Entering the season, the talk surrounding Providence Catholic mostly centered around two things.

Could the Celtics handle the graduation of Molly Knight?

How quickly would it take transfers Landrie and Layken Callahan to get settled in?

The Celtics have only played four games, but in the short term the answers to those questions appear to be.

Yes.

Not long at all.

The Callahan sisters were in peak form Saturday at Joliet Junior College, as were the rest of the Celtics.

The result was a red-hot start against Minooka that gave Providence enough cushion to fend off a second half comeback attempt by the Indians. Providence got the win 58-50 to take home the fourth annual WJOL Tournament championship.

It’s the first WJOL title in program history.

“This is always a great tournament,” coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “The competition challenged us all week. We have a lot of work to do. We need to learn how to close things, but I like where we’re going and the progression we’ve seen.”

“Close things” would refer to the second half when the Celtics were outscored by 11 points, but as Copenhaver said, there’s a lot to like about how the Celtics are playing right now. While Landrie Callahan (team-leading 16 points) and Layken Callahan (11 points) both had outstanding days, the whole team was involved with this one.

Providence (4-0) got an 11-point performance from sophomore Kennady Kotowski and nine points from Taylor Healy. Landrie Callahan was named WJOL Tournament MVP and senior Eilish Raines was also on the All-Tournament team. The Celtics led by 19 points at halftime and while they were outscored in the second, they managed to keep pace enough to get the win.

“We just stayed focused,” Raines said. “We were determined and knew we could beat them. We kept our composure even when things got tough.”

While losing an all-time program great like Knight is never easy, the addition of the Callahans from Morris has already helped tremendously. Landrie is committed to play for Pepperdine and Layken has a Division I offer from SIUE.

“We were putting the pieces together the first few practices,” Landrie said. “It’s really starting to come together, though. We’ve been building since our game against Joliet West and we’re still building.”

As for Minooka (3-1), the second half effort was something to build on. The defense went to a full-court press that created a slew of turnovers in the third quarter. Offensive efforts from Madelyn Kiper (20 points) and Naya Carter (12 points) got the game within single digits after a lopsided second period.

“I couldn’t be any prouder of the way they fought the whole game,” Minooka coach John Placher said. “That’s going to filter into some good things coming up in the future. They really played hard. A lot of teams would’ve buckled when they were down 19, and we didn’t. That tells you what kind of players they are.”

Carter and Kiper were both named to the WJOL All-Tournament team.

Providence Catholic will host Joliet West on Wednesday while Minooka will host Downers Grove South on Tuesday.