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BETHLEHEM — Something extreme has gotten into Meghan Corridoni at state playoff time.
Just in time to give Holy Redeemer a big boost into the PIAA Eastern girls basketball final.
Corridoni scored 16 points while carrying the Royals through a difficult first half Friday, then Alexis Lewis finished up with a game-high 20 as Redeemer rolled past St. Basil Academy, 39-29 in a Class 2A state quarterfinal girls basketball game at Bethlehem’s Freedom High School.
“I felt like I needed to step up and make some shots and knock them down,” Corridoni said.
For the longest time, it appeared Corridoni was the only Redeemer player capable to doing that consistently.
She hit two consecutive buckets to dig the Royals out of an early 8-2 hole, and finished the first half with 10 points as the Royals surged into halftime with a 19-14 lead.
That carried 26-2 Redeemer into Tuesday’s Eastern final against 27-0 and top-seeded Neumann-Goretti, which survived a 64-61 dogfight with Dunmore in an earlier state quarterfinal game at Freedom.
“I know what we’re up against,” Holy Redeemer coach Chris Parker said. “They’re probably one of the best teams in the country.”
As a warmup, Redeemer had to survive one of the most dangerous teams in the state.
St. Basil broke out to an early six-point lead in a strategical game where defensive height on both sides made shooting the ball difficult and it quickly became a defensive struggle.
Corridoni broke the Royals free.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward proved the perfect answer to St. Basil’s 6-2 shot-blocker Natalie Kucowski, slipping inside to score six points in the opening quarter before adding six more in the second half, including a quick layup that gave Redeemer a nine-point lead with 3:05 to play.
That proved a big boost for Redeemer and star scorer Lewis, who struggled mightily in the first half against a tall zone defense and a painstakingly patient offense employed by St. Basil.
“About time she is playing like we know she could,” Lewis grinned about Corridoni, who followed her 14-point performance in a second-round state victory Tuesday by dominating the most important parts of Friday’s quarterfinal. “She has been having the best games of her entire life.”
Lewis has seen much better days.
The Iona-bound All-Stater connected on just two of her first nine attempts from the floor while missing the first four shots she took. Of course, the first basket she hit was a 3-pointer that wound up putting Redeemer ahead to stay.
“Of course, when your shots aren’t falling, I have to do something else to help my team,” Lewis said. “Tonight, I played good defense. I didn’t get down on myself. If we were going to win this game, I knew I was going to have to stay with it.”
Pretty soon, her offensive game was back up.
Lewis scored six of Redeemer’s eight points in the third quarter and helped hold St. Basil to nine as the Royals entered the final quarter with a four-point advantage.
Then they became pretty patient themselves, working a stall game through the final six minutes that resulted in a couple of easy layups and a flurry of foul shots.
“There was no reason for me to force the issue,” Parker said. “We’re winning the basketball game. We had the lead, I want to pull them (defenders) out. And we were in the (foul-shooting) bonus.”
Advantage, Redeemer.
Lewis hit five of her six foul shots in the fourth quarter and added a bucket down the stretch, while Corridoni wrapped up her big night with four points over the final five minutes.
“I was at the high post,” Corridoni said. “It was easy to cut to the back door and get a good shot. It was a challenge, being under the basket, having to shoot over it (St. Basil’s height). It felt great to win and get back tio the Final Four.”
This time, though, the Royals will be heading to the Class 2A state semifinals after dropping a Class 3A semifinal game last season.
“We’re happy to be back in the Final Four,” Parker said. “We’re excited, not only to be in it at the Triple-A level but now at the Double-A level. The fun thing for this is, this (quarterfinal) game was so slow, I’m looking forward to the next game. Neumann-Goretti likes to get up and down the floor and we like to get up and down the floor. The up-and-down game suits our style much better than this style.”
Holy Redeemer 39, St. Basil Academy 29
ST. BASIL ACADEMY (29) — Karen Lipiweicz 5 1-1 12, Lindsay Joyce 0 0-0 0, Natalie Kucowski 4 0-0 12, Ally Sloan 0 2-4 2, Liz Napierkowski 1 0-0 3, Erin Buckley 0 0-0 0, Lindsay Ems 0 0-0 0, Danielle McCurdy 0 0-0 0, Sarah Dougherty 0 0-0 0, Brielle Piecyk 0 0-0 0, Kaeley Pinkerton 0 0-0 0, Juliana Gura 0 0-0 0, Alyssa O’Mara 0 0-0 0, Arianna Sticco 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 3-5 29.
HOLY REDEEMER (39) — Kayla Hons 0 0-0 0, Lyudia Lawson 0 0-2 0, Meghan Corridoni 7 2-6 16, Rebecca Prociak 0 3-4 3, Alexis Lewis 5 9-10 20, Sara Flannelly 0 0-0 0, Brittany Hebda 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 14-22 39.
St. Basil Academy`8`6`9`6`—`29
Holy Redeemer`11`8`8`12`—`39
Three-point goals — SB 6 (Kucowski 4, Napierkowski, Lapkiweicz); HR 1 (Lewis 1).