Check out the recaps for SOL boys/girls basketball teams in Friday’s playback games.
Boys
Third Place
#4 CHESTER 72, #7 BENSALEM 64
Defeating the Clippers on their home court proved to be too tall an order for the Owls. The Owls trailed by just one after a quarter of action, but the Clippers took a 35-29 lead into halftime, and the Owls spent the rest of the game playing catch-up.
Travis Robinson led four Owls in double figures with 18 points, which included a 6-for-8 effort at the foul line. Aaron Sanders and James Ashford both added 15 points, and Jeremiah Alexander contributed 12.
Akeem Taylor’s 21-point led the Clippers.
Bensalem (19-8, 11-1 SOL) will face District 11’s third place team – the winner of Saturday’s Easton/William Allen game – in next Saturday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament.
Bensalem 14-15-12-23 64
Chester 15-20-14-23 72
Bensalem (64) – Travis Robinson 6 6-8 18; Justin Johnson 1 1-1 3; Aaron Sanders 5 3-5 15; Jeremiah Alexander 5 2-4 12; James Ashford 6 3-6 15; Trey Maddella 0 1-2 1; Totals 23 16-26 64.
Chester (72) – Fareed Burton 2 0-1 5; Rahmee Gilbert 5 0-0 13; Akeem Taylor 6 9-13 21; J’Shon Lawler 1 0-0 2; Lenny Camacho 1 0-2 3; Karell Watkins 8 2-4 18; Shaquan Horsey 3 0-0 6; Nasir Madison 1 2-2 4; Totals 27 13-22 72.
3-point goals: Bensalem – Aaron Sanders 2, Chester – Rahmee Gilbert 3, Akeem Taylor 2, Lenny Camacho, Fareed Burton.
Seventh Place
#8 PENNRIDGE 52, #15 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 48
The Rams – led by the 21-point effort of Christian Guldin – rebounded from a pair of losses to earn a win over the Cougars in Friday’s seventh place game.
“I thought it was important for us, especially getting an opportunity to play at home, which I thought was a unique experience knowing you can’t play another home game,” coach Dean Behrens said. “No one can because obviously you’re in states. We had a real nice crowd tonight to see our boys, especially our seniors in their final home game.
“We didn’t disappoint – we got a nice win. It was tough, it was tight, and that King kid is impressive.”
Andrew King, the Cougars’ 6-6 senior forward, put on quite an offensive display, finishing with a game-high 28 points that included five 3-pointers.
“He just looks like a man – he’s 6-6, he can shoot the three, he can play inside, he can handle the ball,” Behrens said. “He was hitting shots – fallaways, deep 3s. He can score from anywhere on the floor.”
The Rams opened up a 15-5 lead at the end of one quarter and took 27-20 lead into halftime.
“Actually, the first couple of minutes it was 3-0, 3-3,” the Rams’ coach said. “Trent (Fisher) was a little frustrated tonight because the King kid guarded him, and he’s tough to score off of.
“Obviously, we got Christian (Guldin) going in the middle to the end of the first quarter, and Trent, as frustrated as he was offensively, still had 11 points and probably had 13 or 14 rebounds. People don’t recognize how important rebounding is. He also guarded King most of the night. He still had 28, but he could have had 40. I thought Trent was a key defensively and on the boards.”
Also for the Rams, Colin Post had seven points and Connor Pleibel had six.
“Connor Pleibel hit two big 3s for us, which is always a plus, and Colin Post did a nice job against their pressure,” Behrens said.
Pennridge (20-8, 9-3 SOL) will play the winner Saturday’s Wilkes-Barre Area/Scranton contest in next Saturday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament.
“We told the boys – everyone has a record of 0-0,” Behrens said. “It’s do or die. Thirty-two teams are in, and 16 will be home by Saturday night. That’s always a real final end to the season, which is tough.
“I’m excited to go play up in the Wilkes-Barre area. We’ve never done that, so this is a different feel. We’re excited. It’s a great opportunity for us.”
Downingtown East 5-15-10-15 48
Pennridge 15-12-18-7 52
Downingtown East (48) – James Basilii 1 0-0 2; David Owsik 4 0-0 10; Grant Umberger 2 0-0 4; Andrew King 11 1-2 28; George Bousum 2 0-0 4; Totals 20 1-2 48.
Pennridge (52) – Connor Pleibel 2 0-1 6; Luke Yoder 2 0-1 5; Christian Guldin 7 5-6 21; Colin Post 3 1-2 7; Anthony Phillips 1 0-0 2; Trent Fisher 5 0-0 11; Totals 19 6-10 52.
3-point goals: DE – Pennridge – Christian Guldin 4, Connor Pleibel 2, Luke Yoder, Trent Fisher.
Ninth Place
#2 GARNET VALLEY 58, #24 NORTH PENN 50
Girls
Third Place
#1 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 56, #3 SPRING-FORD 42
Abby Sharpe had a breakout game for the Colonials, scoring a career-high 17 and leading the Colonials to the no-doubt-about it win over the visiting Rams.
