Check back for additional tournament recaps of SOL teams in action over the holiday break.
Indians capture tournament crown - Carley Kendall’s face was expressionless as she accepted the MVP plaque for the Wissahickon Holiday Tournament on Tuesday, but the Souderton sophomore allowed herself a smile when asked about the award after the Indians defeated the Trojans 30-18 to capture the tournament crown.
“I was just going out there, having fun and playing my game, and this just adds to it,” Kendall said. “The more I can relax and just play my game, the more confident I can be.”
Kendall followed her 22-point effort in Monday’s opening round win over Gwynedd Mercy by scoring 10 points. The sophomore forward was the only player in double figures in Tuesday’s title game.
“I’m thrilled for Carley,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “To step in as a sophomore, first-year varsity player and to play with the confidence she’s playing with - I’m really happy for her.
“She’s a student of the game. She’s constantly asking questions about what she can do better. During the next two-and-a-half years, she’s only going to improve. I think we’re just seeing the beginning of what she’s going to do.”
On the other side of the court, Trojan coach Jerry Hartman didn’t have to look far to figure out what went wrong for his squad. The stat sheet told the story of the Trojans’ ice cold shooting performance – they connected on just four-of-35 shots through the final three quarters and only 2-of-25 in a second half that saw them score just five points.
“I honestly don’t know how we were still in the game – we were only down 12 with four and a half minutes left, and we were shooting (11) percent,” Hartman said. “If you had told me we were going to give up 30 points, I would have thought we would win the game.
“Our defense kept us in the game, but we have to shoot the ball much better than that to be competitive.”
Joining Kendall on the all-tournament squad was teammate Brittany Sandone, who scored five points and played outstanding defense on Trojan standout Colleen Hinde. The Trojans’ senior center – saddled with two fouls early in the first half – scored just three points after scoring 20 one day earlier.
“I do have a lot of help defense,” Sandone said. “I rely on my teammates to help me because she does have a height advantage on me. I couldn’t do it without my teammates.”
Hinde as well as teammate Kristy Ragbir also earned spots on the all-tournament team.
The win was the fifth in a row for the Indians after dropping their season opener to Boyertown. The Trojans, who fell to 4-3, saw their four-game winning streak snapped.
Golden Hawks soar to new heights – Don’t look now, but another Council Rock team is making some serious waves. Council Rock South won the Boardwalk Cup bracket in the Boardwalk Basketball Classic at Wildwood last weekend, downing St. Basil Academy 65-45.
In the win, the Golden Hawks connected at a torrid 60 percent clip from the floor (20-for-33) and an even more impressive 70 percent from three-point range (7-for-10). Freshman Alexis Hoffstaeder led the way with 16 points – which included a four-for-five effort from beyond the arc. Jackie Weber added 14 points and buried three of four three-pointers.
Making their performances even more significant was the fact that the Golden Hawks lost their leading scorer and rebounder, Alex Wheatley, to a bruised knee late in the first half.
“We went small, and look how hot my guards were,” said coach Monica Young. “It’s not just one player. Everyone on the court is contributing. Everybody that steps on the court has been playing well and doing their job.”
Chelsea Allen had six points and six rebounds. Emily Nowicke had nine points and Wheatley, seven points for the Hawks, who were coming off a 70-point effort against Neshaminy in SOL play.
In their opening round game, the Golden Hawks edged one of South Jersey’s top teams, Holy Spirit, 48-47. The Hawks had a double-digit lead and took 34-26 lead into the final quarter, but they found themselves staring a three-point deficit late in the game.
Weber erased that when – despite being fouled – she buried a trey and then sank the foul shot to complete the four-point play and put the Golden Hawks on top by one. Holy Spirit answered with a bucket to go up by one with 18 seconds remaining.
Wheatley sank a shot at the buzzer to win it.
Allen led the Golden Hawks with 12 points and eight rebounds. Nowicke and Wheatley each added 11 points. Wheatley also had seven rebounds.
