Check out the recaps for SOL teams in action Friday in District 1 6A playback games.
District 1 6A playback game (4th place game)
#2 CONESTOGA 75, #5 NORTH PENN 55
North Penn (23-5, 15-1 SOL) will face District 12’s third place team in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A State Tournament.
District 1 6A playback game (7th place game)
#8 CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 39, #3 UPPER DUBLIN 38
Jess Lockwood took – and made – the game’s biggest shot in Friday’s road playback win.
It’s a shot the East sophomore might not have been comfortable taking early in the season, but her confidence has grown as the season progressed, and she is no longer catching teams by surprise.
“When I notice that players are guarding me much closer, I know that I’m a bigger threat,” Lockwood said. “I was definitely a little nervous, but I had confidence in myself.
“I saw the open shot, and I knew I had to take it. Once I saw it go in, I knew we were good.”
That shot with a minute remaining – the only shot the Patriots made in OT – turned out to be the game-winner. It gave East a 39-36 lead with a minute remaining.
The Cardinals trimmed the lead to one on a bucket by freshman Tamia Clark on their ensuing possessions. Both teams had other opportunities, but could not convert, and the game ended with the Cardinals misfiring on a pair of shots in the closing seconds after an East turnover.
The win was especially significant for the Patriots, who watched a four-point lead disappear in the final minute of regulation. UD sophomore Tamia Clark connected on a pair of shots after East turnovers created by the Cards’ aggressive pressure defense
“They were coming at us strong, they were coming at us tough, and we panicked a little bit, which – honestly – we haven’t really done,” East coach Liz Potash said. “Usually when we’ve been in this situation this year, we knock down the foul shots at the end and just put it away, so I didn’t know what got into us a little bit, but I’m really proud of them to be able to pull it out under those circumstances because we were up four with just over a minute to go, and they take us into overtime. I’m thinking – ‘Oh man, that’s not the momentum,’ but Jess hit the big shot, and we went from there.”
The game did not start off on the most promising note as the Cardinals opened up an 11-3 lead but saw that lead trimmed to 14-8 by the end of the quarter. While senior Amy Ngo’s five points led the Cards in the quarter, Anna Barry kept the Patriots in it with five points.
“The last couple of games have been brutal starts with the exception of Neshaminy, and we talked a lot about that yesterday at practice and where that focus needs to be at the start,” Potash said. “I know we gave up a couple at the beginning, but we didn’t put our heads down, and we just kept plugging away and taking what we knew was going to be there.
“We just played them two weeks ago, so we had a lot of ideas in terms of how we wanted to run things, and we hit some timely shots.”
The Cardinals took a tenuous 20-19 lead into halftime. East used a 12-point third quarter to take a 31-27 lead into the final quarter. Natalie Berndt had the hot hand for the Patriots, burying a pair of 3s and scoring eight points.
That four-point lead turned out to be anything but secure as the Cardinals rallied to knot the score in regulation only to see the Patriots rally to win it in OT, thanks to Lockwood’s heroics.
“I think we knew this was going to be a close game, and we knew when we got down we just had to stick together,” Lockwood said. “And each time we come in, we tell each other – ‘We got this, stick together, do what we know how to do,’ and we’ve got the win.
“We really worked together passing the ball around, we found the open shots, and we really crashed the offensive boards to get second looks.”
Berndt’s 12 points led a balanced Patriot attack.
“She has to play Amy Ngo for 32 minutes, and we still need her to hit shots,” Potash said of Berndt. “She had great looks – even her shots that were off were right there. She’s been doing it for us for two years.
“With Jess – you look at a sophomore, who’s played a ton of minutes this year and has had a great season. You just look at how far they’ve come throughout the year, and you have to be excited to have them two more years.”
Also for the Patriots, Anna Barry had nine points.
For the Cardinals, Clark led the way with 15 points to go along with six rebounds and three steals. Ngo had 10 points, and Bridget DiMartile scored eight points. DiMartile also had a team high eight rebounds. Nora Brady had seven rebounds.
“Nobody wants to lose their last three games,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “They were all winnable games. I think it’s important that we stick together and use it next week to try and make things better.
“If we let ourselves learn from our mistakes – obviously, we’re right there with every team that we’ve played so far. I think it starts with me just trying to figure out some things, put them in better spots to be successful.”
Central Bucks East (20-8, 11-5 SOL) will face District 3 runner-up Dallastown in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A State Tournament. Dallastown lost to Central Dauphin 39-29 in the district title game. Upper Dublin (24-5, 16-0 SOL) will face District 12 runner-up Northeast.
Although the Patriots have a tougher draw by winning, both teams were playing to win.
“I was upset when we lost to Haverford – I would have taken the five seed even though you’re playing (Archbishop) Carroll, just because we wanted some good momentum going in,” Potash said. “It’s going to be a tough game, but everyone should be tough at this time of year.”
Central Bucks East 8-11-12-5-3 39
Upper Dublin 14-6-7-9-2 38
Central Bucks East (39) – Sydney Ralph 2 0-2 5; Haley Moran 2 0-0 5; Natalie Berndt 5 0-0 12; Anna Barry 2 4-4 9; Jess Lockwood 2 0-0 5; Chantal Van Dongeren 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 14 4-6 39.
Upper Dublin (38) – Brighid Brady 1 0-0 2; Bridget DeMartile 4 0-0 8; Amy Ngo 0-0 10; Tamia Clark 4 6-7 15; Nora Brady 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 14 6-7 38.
3-point goals: CBE – Natalie Berndt 3, Sydney Ralph, Haley Moran, Anna Barry, Jess Lockwood; UD – Amu Ngo 2, Tamia Clark, Nora Brady.
