North Penn earned a spot in the District One AAAA semifinals while CB South and Souderton earned wins in their quests to earn a state playoff berth. To view photos of the North Penn vs CB East game, please visit our Photo Gallery.
#3 NORTH PENN 55, #22 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 43
Moments after the Patriots misfired on their first shot attempt of the game, Vicky Tumasz hit nothing but net on an outside jump shot on the Lady Knights’ opening possession.
It turned out to be an omen of things to come for Tumasz and her teammates as well as the Patriots. The Lady Knights buried four of their first five shots from the floor – three were three-pointers – to open up a quick 11-0 lead. When freshman Sam Carangi sank her second three-pointer of the quarter, the Lady Knights led 14-0. East finally got on the scoreboard when Kyra Scaliti converted an offensive rebound into a basket, but the Lady Knights weren’t finished with their offensive onslaught. A Tumasz trey after a Carangi steal made it a 17-2 game. A three-point play by Lindsay Neir gave East a temporary reprieve, but Carangi answered by connecting on another three-pointer to give the Lady Knights a 20-5 lead.
As important as their torrid offensive showing may have been, it was the Lady Knights’ defense that was the story of the opening quarter. Coach Maggie deMarteleire devised a defensive game plan to keep the ball out of East point guard Karoline White’s hands and – as a result – high-scoring center Courtney Webster’s hands.
“We did a great job of executing that,” deMarteleire said. “All five of them did exactly what we practiced yesterday. They were all key to that.
“Offensively, when you’re hitting a lot of threes that obviously helps your cause.”
Neither White or Webster had meaningful touches in the first quarter. North Penn sophomore Mikaela Giuliani found herself going against one of the best in Webster.
“She’s a very good player, and it was hard,” Giuliani said. “Erin (Maher) had my back, and Vicky (Tumasz) was on White, so I knew it would be hard for her to get the ball in to her, and we were able to keep her off (the scoreboard) in the first quarter.”
For an East squad that had managed just 18 points in its win over Upper Dublin three days earlier, it was a frustrating start, but they displayed their resiliency. Sparked by four points from both Webster and senior Emily Sebesky, the Patriots outscored the Lady Knights 14-11 in the second quarter, making it a 31-19 game at the intermission.
“Coming off the game Wednesday when we only scored 18 points, our shooting percentage was not very good, so we worked a lot on that at practice,” Sebesky said. “Coach gave us an article the other day, and it said that one of the most important points is picking up your teammates, and I think that’s what we’re trying to work on.”
The Patriots trimmed the Knights’ lead to single digits (38-29) when White found Webster for a bucket midway through the third quarter, and after a White steal, Webster scored on a putback to make it a 38-31 game.
“We hit a bunch of really key shots in the beginning of the game that got us up,” Giuliani said. “I do think we all let up a little bit, and we realized they were going to battle through it all, and we had to get it back together.”
The Lady Knights went back on top by 10, but Scalitti buried a pair of foul shots to make it a 43-35 game heading into the final quarter.
“When we made the adjustments at halftime, they had to go
back to regular man, and we were able to run some of our sets,” East coach Liz Potash said. “Coming into the second quarter, we said it’s 0-0. We knew we had a big battle, but we said we had to get them one at a time. I was really proud of the girls for the adjustments they made.”
Maher connected on a pair from the foul line to put the Lady Knights on top 45-35 in the opening minute of the final quarter, but White answered with a basket for the Patriots. A basket by freshman Irisa Ye upped North Penn’s lead to 10, and the Patriots would get no closer the rest of the way.
“We’ve come so far this season,” Sebesky said. “We wanted to win the conference, but we didn’t get that, and after the win on Wednesday, we knew we just wanted to keep rolling with it.
“It stinks we couldn’t win today, but I think it is important we stayed with it until the last second of the last quarter. Play hard, play smart and play together – coach always mentions that.”
Three North Penn players – Tumasz (14 points), Maher (14 points) and Bri Cullen (10 points) – finished the game in double figures. Maher also had six assists and five rebounds. Carangi added nine points, and Giuliani had a team high six rebounds.
For the Patriots, Webster led the way with 14 points – 10 in the second half. White and Neir both added eight.
The Patriots (16-8, 8-6 SOL) will travel to 18th-seeded Abington for a playback game for state seeding purposes on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Lady Knights (22-3, 12-2) will face West Chester Rustin on Wednesday at Harriton High School (6 p.m.) in a district semifinal contest.
“We’re all really excited,” Giuliani said. “We want to get to the district championship, so we’re just going to keep working hard. If we execute our game plan and play the way we can play, I think we can do it.”
