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Cheltenham 55, Central Bucks South 34
Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews smiled when the subject of Cheltenham’s trapping defense came up.
“Trapping is something that we have an advantage at,” the Lady Panthers’ junior guard said. “We’re fast, and we can run. Once we get into that trap it gets our blood pumping, it gets our hearts racing, and we really get into the game.”
There wasn’t a whole lot of blood pumping, and there weren’t a lot of hearts racing for the first five-and-a-half minutes of Saturday’s game at South. Neither team could get anything going offensively, and the Lady Panthers struggled to a 5-2 lead after Shayla Peoples sank one-of-two from the foul line at the 2:32 mark.
“We didn’t start off too well,” Andrews said. “The shots weren’t falling. That’s what we have to work on – coming out strong from the beginning. It was a slow start.”
All that changed when coach Bob Schaefer shouted the magic word or, in this case, the magic letter – T.
“I told my coaches, ‘Don’t let me do anything stupid today,’’” said the veteran coach, who had just been released from the hospital after a two-day stay. “I’m out of whack, the weather is out of whack. Let’s play a smart game, get the win and get out of here.
“It was 4-2 after four minutes, and I figured, ‘Here we go again.’ I knew they were missing their point guard (Brittany Kaewell), plus if we could get into a transition game we’re better at that point. (Trapping) sort of got things rolling for us.”
Did it ever.
The Lady Panthers forced four straight turnovers. First it was Andrews coming up with a steal and coasting in for a layup. Then – after another turnover – Andrews scored on a shot off the dribble. Another Andrews steal resulted in a three-point play for the junior standout, and in the span of a minute, the Panthers, or more specifically Andrews, had scored seven points.
“It’s funny because sometimes we groan when he tells us to trap,” Andrews said. “We’re like, ‘Oh, now we have to run around,’ but once you get a steal, it’s like, ‘We can deal with it. We can deal with it.’ We can see the other team can’t handle it, and it’s fun after a while.”
The fun was just getting started for Andrews and the Lady Panthers, whose run was interrupted briefly by Kelsey Herrmann, who buried a pair from the foul line to make it a 12-4 game at the end of one quarter.
“We picked up a couple of steals, had a couple of breaks, and it took the fact that we’re not a good shooting team out of the question,” Schaefer said. “Generally speaking, we have to work real hard to get points.”
Except, of course, when the Lady Panthers’ trap is working to perfection.
Christina Coleman scored on a putback to open the second quarter, and after Herrmann connected on two more foul shots, Andrews turned a steal into a layup, and another turnover by the Titans, who were without Kaewell (death in the family), set the stage for Coleman burying one-of-two from the foul line.
Tiffany Johnson scored on a putback before the Titans connected on their first field goal of the game when Herrmann hit nothing but net on a trey with 4:30 remaining in the half to make it a 19-9 game.
The Panthers closed out the half with a 12-3 run that featured a 10-0 tear by Andrews. Included in Andrews’ run were a pair of three-point baskets, and Cheltenham took a 31-13 lead into halftime. Andrews scored 23 of those points.
“She was lighting them up,” Schaefer said. “She’s great when you get her going up and down the floor.
“We have to get more help though. We need to get more production out of our forwards. They pushed us around, and we allowed them to. That’s been characteristic of this team. We’re pushing back after we get pushed under the rim. Rather than being in position when the shot goes up and pushing back, we’re standing and getting pushed under the basket, and we’re crying about getting pushed. That’s part of the game.”
Andrew finished the day with a game-high 30 points in a dazzling individual effort. Coleman added eight points while Johnson and Austen Hamler each had six.
“It’s was a fun game,” Andrews said. “When you have a lot of energy and everyone is involved, it’s fun to play.”
Herrmann led the Titans with 13 points, and despite the outcome, South coach Beth Mattern recognized the value of playing a team like Cheltenham.
“It’s always good to play a team that’s faster than you, rebounds well and is very well coached,” she said. “They’re so tough. You can’t make one mistake because they’re so fast to that basketball, and if you turn it over at the top, it’s a layup for them.”
The Titans found that out firsthand on Saturday.
Central Bucks West 56, Pennsbury 47
Pennsbury, after falling behind 9-1 out of the gate, trailed by just three midway through the second quarter (17-14) when West’s Sam Colloi went on a mini tear. First Colloi buried a trey and then, after a Falcon miss, sank a pair from the foul line. After a Pennsbury turnover, Colloi sank both ends of a one-and-one, and just like that, the Bucks led 24-14.
It was that kind of game.
West would take what appeared to be a commanding lead only to watch the Falcons crawl back in it, but when push came to shove, the young Bucks found a way to win. Making the win even more impressive was the fact that it came less than 24 hours after a 49-43 loss to Central Bucks East that saw the Bucks stage a heroic comeback.
“Even though we lost and were all upset, we wanted to bring the same energy today because last night we were down (11) at halftime, and we brought it back and only lost by six,” said Colloi, who led a balanced attack with 13 points. “We took that energy and put it into this game.
“This win is huge because we’re coming off of two losses. It brings our confidence right back up. This week we play Pennridge and Hatboro-Horsham, and we’re ready to get two more wins.”
