#1 Council Rock North 41, #32 Central Bucks West 13
The Indians, according to coach Lou Palkovics, can expect a little something extra when they show up for practice on Saturday morning.
“We’re probably going to have the hardest practice of the year tomorrow,” the Indians’ coach said.
Palkovics, it seems, was none too happy with his team’s performance in Friday night’s opening round game. The Indians connected on just 5-of-30 shots from the floor in the opening half and led by the unlikely score of 14-5 at halftime.
“We were getting wide open looks,” said Palkovics. “It was 7-2 at the end of one quarter, and we must have missed three or four layups. We were one-for-four from the free throw line. It was embarrassing.”
It didn’t help that Elena Grundman, who scored a game-high 17 points and also had seven rebounds, found herself in early foul trouble in the first quarter.
“We lost that inside look,” Palkovics said. “We weren’t hitting anything. I’m very unhappy with the way we practiced yesterday, and I let them know it after the game.”Take away a 21-3 fourth-quarter scoring explosion, and the Indians scored just 20 points through three quarters. They connected on just 8-of-36 shots during that span. For the game, the Indians shot 14-of-46 from the floor, which included an 0-for-14 showing from three-point land.
“That might be the first game all year where we didn’t have a three-pointer,” Palkovics said.
Fortunately for Rock North, the Bucks were having an even more difficult time on the offensive end, scoring two, three, five and three points in four very un-offensive quarters.
“We kind of knew what they were going to do,” Palkovics said. “You could see they were kind of nervous, and they played really tight. I was surprised at how tight they were playing.”
Amanda Parker led the Bucks with six points.
Lauren Gold added nine points for the Indians. Helena Gemmell had eight rebounds, three steals, three blocks and two assists to go along with six points. Alyssa Dumont contributed seven points, five rebounds, four steals, one block and three assists off the bench.
While the Bucks closed out their year with a 12-11 record, the Indians improved to 22-1.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 41, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 13
Central Bucks West (13) – Kathryn Peluso 0 0-0 0; Fiona Gilmore 1 0-0 3; Amanda Parker 2 1-2 6; Alexis Haug 0 0-0 0; Sam Colloi 0 0-0 0; Jen Fabian 2 0-0 4; Kathryn Bahner 0 0-0 0; Caitlyn Mautz 0 0-0 0; Kate McLaughlin 0 0-0 0; Maggie Gratz 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 5 1-2 13
Council Rock North (41) – Melissa Moller 0 0-0 0; Devin Gold 1 0-2 2; Alyssa Dumont 2 3-5 7; Lauren Gold 2 5-6 9; Helena Gemmell 2 2-4 6. TOTALS 14 13-20 41.
Central Bucks West 2 3 5 3-13
Council Rock North 7 7 6 21-41
Three-point goals: CB West – Gilmore, Parker.
#4 Cheltenham 62, #29 Souderton 25
WYNCOTE – Carley Kendall and Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews had been exchanging texts all week prior to Friday night’s District One AAAA opener pitting 29th-seeded Souderton against fourth-seeded Cheltenham.
The two juniors had played together with the Philadelphia Belles on the AAU circuit but found themselves lined up on opposite sides of the court on Friday night. It was Andrews – who scored a game-high 20 points in three quarters – and her Lady Panther squad who had the better of play, putting on a performance that left Kendall shaking her head.
“You think that you’re preparing, and we did – we had so much time to prepare, and I think we were confident defensive-wise and knowing their players,” the Indians’ junior co-captain said. “It’s an athleticism that you don’t really know how good they are until you’re on the court.
“They’re just amazing – all of them and especially CC. She’s one of the most phenomenal players I have ever seen. As much as it’s hard to end the season on a loss – Cheltenham is going to go far, and that’s what we have to keep in the back of our minds to make it a positive experience.”
Andrews was one of three Lady Panthers to finish the game in double figures. Junior Christina Coleman and senior Austen Hamler both added 14 points.
“There were some shots that CC (Andrews) in particular took that I don’t think my assistant coaches could have stopped,” said Souderton coach Lynn Carroll, whose male assistants were both former basketball players. “She can just make those pull-up jumpers in the lane. There’s only so much you can do.”
There’s also only so much teams can do against the Lady Panthers’ oppressive defense, and even though they never unveiled the trap, the Lady Panthers spent the night frustrating the Indians into one turnover after another with their aggressive pressure defense.
No one better captured the Lady Panthers’ all-out defensive effort than junior guard Shayla Peoples. On Souderton’s first possession of the night off the opening tap, Peoples forced a five-second call. That was only the beginning as Peoples was all but inside the uniforms of Souderton’s ball handlers, making life generally miserable for the Indians.
“We didn’t want to show them all our tricks,” Peoples said. “We wanted to get out there and pressure them but not show them everything we have.
“We just wanted to play our game.”
Making Peoples’ effort even more impressive was the fact that she was relentless but disciplined and never came close to getting into foul difficulty.
“Over the past 22 games we have had, I picked up and I learned,” Peoples said. “It’s time for me to step up and do my part and play my role on the team, so I just came out focused. I was ready. Ever since I woke up, I was ready to go. I really had energy.”
That energy translated into a marvelous defensive effort by the Lady Panthers, who controlled play from start to finish. Hamler turned the Indians’ turnover into an easy bucket when she scored after an offensive rebound.