Central Bucks East 5 14 16 8-43
North Penn 20 11 12 12-55
#7 WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 65, #18 ABINGTON 46
(Check back for a feature article about Deja Rawls surpassing the 1,000-point mark.)
After scoring just one point in the first half, junior Deja Rawls exploded for 19 second half points, including point number 1,000 of her stellar career in the third quarter. The game was halted for a brief celebration at the first stoppage of play after she hit the historic basket.
“She passed it and then scored three more times before there was a stoppage of play,” coach Dan Marsh said.
Rawls finished with a team-high 20 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a strong Rustin squad that features the talents of 6-1 senior Adashia Franklyn.
The St. Joe’s-bound senior scored a game-high 22 points and was one of four Rustin starters at least six feet tall.
The Ghosts kept it close for a while, trailing 9-5 at the end of one quarter but 25-14 by halftime. Rustin exploded for 40 seconds half points on its way to the convincing win.
“We came out very tentative and didn’t have a good first half, and then we had to play catch up the whole time,” Marsh said. “They’re going to cause problems. If teams play them in the half court, they’re going to win the district title.
“They’re so long, We like to attack the gaps and penetrate. When we attacked and tried to penetrate against them, they had a 6-2 girl in there blocking everything. She probably had five blocks.”
Leah Simmons also finished in double figures for the Ghosts with 14 points.
Despite their 18th seed, the Ghosts (18-7, 12-2 SOL) will have a home game on Wednesday when they host 22nd-seeded Central Bucks East in a playback game for state seeding.
Abington 5 9 14 18-46
West Chester Rustin 9 16 20 20-65
#14 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 35, #6 UPPER DUBLIN 32
A pair of SOL teams coming off of heartbreaking losses two days earlier found themselves locked in a battle at Upper Dublin Saturday. The Titans took a 10-6 lead after one quarter, but the Flying Cardinals rallied to go on top 19-16 at halftime,.
“In the first half, I thought we didn’t quite execute defensively the way that we wanted to, and defensively, they got into a nice rhythm,” South coach Beth Mattern said. “We were in more foul trouble than they were. In the second half, they picked up a couple of fouls.
“We executed much better on the defensive end in the second half, and offensively, a couple of our shots fell, but we struggled to score today.”
The Titans limited the Flying Cardinals to just 13 second half points while they scored 19.
“I thought our key was our defensive execution,” Mattern said. “They run so many back screens and flare screens, and they run them well.
“We just really had to put pressure on them, and I thought we did a much better job in the second half.”
The Titans held the Flying Cardinals to single digits in every quarter except the second when they scored 13.
“We struggled on defense with getting stuck on the back screens that they set,” sophomore Jordan Vitelli said. “We knew we had to work on that in the second half if we wanted to come out and win.”
Offensively, the Titans struggled to find their stride against a stingy Cardinal defense.
“They were in a solid 1-2-2 or 3-2, and we had to rotate the ball quickly,” Vitelli said. “We got shots off, but some of them weren’t falling. It was just hard to get good looks.
“Alysha (Lofton) was in foul trouble in the first half, and it was hard to get the ball into (center) Lauren Mosher.”
Emma Gardy led the Titans with eight points, and Vitelli added seven.
“There wasn’t anyone who dominated the game, but no one played poorly either,” Mattern said. “I thought everyone executed the role they needed.
“We struggled a little in the second quarter with their defense, but we made a couple of adjustments at halftime, got ourselves out of foul trouble, and that was the confidence we needed. We had three three’s in the fourth quarter and played like we wanted it.”
For Vitelli, who was sidelined with a stress fracture of her tibia, it’s a win just being back in the lineup.
“It feels great to be back,” said the sophomore guard. “I missed some big games, and it was pretty hard sitting on the bench and not be able to be on the court and support my team.”
The Flying Cardinals were led by Larissa Leyes (eight points) and Julie Cross (seven points).
The Titans (19-6, 14-4 SOL) have earned a date with second-seeded Garnet Valley for a state playoff berth on Wednesday.
“We know we’re capable of making it to states,” Vitelli said. “We just have to practice hard and come out on Wednesday with the mindset that we can win.”
Central Bucks South 10 6 6 13-35
Upper Dublin 6 13 4 9-32
#17 SOUDERTON 57, #9 RIDLEY 52
The Indians needed a hero, and Bianca Picard answered the call, turning a two-point deficit into a one-point lead when she buried a three-pointer with less than a minute to play. Her shot turned out to be the game winner.
Patience, according to Picard, was the key.
