North Catholic senior guard April Austin walked into the postgame news conference with two gold medals. The lone player from the 2004 championship squad added her second medal after North Catholic defeated Vincentian, 61-35, in the WPIAL Class A championship Friday at Palumbo Center. The first gold is from Austin's freshman year when the Trojanettes (24-4) won a title in Class AAA, where they were a perennial power. North Catholic always had Class A enrollment, but chose to play up. Winning a WPIAL championship this year, the Trojanettes' first in Class A, might mean a bit more than her first, Austin said. "Considering I'm a senior, this one is a little better," said Austin, who scored 18 points. The two extra A's on Austin's first medal mean nothing more to Austin, coach Molly Rottmann or the Trojanettes. "They're all good," Rottmann said. "Each and every one. "Our numbers are down and no one ever talked about how we played up two classifications the last couple of years. The last time we won it in AAA, we were single A team. You don't get any accolades necessarily for playing up. I figured why, as a Catholic school, do we need to feel the burden to play up, so we decided to move down to single A and compete where we belong." North Catholic certainly played a higher caliber of basketball, not only in the WPIAL championship, but the entire season. The Trojanettes won half of their section games by at least 30 points, including 26- and 32-point wins over Section 4-A foe Vincentian (14-13). North Catholic played last night like it had been there before. Qualifying for the playoffs 32 consecutive seasons, a WPIAL record, the Trojanettes proved they were no stranger to the big stage. "I think that in all honesty, our girls understood the importance of this game and they came focused and ready to play," Rottmann said. "We talked about that beforehand, that we wanted to get up early and run and try to get some breathing room." North Catholic had plenty of confidence after leading, 15-4, following the first quarter and 24-8 at the half. With just less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, the mercy rule came into effect, as North Catholic took a 40-point advantage. At the end of three quarters, North Catholic built a 55-16 advantage. "I think we kind of beat ourselves," Vincentian coach Ron Moncrief said. "They have more experience at this big-time game situation, and I feel like we came out a little flat; we beat ourselves. They have more experience in the big-time games, but basketball is basketball." Moncrief said one of his main concerns heading into the game was containing Austin. Vincentian didn't quite slow the Dayton recruit, as she was one of three North Catholic players to reach double figures in scoring. Junior forward Amy Longo scored 18 points and sophomore forward Lauren Savulchak recorded a double-double, 10 points and 10 rebounds. "We looked at our banners before we left North at our shoot-around (Friday)," Rottmann said. "Now, they've left their little legacy on North Catholic. Nobody can take that banner away. Nobody can take that title away." Whether the medal reads "Class A" or "Class AAA," a WPIAL title is a WPIAL title.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---