District 1 6A playback game (9th place game)
#16 PENNSBURY 44, #11 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 23
Another day, another road trip.
That’s been the theme for Pennsbury this postseason. On the heels of a trip to Kennett on Wednesday, the Falcons travelled to Downingtown on Friday, and once again, Pennsbury – the lowest seeded district team still alive – took care of business, earning the win and ninth place in the district.
“It’s been quite a week, but we are very proud of our girls,” Pennsbury coach Frank Sciolla said. “We just finished up our fourth straight road game against higher seeded teams and the last couple trips have not been easy.
“Our location doesn’t mesh well with much of district. We got home late on Wednesday night from Kennett and then turned around in the early afternoon today to get to Downingtown. It’s definitely a challenge, and we really want to thank the people of Downingtown East for moving the game up so our juniors had a chance to get to the prom tonight.”
The game had a 3:30 p.m. start time – not exactly typical at this time of year.
“You’re never sure how the team will react to a 3:30 game, and we definitely saw some fatigue at practice last night,” Sciolla said. “East has a young group, and they’ve had a really good year and are going to be a major factor over the course of the next couple years. They did a good job being prepared for what we do, and we struggled again on offense tonight with making shots, and we also struggled a bit with decision making which is usually one of our strong points. But you have to credit Downingtown East for both of those things.”
Sofia Vitucci scored 10 first-quarter points – in other words, all of her team’s points – to send Pennsbury into the second quarter with a 10-8 lead. Both teams scored five points in the second quarter, and the visiting Falcons took a 15-13 lead into halftime.
“The first half we got great contributions from the 13 girls that played, but we were only up two,” Sciolla said. “The girls do a really good job of understanding the scout, and they keep a high level of focus in taking teams out of their primary early looks, and after a rough first couple of minutes, we did a good job of shutting down the lane and forcing the game out to the perimeter.”
The Falcons – behind five points from both Vitucci and Daniella MacDonald – outscored their hosts 14-8 in the third quarter and took a 29-21 lead into the final quarter when they put the game away with a 15-2 fourth quarter. In the final frame, the Falcons received scoring from six different players with Danielle Sherman, Joley Hohman and Sammie Haws each collecting a 3-pointer.
“Once again, we were really solid defensively,” Sciolla said. “When we make teams play against our defense, we are always very successful. We have held last three teams in the 20s in their own gym. At this level at this time of year, we are very pleased.
“We were worried because got home late from Kennett on Wednesday night, and around 1:15 am as I am loading up the video of East, I was impressed with their aggressiveness.
“At this time of year, there’s times when you get tired, and I understand that our team is tired. I tell them every year that we know it’s a grind having to play from before Thanksgiving up through St. Patrick’s Day, but I think that’s where our senior leadership really came into play today.”
It was the seniors leading the Falcons’ attack. Vitucci led the way with 12 points, which included a 4-for-4 effort at the foul line. Seniors Layla Matthias and Daniella MacDonald both added seven points.
“Layla Matthias was fantastic up top, knocking down a big three for us,” Sciolla said. “Emily Panaro, Danielle Sherman and Liv Gilchrist all made good contributions on the interior. Daniella MacDonald started us off really strong in the third quarter by getting into the basket area and drawing a couple fouls, and then she knocked down a shot. It’s important that we get her playing with confidence.
“Sofia was flawless in handling their pressure and did a nice job setting up her teammates for shots and rebounded the ball well today. Joley Hohman has become really disruptive on the ball defensively and that’s been a weapon for us. She gets to go against Presley Foote every day and practice, and Presley really pushes her. Presley came out tonight and she made a couple big plays on the defensive end.
“Maggie Burns had five steals and six rebounds and a really nice finish inside so that was a great start to the night for her as she prepared for the junior prom along with Ava Jordan.”
The Falcons are accustomed to life on the road – 11 of their 29 games this season have been on the road.
“We always play so many road games in the regular season, and it’s always for this reason,” Sciolla said. “We hope to be able to go into other teams’ gyms, pack our defense for the trip and have a chance to come out and win. The senior class has now won 20 games for the third year in a row, and that’s the first time in school history, and they would’ve done it in 2021 if we didn’t lose all the games that COVID stole. They have an incredible legacy here at Pennsbury .”
Pennsbury (20-8, 11-5 SOL) will face District 2 runner-up Hazleton in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A State Tournament.
“For now, I’m personally going to avoid any school bus rides over the course of the next two days, but we will spend the weekend getting ready for Hazleton,” Sciolla said. “We are well aware of the challenge of playing in that gym in a high stakes game. It will be a unique experience for our program as people up there absolutely love basketball, and it’s a culture that really respects the high school experience. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity.
Pennsbury 10-5-14-15 44
Downingtown East 8-5-8-2 23
Pennsbury (44) – Emily Panero 1 0-0 2; Layla Matthias 3 0-0 7; Danielle Sherman 1 0-0 3; Maggie Burns 2 1-2 5; Sofia Vitucci 4 4-4 12; Daniella MacDonald 2 2-4 7; Joley Hohman 1 0-0 3; Ava Jordan 1 0-0 2; Sammie Haws 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 16 7-10 44.
Downingtown East (23) – Charlotte Aldridge 2 0-0 5; Jordyn Daniel 2 0-0 5; Chloe Hunold 1 1-1 3; Kendall Chiavelli 1 0-0 2; Grace Hodges 2 0-0 4; Izzy Haag 2 0-0 4; Erin Valko 0 0-2 0; TOTALS 10 1-3 23;.
3-point goals: Pennsbury – Layla Matthias, Danielle Sherman, Daniella MacDonald, Joley Hohman, Sammie Hawes. D’Town East – Charlotte Aldridge, Jordyn Daniel.
About the Author
