PW advanced to Friday’s District One 6A title game at Spring-Ford. CB East & Upper Dublin saw their seasons come to an end. PW/CB East photos provided courtesy of Larry Small. Check back for a gallery of the game.
Class 6A
#2 PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 50, #3 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 19
The Colonials didn’t really need any extra motivation heading into Wednesday’s win-or-go-home District One 6A contest against CB East. If they did, they needed only to remember their only loss of the season – 32-29 at the hands of the Patriots in a game they led by 11 at halftime.
“That was our only loss this year, so that was definitely motivation,” junior captain Kaitlyn Flanagan said. “Also last year, we got to this exact point in districts, and we also lost in this game, so it was a lot of redemption for us heading into this game.
“The stakes are obviously higher because there’s less teams (this year), and you lose – you go home, so you’ve got to leave everything out on the court.”
The Colonials took care of business in a hurry, leading from wire to wire and earning a spot in Friday’s district title game at Spring-Ford.
“It’s so exciting,” Flanagan said. “It’s always a goal of ours to go as far as possible. It’s really great, especially with this group of girls that’s not going to happen again, that we are able to get to the district championship.”
“We know we don’t have that much time with this special group,” sophomore Erin Daley said. “That’s definitely the big motive. We know we can win, it’s right there in front of us. We just have to be better than we’ve ever played this season.
“Every game so far we’ve played in districts we’ve come out with high energy, and that’s one of the most important things to us because we know every game counts from the start. We know we have to come out like this in any gym we play in.”
The Colonials had the kind of start that few teams could match, burying their shots and preventing the Patriots from making theirs.
“I just told (CB East coach) Liz (Potash) that sometimes it’s a make or miss game – they couldn’t make and we couldn’t miss,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “What a difference it is shooting in your own gym. This is why you work hard all season to have a home court advantage in a game like this.
“Our kids shoot better in our own gym. We took a bunch of shots that we practice every day. Sometimes it truly does boil down to make or miss.”
Jordyn Thomas buried a pair of first quarter 3s to lead the Colonials’ charge. Her second – with 4:27 remaining in the quarter – spotted the Colonials a 10-1 lead. Flanagan converted a three-point play when she was fouled on a fast break, and the Colonials were on top 13-1. An injury kept the Colonials’ junior point guard out of the regular season meeting between the two teams.
“Having Kate allows everybody to play their comfortable role,” Dougherty said. “Even when Kate comes out of the game, it’s the same full rotations we’ve done for two years now.
“It’s just a calmness – she brings a calmness, she brings that third captain on the floor. Coop (Gabby Cooper) is the Energizer bunny, Anna (McTamney) is a two-way star, and Kate is that calming force out there. Having her made a world of difference.”
East junior Elise Duffy buried a baseline shot in the opening minute of the second quarter for the Patriots’ first field goal. Lainey Allen answered with a basket for PW, and after an East miss, Thomas converted a 3-point play.
Duffy’s three-point play made it an 18-6 game, but then Erin Daley went to work, reeling off seven straight points to put the Colonials on top 25-6.
“It did feel like everything was working, but we take those shots every day at practice,” Daley said. “Those are what we practice. When we do it in the game, it’s just like when we do it in practice. They’re all in rhythm, and it just works for us.”
A Gabby Cooper three upped that lead, and when Thomas buried her third three of the night in the closing seconds of the half, PW led 31-8.
“Our shots were really falling,” Flanagan said. “Shots we practice all the time were going in for us tonight. I think we really got our energy from the defensive end.
“They’re a really great team, a lot of seniors. They have a really quick point guard, they have a great post player, so it was a lot of preparation and just really wanting it more than we did the last game. I think it came down to that.”
Thomas led the Colonials with 16 points, and Daley added nine. Flanagan finished with eight.
“Jordyn Thomas making shots – it was huge,” Dougherty said. “Anna McTamney scored four points and we won by 31.”
