Pittston resident Meredith Purcell has won four District 2 gold medals at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza with the Scranton Prep girls basketball team. She started and played a key role in Thursday’s latest championship effort.
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – When Scranton Prep was just getting started offensively, Meredith Purcell got involved in the scoring.
When the second half opened, Purcell changed offensive approaches, setting up her teammates.
On the other end of the floor, the Pittston resident played an even bigger role in making sure her senior class at Scranton Prep made winning a fourth District 2 Class 4A girls basketball championship look easy during Thursday’s 51-25 victory over Berwick at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
Throughout those four years, when opponents or analysts look at the state-ranked Classics, the quick conclusion most come to is that the way to attack them is by exploiting their relative lack of size.
Purcell is often the reason that has not worked against a team that is 44-1 the last two seasons and 52-0 in league play during her four-year career.
“We ask her basically to get into a fistfight every night for us and she’s willing to do that,” Old Forge native and Scranton Prep head coach Bob Beviglia said of the task of defending the post at 5-foot-8. “I’m thrilled with the performance she had here tonight.”
And, as Beviglia pointed out, that started on the defensive end.
Berwick 6-foot center Katie Starr, who is committed to a Bloomsburg University scholarship, entered the game with a double-double for points and rebounds in every game of a senior season that pushed her past 1,000 for her career in both categories.
Purcell did most of the work in holding Starr to six points and six rebounds.
“She stepped up and made some shots, but more important was the defense she played on Starr,” Beviglia said.
It is a role Purcell knows well.
“All season, I usually guard the post player,” Purcell said. “It means I’m usually undersized, so I have to play smarter and harder.
“ … I just knew I had to have a good defensive game and when I had open shots I knocked them in.”
Purcell’s shot-making opened up the Scranton Prep lead.
Scranton Prep never trailed, but after a sluggish start, it’s lead was just 3-2 after more than 4½ minutes.
That’s when Purcell went to work.
She hit an 18-footer, then scored on a putback 26 seconds later for four straight points and a 7-2 lead.
Purcell added a basket from the left wing for a 19-6 lead with 3:20 left in the half.
After Berwick ended an offensive drought to begin the second half, Purcell worked the high post area, where she is comfortable shooting or passing. She found teammates Lizzie Neville and Rachael Rose for 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to open a 29-9 lead with 6:55 left in the third quarter.
“I love to do one more pass to find a three,” Purcell said, “because I know if I pass to Rachael, Lizzie, Maria (Belardi) or Cecelia (Collins), I can be confident it will go in.
“So, I’m always looking for that one more pass for a better shot.”
Purcell finished 4-for-5 from the floor for eight points, along with the two assists, two rebounds and a steal.
It was the numbers she prevented, however, that were more important than those she compiled.
That style has helped her find a valuable place on a team featuring Rose and Collins, two all-staters committed to play National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I basketball.
“Meredith Purcell, for four years, has been in the right place at the right time, always,” Beviglia said. “She makes big plays that go unnoticed.”
Purcell earned varsity playing time on a championship team as a freshman, became the first player off the bench as a sophomore and started in the post the past two seasons.
Avery McNulty, a 6-1 junior forward who also resides in the Pittston Area School District, was the second player off the bench for Scranton Prep in the title game.