“We played against a defense we haven’t seen all year – a matchup zone,” the senior point guard said. “We were practicing against it, and one of the things we talked about was being patient with it.
“If you keep moving the ball – screening and cutting through, people have to find you. When we came down and I saw we were down two, it was like – we need to be patient here. We have a minute thirty left. We need to chill, take a deep breath and realize we have a lot of time.
“When Katie (O’Connor) passed me the ball and I hit that shot, it was like, ‘All right, here we go. We’re up now, so now we have to play good defense and get a stop.’ That was a better mentality than thinking to yourself, ‘We need a basket because we’re down.’ We were up and all we needed to do was play great defense.”
For her part, Picard always had faith the Indians would find a way to win.
“I felt like the entire game, even when they were up four – ‘Okay, we’re fine’ because we were the better team,” the senior captain said. “Finally, when it came down the stretch, we were like, ‘Oh my god, there’s three minutes left in the fourth quarter. We have to make plays. We have to figure something out here.’
“I think it was a realization with everybody that it could be our last game, and we needed to do something.”
The Indians buried their foul shots down the stretch for the final margin of victory.
“Bianca’s three was a big-time three,” coach Lynn Carroll said. “It was a good possession. We had been playing pretty hectic on four or five possessions leading up to it with quick shots like we had to score or we were going to lose.
“On that possession, we were patient and got good looks for the first time in several minutes. It was a good possession as a team and a good shot by Bianca.”
The Indians were 5-of-7 from the foul line down the stretch with Picard connecting on 4-of-4 while senior Devon Boehm was 1-of-2, connecting on the front end of a one-and-one.
“I’m really, really happy,” Carroll said. “There were many things we didn’t do as well as we normally do.
“Part of it is because of how well Ridley played, but part of it is – we need to do a better job with some of that stuff. I think everyone on our side was getting extremely nervous for a while in the second half. We started to play with a little anxiety on the offensive end. To feel that way and still be able to get it done was probably pretty important for us.
“Sometimes you feel really, really great about wins, and I feel great about parts of the game, I think overall we felt pretty fortunate that we found a way to win when things just really were not going our way in the second half on either end of the court.”
The Indians jumped out to a 19-15 lead at the end of one quarter and took a 31-27 lead into the intermission.
“At halftime, it felt like we were really, really playing well,” Carroll said. “It felt like we should have been up 15, but it seemed like their kids were hitting big shots. I think that’s the way they play.
“I was really impressed by a couple of their kids, especially Bri Mulhern. She hit three three’s in the first quarter, and they were step-back three’s, and it was clear she wanted to have a big day and win it for her team.”
Ridley came storming back in the third quarter, using a 10-0 tear to go on top 45-41.
“They made some big plays,” Carroll said. “They hit some tough shots, they were attacking the basket, and we weren’t defending that as well as we normally do.
“They’re a tough, hard-nosed team.”
The Indians were dealing with some serious foul woes. Junior Sarah Derstein, who scored 11 points, fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.
“Sarah probably played 15 minutes the whole game,” Carroll said. “When Sarah isn’t in the game, it changes what we do significantly.
“Ultimately, some of our kids just hit big shots in the fourth quarter. We had the momentum at the right time of the game. They outplayed us in the second half except for the last couple of minutes.”
While Picard scored the game winner, Boehm, who scored eight of her 12 points in the first quarter, connected on a huge three-pointer down the stretch to give the Indians a one-point lead.
Picard (14 points), Boehm, Derstein and Allison Gallagher (11 points) all finished the game in double figures.
The Indians (18-7, 10-4 SOL) will travel to 12th-seeded Methacton on Wednesday in a battle for a state berth that will be awarded to the winner.
“It’s an exciting time for everybody,” Picard said. “We were in this position last year, but it’s different because it’s our senior year. This is it for us – win or go home.
“Last year it was like, ‘Oh there’s always next year.’ That’s not happening any more. Some of these girls will never play basketball again after this year. We’re excited, and if we do the little things we need to do we can win.”
Souderton 19 12 10 16-57
Ridley 15 12 18 7-52
#2 GARNET VALLEY 44, #10 NESHAMINY 40
The Redskins – despite the absence of senior guard McKenna Mullin (injury) – jumped out to a 12-9 lead after one quarter. The Jaguars came back to take a 25-20 lead into halftime, but it was still anyone’s game down the stretch.
Sarah Oliveira led the ‘Skins with 15 points while sophomore Morgan Rosenbaum added 11.
The Redskins closed out a successful season with an overall record of 18-5 (13-1 SOL).
Neshaminy 12 8 9 11-40
Garnet Valley 9 16 10 9-44
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