“She had a special game,” coach Dan Dougherty said. “She really hit big baskets in every quarter, but she had one three and two twos in the third quarter and really led the charge in the third quarter to extend the lead from five to eight to 10, and we were up 14 at the end of the third.
“She has tremendous range on her three, and she’s also very athletic and good at driving to the basket, so when people run out super hard to run her off the 3-point line, she really made some nice plays driving to the basket as well.”
Also coming up big, according to the PW coach, was Gabby Cooper, who scored all eight of her points in the second quarter.
“It was a really high-paced, flying up and down the floor game with two teams that love to run,” said Dougherty, whose team trailed 15-11 after one quarter. “In the second quarter, Coop missed a three, and on the next possession, she took the same shot again and nailed it.
“Next time down the floor she got fouled, missed the foul shot, got her own rebound and put it back in. Just really huge energy plays. We won the second quarter 14-4, and she had the last eight points. She singlehandedly had an 8-0 run. Her energy, her enthusiasm defensively rebounding the ball – it really, really sparked the team in the second quarter.”
The Colonials took a 25-19 lead into halftime and – behind the inspired play of Sharpe – extended that to 43-29 after three quarters.
Friday’s playback win came on the heels of a disappointing loss to Pennsbury in Wednesday’s semifinals.
“Wednesday night’s loss was so emotional,” Dougherty said. “In watching the film back, we really felt we lost the game in the first quarter. We had multiple opportunities to jump out to a lead in the first quarter, and it really would have changed the tone of the game as opposed to sit and stall and guard five out. If we have the lead, they can’t do that.
“So it was a real emotional loss, but Thursday we came in, and I told the girls, ‘Everybody is going to play. It might be 30 seconds, it might be two minutes, but everybody is going to play. We’re going to play with a ton of energy. We’re not going to game plan. We’re just going to do what we do.’
“We didn’t watch any film on Spring-Ford. We came out and were like – let’s just focus on what we need to do to be better. The kids really reacted positively to that. Ten girls played in the first half. I’m not saying this game was meaningless, but there’s seven kids on our bench that bust their butt every day at practice. The kids came out really enthusiastic. I think not putting pressure on them to try and win this game really relaxed them, and they really responded well.”
In addition to Sharpe and Cooper, Kaitlyn Flanagan Anna McTamney and Jordyn Thomas each added nine points. Flanagan’s all came at the foul line where she was 9-for-12.
“Deja Evans really played well for us tonight,” Dougherty said. “She probably played close to 16 minutes tonight. She only had two points, but she’s a freshman playing in district playoffs, and she really, really played well. We’re going to need that going forward.”
For the Rams, Lucy Olsen’s 14 points led the way. Alyssa Yuan also finished in double figures with 11 points. No other Spring-Ford player had more than four.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (23-4, 13-1 SOL) will face Pocono Mountain West, District 11’s fourth place team, in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament.
Spring-Ford 15-4-10-13 42
Plymouth Whitemarsh 11-14-18-13 56
Spring-Ford (42) – Abby Boyer 1 0-0 3; Lucy Olsen 5 2-4 14; Alyssa Yuan 4 3-3 11; Emily Tiffan 1 1-2 4; Skylar Sullivan 1 0-0 2; Hailey Hudak 0 1-2 1; Morgan Pizzi 1 0-0 3; Rachel Rutkowski 1 0-1 2; Totals 15 7-14 42.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (56) – Kaitlyn Flanagan 0 9-12 9; Abby Sharpe 6 3-3 17; Leah Kaye 0 2-2 2; Gabby Cooper 2 3-6 8; Anna McTamney 4 1-3 9; Jordyn Thomas 3 2-4 9; Deja Evans 1 0-3 2; Totals 16 20-31 56.
3-point goals: Spring-Ford – Lucy Olsen 2, Abby Boyer, Emily Tiffan, Morgan Pizzi, PW – Abby Sharpe 2, Gabby Cooper, Jordyn Thomas.
Fifth Place
#8 UPPER DUBLIN 48, #10 NORTH PENN 26
Defense has always been Upper Dublin’s calling card under coach Morgan Funsten, and this year is no exception, but in the upside down world that has been the 2019-20 season, the Flying Cardinals won a game on Friday the numbers suggest they should have lost.
“We’ve really been trying to zone in defensively recently,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “We played great defense tonight. We sometimes played twice or three times harder than we had to because we gave up 21 offensive rebounds today.
“It’s kind of been the story of our season – numbers don’t add up in certain games. In the PW game (a 35-21 loss), we had seven turnovers and we allowed four offensive rebounds, and we lost the game. Tonight we gave up 21 offensive rebounds, we had 17 turnovers, and we win the game by 22. I have no idea how things are working anymore. It seems to be the opposite of what makes sense when you look at the numbers.”
The Colonials – sparked by five points from Kara Grebe – led 11-10 after one quarter.