Coach Terry Rakowsky was pleased with his team’s response to its tough loss to East.
“What happened last night with East prepared us for today,” the Bucks’ coach said. “Being in a situation where we were down by 11 at half – last year and in years past, the game is over, but last night we came back.
“Today the same thing - we’re down two, we’re up four. Our kids haven’t been in games like that ever. We have a long way to go, but we’re climbing up and making progress. I was extremely happy last night with a loss, especially with their character. It was hard today. After last night’s game, I was expecting them to be a little down, and they were not. That’s growth.”
The two teams combined to take 71 foul shots with West taking 40 of those in a marathon contest that saw three Falcons foul out. The most costly was losing senior captain Molly Phillips, who picked up her fourth foul with 3:21 remaining in the third period and was whistled for her fourth less than a minute later before coach Donna Nicholson could get her out of the game.
“Molly is our captain – she’s our leader, and she helps us out during games, so that was pretty tough” freshman Kaitlyn Kelly said. “Pretty much all of our games are physical, so we’re able to play to that standard. We fight back.”
“It was a physical game,” Nicholson addedd. “Losing Molly hurt. She’s a big part of our team. She brings a lot of energy, and the other kids feed off that.
“Not having her out there for a third of the game makes a big, big difference. She’s experienced, she’s our best player offensively, and our inexperience out there showed. I’m not going to make excuses. We had our chances. We just didn’t finish our plays.”
The Bucks opened the game by connecting on 19-of-19 from the foul line and wound up making 28-of-40 for the game. Jen Fabian was 9-for-12, and Amanda Parker connected on 6-of-8.
“Our goal is to shoot 80 percent,” Colloi said. “We do work on that a lot at practice, and we know foul shots win games.”
As a result of the non-stop parade to the foul line, the game lacked flow on both sides.
“What my coach said was to get the ball up the court and settle everyone down to run our offense,” Colloi said. “We need to play our game. We cannot play their game, which is more helter skelter.”
The Bucks led 28-18 late in the second quarter, but Jae Jackson completed a three-point play to make it a 28-21 game at the intermission.
The Bucks led by seven when Phillips picked up her fifth foul. Fabian buried a pair of foul shots to make it a nine-point game, and after a Falcon turnover, Parker sank a pair from the foul line to put the Bucks on top 42-31.
The Falcons cut that lead to 44-37 heading into the final quarter and rallied to make it 48-47 after Lindsay Bolger connected on a pair from the foul line with 4:28 remaining in the game.
“West called a timeout, and we were getting pumped,” Kelly said. “We were like, ‘Guys, we’re in this game. We can do it.’ I don’t know what happened. We just fell apart at the end.”
It didn’t help the Falcons’ cause that West’s Calypso Carty connected on an impossible reverse layup out of the timeout to stretch the Bucks’ lead to 50-47. A Falcon turnover was followed by Carty burying a pair from the foul line to put the Bucks on top 52-47. The Falcons never threatened the rest of the way.
In addition to Colloi, Fabian had 11 points for West and Parker, 10 points. For the Falcons, Sajanna Bethea led the way with 12 points while Jackson added 11 points and Kelly, nine points.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 55, Springfield (Montco) 37
Less than 24 hours after their loss to conference leader Cheltenham, the Colonials came back to earn a resounding non-league win over the Spartans.
“It was a nice win,” coach Becky Duffy said. “After last night’s loss, I could tell the girls were feeling down on themselves.
“Today I got on them a little bit. I said, ‘You have to fight back. That’s what good teams do. Today is the first day of the rest of the season. You have to come out and prove yourself. You have to work hard. No one is ever going to give you anything.’
“They came out strong. We scored 19 points in the first quarter, which is more than we have ever scored. We came out really focused.”
Gabby Schumacher turned in a brilliant 20-point effort to lead the Colonials. She also had four steals.
“She’s just been on fire,” Duffy said. “She’s been doing everything. I’m so happy for her because she’s worked so hard, and it just seems like things are clicking for her this year.
“She’s really learning how to take the ball hard to the basket, but she also has a really good shot. It’s hard to defend her. She’s getting the confidence now to let them fly, which is what she lacked last year. As a junior coming into this year, she’s really coming into her own.”
Alyssa Butcher added 10 points and nine rebounds while Alex Borkowski had 10 points and nine rebounds. Erin Martin had six points and eight boards, and Egypt Thompson had 10 rebounds to go along with two points.
The Colonials were coming off a tough stretch that included losses to Mount St. Joseph’s, Upper Dublin and Cheltenham.
Still, Duffy had no complaints about her team’s performances.
“Cheltenham is tough, they’re very tough, but we were only down by seven at halftime,” she said.
That’s when the Colonials lost Alex Borkowski – who had eight points and eight rebounds in the first half - for the remainder of the game.
“She was having the game of her life,” Duffy said. “We got a little cold, and they got hot, but we played tough.
“We have been playing tough teams and playing them tough, but things weren’t going our way. We came out against Springfield, and things were clicking for us the way they hopefully will continue to do the rest of the season. I was really proud with the way they came out.”
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