“Jordyn’s shooting outside – she’s an excellent shooter, and having Kate (Flanagan) was a big deal, but I thought Erin (Daley) was the difference because they did a good job taking Anna (McTamney) away. All five of our kids can score. When Abby Sharpe and Lainey (Allen) come in, they can score too. Our kids did a good job of finding the right opening – just be patient and find the right opening and then attack it.”
According to Daley, the March 2 loss to East might well have served a useful purpose.
“Not necessarily we needed a loss, but we did need a wake-up game because we did have a couple of not our best games in a row,” Daley said. “After that game, we realized we needed to step up, get our heads back in the game.
“We knew that when districts came it was one and done, and we knew that every game mattered. From now on, we’re just playing like every game could be our last game.”
For the Patriots, Duffy’s seven points led the way. Chestnut Hill recruit Emily Chmiel, who averaged close to 18 points a game, finished with just three points and had very few touches near the basket.
“Kudos to Jordyn (Thomas),” Flanagan said. “She worked so hard down there. She wanted to get back at her from the first game, and she really came out so strong against her.”
All-league senior point guard Mia Salvati was held to just five points.
“Defensively, I thought we did an outstanding job on 30 and 23,” Dougherty said of Chmiel and Salvati. “Granted, they did miss shots, but I thought we did a good job contesting them.”
East coach Liz Potash credited the Colonials.
“They didn’t miss a shot,” the Patriots’ coach said. “As they started to score more, you start pressing a little bit more.
“What we know is that they’re huge, and we were not going to be able to score the ball inside, so we knew we were going to have to rely on some outside shooting, and it’s no secret that outside shooting is not our strong suit. We took a ton of mid-range shots this week and knew that’s where we were going to have to score, and we couldn’t make a shot.”
Central Bucks East closed out its season with a 17-2 record. The Patriots were the SOL Colonial Division champions with a 10-0 record.
“I told them – ‘You need to have a short memory. I know this score is going to be fresh in your mind for a bit, but it cannot take away what this season was,’” Potash said. “What they did this year is so unbelievable. To go through that league that we play in twice and go undefeated. We lost to Upper Dublin and we lost to PW. We beat PW one time, and that’s a team that can win the state championship.
“These girls were able to raise the bar, and they played as team.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh (18-1, 10-0 SOL) will travel to Spring-Ford for Friday night’s District One 6A title game. It is the program’s second trip to the district title game in five years. They fell to Abington 62-57 in 2017.
Central Bucks East 1-7-6-5 19
Plymouth Whitemarsh 13-18-11-8 50
Central Bucks East (19) – Mia Salvati 2 1-1 5; Elise Duffy 3 1-1 7; Emily Chmiel 1 1-2 3; Emily Barry 2 0-0 4; TOTALS 8 3-4 19.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (50) – Kaitlyn Flanagan 2 3-3 7; Erin Daley 4 0-0 9; Abby Sharpe 2 0-0 5; Anna McTamney 2 0-0 4; Lainey Allen 1 2-2 4; Jordyn Thomas 5 3-3 16; Deja Evans 1 0-0 2; Gabby Cooper 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 18 8-8 50.
3-point goals: PW – Jordyn Thomas 3, Erin Daley, Abby Sharpe, Gabby Cooper.
#1 SPRING-FORD 47, #4 UPPER DUBLIN 29
They knew the odds were stacked against them.
Granted, the Flying Cardinals had given Spring-Ford all it could handle in a Feb. 27 non-league contest, extending the Rams to overtime before falling 49-46. In that game, Jess Polin turned in a monster performance, leading UD with 23 points – which included five 3s – and also contributing five assists and five rebounds.
In Wednesday’s rematch, Polin watched from the sidelines. The senior point guard went down with a knee injury late in Saturday’s win over West Chester Rustin. It turned out to be every bit as serious as coach Morgan Funsten and the Cardinals feared.
