UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Now, Mt. Lebanon can breathe.

The state's top-ranked Class AAAA girls' basketball team all season long, Mt. Lebanon won its second consecutive PIAA championship, beating Archbishop Ryan, 70-43, Friday night at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Junior guard Madison Cable scored a career-high 30 points to give the Blue Devils their second state title in school history.

Coach Dori Oldaker said the feeling was "surreal" but said the path to the championship was tough.

"That's a lot of pressure to be the No. 1 team in Quad-A all season long and to live up to that," Oldaker said.

Mt. Lebanon (29-2) is the first WPIAL Class AAAA team to win back-to-back PIAA championships.

"I think it's pretty cool," said Cable, the humble guard who will give the Ragdolls (22-8) nightmares for weeks.

Cable cut through Ryan's defense with ease, always a step ahead of her undersized defenders.

"She does everything," said Ragdolls coach Jackie Hartzell. "We couldn't keep her in front of us. She can shoot, she does everything. She was a bad match for us."

Oldaker said she knew Cable would have a good night after she drained a 3-pointer seven seconds into the game.

"I had a really good feeling about her tonight," Oldaker said. "I really had a feeling that she was just going to try to take over."

Cable was 13 of 19 from the field and had 5 assists, 2 blocks and 6 steals. Only a junior, Cable said she is already receiving interest from Division I colleges.

"She just seems to step up in big games," Oldaker said.

So does Mt. Lebanon's defense.

The Blue Devils limited Ryan to 24.5 percent shooting from the field and forced 26 Ragdoll turnovers.

Mt. Lebanon controlled the game early behind strong play from Cable, who scored the Blue Devils' first seven points. Mt. Lebanon dominated Ryan in the paint, outscoring the Ragdolls, 16-6, in the first half.

The Ragdolls had more success from the perimeter, scoring nearly half of their first-half points from behind the arc.

But they had no plan to stop Cable, who scored at will in the first half. She easily sped by Ryan defenders who were too slow and too small to stop her. Cable scored 20 points in the first half, tying the entire Ryan team.

Mt. Lebanon led, 30-20, at halftime.

Despite a double-digit lead, Oldaker and the Blue Devils were unsatisfied with their first-half performance.

"We're supposed to be a defensive team and we weren't playing great defense in the first half," she said.

That all changed in the third quarter.

The Blue Devils forced 12 Ragdoll turnovers in the third quarter and did not allow one assist.

Mt. Lebanon scored the first seven points of the second half and outscored Ryan, 20-6, in the first 4:15 of the third quarter to take a 24-point lead.

"I thought we handled their pressure well in the first half," Hartzell said, "but the third quarter has been our Achilles' heel all year."

The Blue Devils have not lost to a team from Pennsylvania since losing to Central Dauphin in the 2008 PIAA title game. Their two losses this season came against two top-five teams in the USA Today national rankings.

Friday's win gives Oldaker her fourth PIAA championship as a coach. She won two titles coaching Blackhawk. But she said it was too early to evaluate how she, and her team, compare historically.

"Maybe when I retire someday I'll reflect on it," Oldaker said.

Not Cable. She said she is already thinking about the possibility of a Mt. Lebanon three-peat.

But, she said, she can enjoy this win for a little bit.

"We can breathe a little bit," she said.

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