Another Souderton turnover resulted in a Coleman putback before Kendall scored on a drive to cut that lead in half, 4-2. Andrews scored off the dribble, and then it was Hamler scoring on a putback. Peoples, after coming up with a steal, buried one-of-two from the foul line, and the Panthers led 9-2 midway through the quarter.
A nifty pass from Peoples to Coleman resulted in an easy bucket and an 11-2 lead. The Indians trimmed their deficit to 13-7 after Gabby McAndrews buried a trey, but Tiffany Johnson scored off the dribble for the Lady Panthers.
A Libby Wexler putback made it a 15-9 game, but the Lady Panthers closed out the quarter with buckets by Andrews (Coleman assist) and Peoples to go on top 19-9.
Andrews turned a steal into a bucket, and another Souderton turnover – this one also forced by Andrews – set up a bucket by Peoples. By the time Johnson scored off the dribble in the closing second of the half, the Lady Panthers had a commanding 35-13 lead.
“We told them, ‘This is a nice team. We want to go out and take control right from the start to let them know exactly where they’re at,’” Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer said. “I’m very happy that our kids did go out and play real hard.
“I thought our defense was real crisp, especially Shayla (Peoples) on their point guard. She gave them a lot of trouble, and later, Asia (Dan) came in and guarded their point guard. To their point guard’s credit, she held it together for the most part, but we played our game.”
In the third quarter, the Lady Panthers continued to add to their lead, outscoring the Indians 16-6. Andrews scored eight points while Coleman added six, and Hamler led the defense with three steals.
“Schaef’s always on us at practice to work harder,” Hamler said. “There’s always somebody better than us out there – that’s what he always tells us. We always want to push ourselves to be as good as we can be.
“From the beginning of the regular season to the end of the regular season, we improved so much. Now we have to take everything we’ve learned and take it into the playoffs, and hopefully, we can go really far.”
The Lady Panthers’ all-out effort was not lost on the Indians.
“You don’t know how hard they work until you play them,” Kendall said. “They’re skilled, but their work ethic is something we can learn from, and I think every team that plays them will learn from.
“We just talked in the locker room – even though it really stinks right now, we’re going to learn from this. It’s going to help us. They really deserve the credit. They’re a good team.”
The Lady Panthers – who will face the winner of the William Tennent/Plymouth Whitemarsh game - upped their record to 20-3 on the season while the Indians closed out the year with a 12-10 mark.
“We don’t look at them as the 29th seed,” Peoples said. “We just go out and play because you never know what could happen.”
“Anybody could beat anybody else on any given day,” Hamler said.
But not when the team is playing defense the way the Lady Panthers did on Friday night.
NOTES: An interesting side note to Friday night’s game was the return of Carroll to her alma mater for the first time as a head coach. “I kept using the word weird, more than anything else,” Carroll said when asked what it felt like to return home. “It was just a bizarre feeling. Everywhere I looked I’d see someone else I know, but it was nice. It’s always nice to come home. Next time I’d like to sit in the stands and cheer them on.” Schaefer – who gave Carroll’s players a tour of the team room prior to the game -tipped his hat to his former player. “I have been following her career,” he said. “She has a lot of nice young kids, and she’s doing a great job at Souderton. You hate to go out and beat someone like that, but it’s kind of like when I coached against my daughter at Wissahickon. You love them and wish them well, but you have a job to do.”
CHELTENHAM 62, SOUDERTON 25
Souderton (25) – McAndrews 1 0-03; Perna 1 0-0 2; Kendall 3 3-6 9; Wetzler 2 1-2 5; Picard 1 0-0 3; O’Connor 0 0-0 0; Kwiatkowski 0 0-0 0; Reagan 0 0-0 0; Steinly 0 0-0 0; Brown 0 0-0 0; Gallagher 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 9 5-10 25.
Cheltenham (62) – Andrews 10 0-0 20; Johnson 2 0-0 4; Coleman 7 0-0 14; Peoples 3 1-2 7; Hamler 5 4-8 14; Clark 0 0-0 0; Dan 0 0-0 0; Seawright 0 1-2 1; Cassius 0 0-0 0; Wing 0 0-0 0; Robinson 1 0-0 2; Petty 0 0-0 0; Nally 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 28 6-12 62.
Souderton 9 4 6 6-25
Cheltenham 19 16 16 11-62
Three-point goals: Souderton – Picard, McAndrews.
#6 Boyertown 47, #27 Central Bucks South 33
An early 11-0 deficit was too much for the Titans to overcome as they saw their season come to an end courtesy of sixth-seeded Boyertown. South was able to trim the Bears’ lead to 11-5, but the Bears scored the next 14 points to go on top 25-5. It was a 25-10 game at halftime, and the Bears led 41-18 after three quarters.
“I thought after that 11-0 start, we played solid defense,” coach Beth Mattern said. “They scored some points, but they’re a good team – they’re going to score points. We just didn’t shoot the ball the way we wanted to.”
Brittany Kaewell had a pair of fourth-quarter three-pointers to lead the Titans in scoring with six. Ten different Titans scored points. Boyertown was led by Jess Schlesman with 18 points.
The Titans closed out the year with a 13-10 record.
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