
The Lady Huskies entered the season with modest expectations but have now won 21 games and secured a spot among the final four Class 1A girls teams playing in the state by beating Williamsburg — a team that played in the PIAA semifinals a year ago.
“It means a lot, because this is the first time in a long time that this happened,” Strittmatter said. “I’m so happy with these young ladies. They have really worked hard. I can’t say anymore. It’s great to be back — for them.”
Lucko’s previous career high of 20 points came in Bishop Carroll’s 68-63 victory over Saint Joseph’s in the District 6 semifinals. She’s averaging just 9.3 points per game, but she came up big in all the moments her team needed her on Saturday.
The freshman scored nine of Bishop Carroll’s first 14 points to help her team get off to the hot start it needed. Lucko said the entire team felt like it couldn’t wait to get Saturday’s noon game started.
“During warmups, we were all just feeling ready to go,” Lucko said. “We carried that over to the game and were very confident in how we were going to do. We went for it.”
Leading by just six just before the half, Lucko hit a 3-pointer to make it 25-16 going into the locker room and then began the third quarter with another one that pushed Bishop Carroll’s lead to double digits for the first time.
“I think we have developed so much as a team,” Lucko said. “Our skill from the start of the season has improved so much. It’s really working out for us.”
Bishop Carroll maintained its 12-point lead until Williamsburg ended the third quarter on a 5-0 run with baskets from Levada Gorsuch and LeeAnna Royer and a free throw from the Lady Blue Pirates’ lone senior, Anastasia Ranalli, that made it 39-32.
“I thought Carroll played really well,” Williamsburg coach Angela Detwiler said. “They were hitting their outside shots, penetrating well and we just didn’t seem to have an answer today. We couldn’t get into a rhythm. We knocked down some shots and fought back, but I just felt that they were really hitting tonight.”
Rather than carry the momentum of that spurt into the fourth quarter, Bishop Carroll was able to reassume control of the game with two free throws from Adelyn Myers and back-to-back baskets from Lucko after Ranalli’s layup.
“I try to keep everything simple,” Strittmatter said. “We play to their strengths, and that’s what we have been doing. They are playing to each one of their strengths, and that’s what has gotten us to where we are.”
Myers, who along with Ava Pablic each scored 12 points, converted a three-point play with 5:05 to play to stretch the lead back to 12, and Royer fouled out with 4:12 to play to basically seal the Lady Huskies’ win.
Royer, who came into the game averaging 16.3 points per contest for the Lady Blue Pirates, did not start or play in the first quarter and finished with just five points after entering the game to start the second quarter.
“That was a coaching decision,” Detwiler said. “That was my decision.”
Gorsuch led Williamsburg with 19 points. The Lady Blue Pirates, who finished 22-7, made the PIAA quarterfinals for the fourth year in a row.
“I’m really proud of my team,” Ranalli said. “I think we did great. We didn’t end up where we wanted to be, but it was still a great season. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Ranalli finished her final game with 12 points.
“I’m really proud of this team,” Detwiler said. “It’s going to make me a little emotional, but this is my first year coaching, and more than the games, I just loved going to practices with them every day and being with the girls. Anastasia Ranalli, my senior, I could not ask for a better senior. She’s such a great student athlete. From last year to this year, she doubled all of her stats. She put so much heart into every single game. I loved coaching her. As a coach, I’ll go back and wonder what I could have done better, but I felt like I was really blessed to be able to coach these girls this year.”
A year ago, Ranalli averaged just 5.2 points per game and was usually the first player off Williamsburg’s bench. This season, she often played a starring role — including her game-tying basket against Southern Huntingdon in a game Williamsburg eventually won in overtime.
“When I first started coaching junior high, she was on my very first team,” Detwiler said. “This is the first person I saw the whole way through now that I coached her senior year. But I think something happens to kids when they become seniors. They know it could be their last night, and they realize how important it is to put on that uniform every night and play for their school. I think she took that to heart this whole season, and every time she stepped on that floor, she represented our school so well on and off the court. I’m so proud of her.”
Williamsburg won 10 state playoff games during Ranalli’s four years.
“We have a legacy as a basketball town,” Ranalli said. “It was really great to be a part of that next generation of state playoff teams. I really enjoyed my time here. It meant a lot to me.”
Next up for Bishop Carroll is a rematch from its 61-44 loss in the District 6 championship game against Bishop Guilfoyle Academy. That game will take place on Saturday back at the AAHS Fieldhouse at noon for the right to go to Hershey and play in the PIAA championship on Friday, March 28.
“We’re all so excited to be in the semifinals,” Lucko said. “We’re really ready to play and perform.”
BISHOP CARROLL (60): Delauter 1 2-2 4, Lieb 1 0-0 2, Lucko 9 2-2 23, Ade. Myers 4 4-5 12, Pablic 4 3-4 12, Golden 1 0-0 2, Av. Myers 2 1-2 5, Long 0 0-0 0, Strait 0 0-0 0, Adi. Myers 0 0-0 0, Strittmatter 0 0-0 0. Totals — 22 12-15 60.
WILLIAMSBURG (47): G. Colbert 0 0-2 0, Prough 3 0-2 8, Ranalli 5 1-2 12, Gorsuch 8 3-5 19, Alexander 0 0-0 0, Royer 2 0-0 5, Kagarise 0 1-2 1, Rispoli 0 0-0 0, Flaig 1 0-0 2. Totals — 14 5-13 47.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bishop Carroll 12 13 14 21 — 60
Williamsburg 7 9 16 15 — 47
3-point goals: Bishop Carroll 4 (Lucko 3, Pablic); Williamsburg 4 (Prough 2, Royer, Ranalli).
Records: Bishop Carroll (21-7); Williamsburg (22-7).
Officials: Joe Scialabba, Klayton Heffner, Ron Williams.
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