Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament girls win Pittsburgh Diocesan title

Two weeks ago, the eighth-grade girls basketball team at Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Natrona Heights did something no team in the long history of the school had done: win the Pittsburgh Diocesan title.

Blessed Sacrament won the championship with a 39-17 victory in the Class B final over St. Philip (Crafton) on March 2 at Oakland Catholic.

The win finished an undefeated season for the Lady Rebels (15-0).

“When we started playing this year, our goal was to win a playoff game, and as the season went on, we realized that we were pretty good,” Blessed Sacrament coach Jeff Spinelli said. “We just kept getting better, so we started taking it more seriously and we figured we had a chance to win it.”

Spinelli took several of his players to the 2019 championship game to inspire them, and they responded by winning the Class B North Division and earning a bye into the tournament.

Blessed Sacrament won its quarterfinal game 31-15 over John F. Kennedy Catholic School of Washington and topped St. Mary, 26-19, in the semifinals.

The Lady Rebels saved their best performance for the championship.

Blessed Sacrament raced out to a 19-1 lead by the end of the first quarter and cruised to victory.

“We didn’t see that coming, to be honest,” Spinelli said. “We thought it was going to be a close game. We just caught fire, and I think they were stunned a little bit. The thing that really keyed us the entire time was defense. We told them that they can’t win if they can’t score, and the girls really started to buy into it more and more. That’s what carried us.”

The girls on the team were allowed to wear casual clothing for a day instead of their uniform after winning the championship. St. Joseph administrators also gave them celebratory donuts.

Several siblings of former and current basketball standouts were on the team. Emma Swierczewski is the sister of former St. Joseph forward Ally Swierczewski. Natruelle and Neah Ewing are sisters of current Knoch guard Nevaeh Ewing. Spinelli’s daughter, Julie, is also a member of the team.

Emma, Natruelle and Julie are in eighth grade, and Neah is in sixth grade.

Other eighth-graders on the team are Anna Kreinbrook, Amelia Wygonik and Maggie Bernat. Janna Bloch and Nevaeh Pendland are the team’s seventh-graders, and Elizabeth Danik is a sixth-grader.

Many of the girls in eighth grade will be moving on to St. Joseph next year and will play basketball for the Spartans.

They left their mark at Blessed Sacrament and forever will be known as the school’s first championship team.

“One of the best things for us is that we were able to bring recognition for the school,” Spinelli said. “It’s a great school with a lot of good things going on.”