“Kara Grebe came out and made the first shot of the game – she made a three from the corner, and it kind of set the tone for us,” Funsten said.
The Cardinals outscored the Knights 13-4 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 24-14 lead. Dayna Balasa buried a pair of 3s in the second quarter to lead the Cardinals.
In a third quarter that saw UD outscore its visitors 14-9, Anajae Smith ignited the Cardinals with six points, six rebounds and an assist.
“Jackie Vargas was in foul trouble, and Anajae Smith had a great third quarter,” Funsten said. “It’s a very nice to have a player off the bench the caliber of Anajae. She had eight points and 10 rebounds tonight.
“We have been going on runs in pretty much all of our games, and the difference tonight was we were able to continue to get stops defensively after we went on our runs. That’s another thing we’ve been trying to focus on. We did a lot of good things. We think we know what we have to fix, and we’re looking forward to getting better this week.”
Vargas finished with nine points, six rebounds and two blocks. Balasa added nine points, three rebounds, three assists and three deflections, and Grebe also had nine points, eight rebounds and one block. Jess Polin had six points, six rebounds, seven assists, seven deflections and a block. Bliss Brenner had five rebounds, two assists, two deflections and a block.
“At halftime, we talked about trying to become a better defensive rebounding team, and I thought that Kara Grebe grabbed three consecutive 50-50 rebounds in the second half,” Funsten said. “With a team that’s as physical as North Penn, to be able to do that hopefully sets the tone for our entire team moving forward.
“Offensively, when we were taking care of the ball, our balance came out again. In the playbacks, we never try to game plan to play this team or that team. We just try to worry about ourselves and try to go into states with as much momentum as possible.”
Alli Lindsay’s 11 points – which included a pair of 3s and eight first-quarter points – led the Knights. Val McGriff had six in a contest that saw the Knights connect on only 8-of-56 shots from the field (14.3 percent). They were 4-of-34 from 2-point land and 4-22 from beyond the arc.
“It was a very physical game,” Funsten said. “North Penn is very experienced, they’re strong, all five starters can lead them in scoring on any given night.
“In the half court, we were great defensively except we just need to get better at finishing possessions.”
Upper Dublin (20-8, 12-2 SOL) will face District 3’s third place team, Cumberland Valley, in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament. North Penn (18-8, 8-4) will face District 11 runner-up Freedom in Friday’s state opener.
North Penn 10-4-9-3 26
Upper Dublin 11-13-14-10 48
North Penn (26) – Laynie Doran 0 0-2 0; Abby Plaugher 1 0-0 3; Alli Lindsay 3 2-2 11; Imani Plaza 1 2-2 4; Alaina Mullaly 0 1-2 1; Kate Early 1 1-4 1; Carley Adams 0 0-2 0; Val McGriff 3 0-0 6; Totals 8 6-14 26.
Upper Dublin (48) – Bliss Brenner 1 2-2 4; Anajae Smith 4 0-3 8; Jess Polin 1 3-4 6; Kara Grebe 4 0-0 9; Sarah Eskew 1 0-0 3; Dayna Balasa 2 3-4 9; Jackie Vargas 3 3-4 9; Totals 16 11-17 48.
3-point goals: North Penn – Alli Lindsay 3, Abby Plaugher, UD – Dayna Balasa, Sarah Eskew, Kara Grebe Jess Polin.
Ninth Place
#14 OWEN J ROBERTS 42, #12 SOUDERTON 40 (OT)
The Indians trailed 7-5 after one quarter but outscored the visiting Wildcats 23-13 in the next two and took a 28-20 lead into the final quarter. The Wildcats – sparked by their pressure defense – erased that lead, extending the game to overtime where they eked out the win.
Mikaela Reese posted a double-double with a game-high 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds. She also had two assists and two blocks. Jordan Zimmerman added 10 points, including a pair of 3s. Zimmerman had all 10 of her points in the second and third quarters – eight in the third quarter. Reese had nine of her points in the middle two frames. No other player had more than five points for the Indians. Freshman point guard Casey Harter was credited with five assists.
Souderton (19-8, 7-5 SOL) will face District 12 champion Cardinal O’Hara in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament.
Owen J Roberts 7-4-9-13-9 42
Souderton 5-10-13-5-7 40
Owen J Roberts (42) – Hannah Clay 5 2-2 14; Avery White 3 4-6 10; Olivia LeClaire 3 2-4 8; Brooke Greenawald 2 0-1 4; Maddi Koury 1 4-6 6; Totals 14 12-29 42.
Souderton (40) – Jordan Zimmerman 4 0-0 10; Erin Bohmueller 2 1-1 5; Olivia Schneider 1 2-4 4; Casey Harter 1 0-0 2; Hannah Alderfer 1 0-0 2; Mikaela Reese 5 7-12 17; Totals 14 10-17 40.
3-point goals: OJR – Hannah Clay 2, Soduerton – Jordan Zimmerman 2.
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