North Penn defeated Souderton 39-26 in Thursday’s SOL Featured Game, sponsored by Millennium Administrators. To view photos of all the game action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
FRANCONIA TWP - Lynn Carroll stared at her team’s shot chart. She didn’t especially like what she saw. Souderton took 46 shots in Thursday night’s game against North Penn but connected on just 11.
Making the Indians’ 24 percent shooting effort from the floor particularly distressing to Carroll, whose team fell to the Lady Knights 39-26, was the fact that some of those missed shots were layups. They also struggled at the foul line where they made just 2-of-8 shots.
“The first half I thought it was good shot selection, and we missed them,” said Carroll, whose team led 18-15 at halftime. “The second half we worked hard on defense to get points, and we got steals that – I don’t know why – didn’t turn into points.
“It seemed like the more it happened, the more it was going to happen and did happen. Once you’ve missed so many in a row, the basket gets smaller. You take quick shots, the screens aren’t set the right way, and everything just starts to get worse.”
The Lady Knights weren’t exactly lighting things up offensively, but they had one constant – Lauren Crisler. The senior captain was relentless on both ends of the court, finishing the night with 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
“She had a really big game - huge,” North Penn coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “Lauren played outstanding. She works hard.
“We shot well from the foul line, and I thought we rebounded very well.”
Crisler accounted for 12 of her team’s 15 first-half points and had all eight of her team’s points in the first quarter.
“She had a great first quarter,” Carroll said. “We had Sarah (Derstein) face guard her in the second quarter, which limited her touches a little bit.
“In the second half, Maggie had them setting screens for her to get her looks, but Lauren Crisler is not the kind of player you can play one-on-one. It needs to be a team effort. There were rebounds we should have had that she got. We didn’t match her aggressiveness on the boards.”
The Indians - who had averaged 53 points a game through 10 games prior to Thursday’s loss – were led by the 10-point effort of Bianca Picard, who also had six rebounds and two steals. Katie O’Connor added eight points, but no other player had more than four.
For the Lady Knights, Vicky Tumasz added seven points and Erin Maher, five. Freshman Mikaela Giuliani had nine rebounds and five steals to go along with two points.
In a preview of things to come, neither team scored until O’Connor connected on a baseline three-pointer at the 6:00 mark. Crisler gave her team an 8-5 lead when she buried an outside jumper, but a basket by O’Connor made it an 8-7 game at the end of one quarter.
Another O’Connor three put the Indians on top 10-8, but a Giuliani basket knotted the score. Back-to-back baskets by Allison Gallagher put the Indians on top 14-10, and they still led 18-15 heading into halftime, thanks to a bucket by Picard in the closing seconds.
Picard scored on her team’s opening possession of the second half to put the Indians on top 20-15, but Maher connected on a three-pointer for the Lady Knights, and after Crisler scored on a putback to knot the score, the Lady Knights took a lead they would not lose (22-20) after a Maher jumper.
“I wouldn’t say we played awful in the first half, but we definitely didn’t play up to our potential,” Maher said. “We came out a little bit slow.”
For her part, Maher is just happy to be back in the lineup after being sidelined three-and-a-half weeks.
“I’m getting more into it,” she said. “There’s soreness afterwards, but the team has been really supportive, really helpful. They’re not getting frustrated with me, and they’re helping me ease back into it.
“In the first half, I took some bad shots, so it was nice to get that confidence back and hit some shots in the second half.”
Crisler scored on a pair of putbacks, and Tumasz scored on a drive to put the Lady Knights on top 28-20. A basket by Picard at the 1:15 mark brought the end to a six-minute scoring drought for the Indians, who trimmed the Lady Knights’ lead to 28-22 heading into the final quarter.
When Giuliani found a cutting Crisler for an easy basket, the Lady Knights led 30-22. A Picard basket cut that lead to six, but a Tumasz three-pointer put the Lady Knights on top 33-24. The Indians would manage just two points the rest of the way as the Lady Knights closed it out with a 6-2 run.
“In the second half, Erin came up with five big points in the very beginning, and that was awesome, and Vicky hit some big shots too,” Crisler said. “I think there might have been a little bit of nerves at the beginning just because we knew it was going to be a really tough game.
“They took us to overtime the last time, and we knew they would come out and want to beat us. In the second half, we definitely picked up our intensity on defense. That’s something our coach has been stressing a lot because getting stops on defense will lead to creating more things on offense.”
While the Indians saw their record drop to 5-3 in the league (7-4 overall), the Lady Knights improve to 7-1 in the league (13-1 overall).
NORTH PENN (39) – Erin Maher 2 0-0 5, Mikaela Giuliani 1 0-1 2; Lauren Crisler 9 6-6 24; Brianna Cullen 1-2 1; Vicky Tumasz 2 2-2 7; Sierra Simon 0 0-0 0; Jenn Halcovage 0 0-0 0; Tehya Daneker 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 14 9-11 39.
SOUDERTON (26) – Allison Gallagher 2 0-0 4; Katie O’Connor 3 0-0 8; Libby Wetzler 1 0-2 2; Courtney Day 1 0-2 2; Bianca Picard 4 2-2 10; Sarah Derstein 0 0-2 0. TOTALS 11 2-8 26.
North Penn 8 7 13 11-39
Souderton 7 11 4 4-26
3-point goals: Katie O’Connor 2, Vicky Tumasz, Erin Maher.
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