“When she saw the doctor on Sunday, it was apparent that it was going to be an ACL, and she got an MRI on Monday morning that confirmed it,” the UD coach said.
With Polin sidelined, the Cardinals could not afford to allow the Rams to get off to a fast start, but that’s exactly what happened.
“Spring-Ford had 17 points four-and-a-half minutes into the game – we go full games sometimes not giving up 17 points,” Funsten said. “It was just insane what they did.”
By halftime, the visiting Cardinals were staring at a 30-6 deficit.
“We would have liked a lot better start to the game,” Funsten said. “We got a couple decent shots, but we also forced a couple of shots early, and they got out in transition, and we gave them a couple of open 3s. Typically, our transition defense is good.
“In the half court, we were defending them pretty well. They’re extremely talented, and they started the game 7-for-8 from the field. When you’re trying to feel your way out as a team who’s trying to find – for one game – a new identity after being so used to having Jess out there, you really just hope the other team doesn’t start the game 7-for-8.
“Then we rushed some shots. With the score being what it was, you can’t be as patient offensively, but they’re a great team, and they came out on fire. It would have been nice if they would have let us settle in a little more. They’re in the position they’re in right now for a reason.”
The Cardinals – behind 15 second-half points from Sarah Eskew – outscored the Rams 23-17 after the intermission, refusing to go down quietly.
“30-6 at halftime was an embarrassing score, and it would have been very easy for our girls to just go through the motions in the second half,” Funsten said. “We came out and we pressed in the second half, and we wanted to make sure Spring-Ford knew we were on the court with them tonight because the first half they probably didn’t feel like we were. We got it to 15 or 17 and just kept fighting.”
Eskew’s 15 points included four 3-pointers. She also had a team high five rebounds. Amy Ngo added eight points – which included a 5-for-5 effort at the foul line. She also had two rebounds, two deflections , a steal and a block. Dayna Balasa had five points, four rebounds and a steal in her final game for the Cardinals. Bliss Brenner had five assists, two blocks and two rebounds.
“Sarah Eskew – which you would expect out of a senior in their last game – had 15 points in the second half alone,” Funsten said. “She just didn’t want to go home yet. To have that performance offensively when you’re also guarding (Lucy) Olsen defensively, that’s just unheard of because of all the energy you’re exerting.
“Dayna (Balasa )played tough, and Rachel Bilger came in and played tough as our three seniors on the floor. Jess (Polin) struggled to watch what was happening. She just would have done anything to be out there with her teammates tonight. I’m really proud of all these girls have accomplished, and the way they have accomplished it is what I’m most proud of. They all come from absolutely top-notch families. There’s a reason why they are the types of kids that they are – just the way they were brought up. After the game, I couldn’t stop saying thank you to them for what they’ve done and how they did it and what our program is left with because of the type of role models and the type of people they are.”
Lucy Olsen’s 16 points led the Rams. Abbey Boyer added 11.
Upper Dublin closed out its season with a 20-4 record (8-2 SOL).
Upper Dublin 3-3-12-11 29
Spring-Ford 17-13-7-10 47
Upper Dublin (29) – Bliss Brenner 0 1-2 1; Geena Sarnoski 0 0-2 0; Amy Ngo 1 5-5 8; Sarah Eskew 5 1-2 15; Dayna Balasa 2 0-0 5; TOTALS 8 7-11 29.
Spring-Ford (47) – Abbey Boyer 4 0-0 11; Lucy Olsen 7 2-4 16; Anna Azzara 2 0-0 5; Emily Tiffan 3 0-0 8; Hailey Hudak 2 0-0 4; Mackenzie Pettinelli 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 19 2-4 47.
3-point goals: UD – Sarah Eskew 4, Amy Ngo, Dayna Balasa, Spring-Ford – Abbey Boyer 3, Emily Tiffan 2, Anna Azzara, Mackenzie Pettinelli.
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