“We’re just playing really well right now,” said Young, whose team improved to 6-1. “We have to keep playing unselfish basketball.”
The Golden Hawks – whose only loss was a one-point loss to Methacton - won’t have time to rest on their laurels. They have three road games next week against Bensalem, Abington and Central Bucks East.
Maidens rebound for win – North Penn fell to Camden Catholic 56-35 in its opening round game of the Boardwalk Classic but bounced back to defeat Salem 59-38 in Tuesday’s consolation round.
Steph Knauer scored 18 points while Meg Gallagher added 11 in a game that saw the Maidens sprint to a 26-14 lead at the end of one quarter. They took a 35-23 lead into halftime with one player accounting for 20 of Salem’s points.
“Our goal was to shut her down in the second half,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “Mary Ward really did a nice job, and Lauren Crisler helped as well.
“Steph Knauer really finished well around the basket. We played real well today. Hopefully, we’re going to right the ship.”
The win softened the disappointment of Monday’s loss to Camden Catholic.
“We played a good team on Monday,” deMarteleire said. “The score sounds way more lopsided than the game really was.”
The Maidens trailed 30-22 at halftime and scored four points in the opening minute of the third quarter to make it a four-point game, but they did not score again in the quarter, trailing Camden Catholic by 10 heading into the final frame, 36-26.
“We were playing very good defense,” deMarteleire said. “We just couldn’t finish.
“We shot 23 percent from the field and 9-for-21 from the foul line. We shot ourselves in the foot. We could have won the game. I told the kids, ‘You could have toughened up and put the pedal to the medal and taken care of business.’ Instead, we let it slip away.
“We were battling, we were playing good defense, and we were getting good shots. We need to change the outcome through our will to win. Right now, we’re not doing that.”
The Maidens had a team meeting after the loss and responded with a convincing win. They take a 2-4 record into the New Year.
Patriots split games at Boardwalk Classic – Central Bucks East suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday when the Patriots fell to Methacton 48-31 in the opening round of the Boardwalk Classic at Wildwood. They closed out play on Sunday with a 55-34 win over Lower Moreland in a consolation game.
“Methacton has a nice team,” coach Tom Lonergan said. “They played pretty strong that night and pretty much held us in check. We definitely played very poorly. It was a combination of Methacton being on top of their game, and we didn’t play nearly as well as we’re capable of playing.”
The Patriots’ coach is hoping his team will use the loss as a learning experience.
“You certainly realize there’s a lot of work still ahead, and we found that out rather quickly,” Lonergan said. “We’ve only played five games, and there are a lot of games in front of us.
“Even when we played Methacton, it was only our fourth game. We’ve had clunkers in the past, but this went beyond a normal clunker.”
A bright spot in the loss was the play of Jenna Sanfilippo off the bench for the Patriots. The Warriors were led by the 20-point effort of Lauren Ruhl.
The team had an opportunity to process the disappointing loss later that night at a team meeting.
“It was a good talk,” Lonergan said. “Some of their thoughts on what had happened resulted in us tweaking some little things that might not be noticeable to the average person watching us, but what we’ve learned from that Methacton game and hopefully a couple of changes we’re making can help us in the long run.
“If that game resulted in us making those changes which results in us becoming a better team, then you’ll ultimately look back and say you learned something from it.”
The team watched the film of the Methacton game at Monday’s practice.
“Especially at a high school level, you aren’t afforded the luxury of sitting down with your team and watching films,” Lonergan said. “You’re practicing every night, and there’s really not a lot of time to do that.
“Between the break, we were able to accomplish that. It’s sometimes good to be able to watch a film of a game where you had a lot of things you need to correct. We can only hope the things we learned from it and the changes we plan to implement will help us in the long run.”
In Sunday’s win over Lower Moreland, Sarah Martin led the Patriots with 15 points while Liz Martin had 13 points. Courtney McManus chipped in with eight points. SanFilippo – who saw significant playing time – contributed seven points.
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