Central Bucks East 41, North Penn 39
Lindsey Kelly smiled and acknowledged that the final seconds of Monday night’s Continental Conference showdown against the Maidens were tense indeed as the Patriots survived Emily Hagan’s last-second shot in a crowd that just rimmed out at the buzzer.
“It was scary – it was a little too close,” Kelly said. “When they took that last shot – she literally went around me, and I just put my hands up and was like, ‘Please don’t go in.’ I didn’t want to foul, I didn’t want to do anything. I was so nervous.
“This was a hard battle.”
There was certainly nothing to suggest that the game – which gave East sole possession of the conference crown - would come down to the wire as the Patriots sprinted out of the gate to a 17-1 lead after Kelly buried an outside jumper less than a minute into the second quarter.
Kelly, who finished with a team-high 15 points, was instrumental in the Patriots’ quick start. It was the junior center racing down court to finish off a fastbreak after a Maiden miss to put the Patriots on the scoreboard, and then Courtney McManus turned a steal into a three-point bucket.
“We just pretty much folded under the pressure at the beginning,” said sophomore Lauren Crisler, who led the Maidens with 15 points. “We weren’t ready for the trap.”
Another Maiden turnover set the stage for Shannon Devlin to bury one-of-two from the foul line, and when Kelly converted another fastbreak bucket off a North Penn miss, the Patriots led 8-0.
“I was just trying to outhustle them,” Kelly said. “My mindset going into the game was that I was going to do it for my seniors, no matter what.
“No matter what, I was going to go 100 percent and beat their best players they have on the floor just to get down there.”
Melissa Remmey connected on a pair of foul shots to make it a 10-0 game, and when Remmey scored on a fastbreak after a Maiden miss, the Patriots led 12-0 before Crisler sank one-of-two from the foul line to put the Maidens on the scoreboard.
Another McManus trey put East on top 15-1 at the end of one quarter.
“I don’t know what happened in the first quarter,” Maiden coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “We came out totally lifeless, making unforced turnovers.
“Not getting back on defense killed us. Number 40 (Kelly) beat us down the floor, and the turnovers that were not forced – we need to stop that.”
Sparked by eight points from Kelly and six from Remmey, the Patriots went into halftime with a 25-11 lead. East coach Tom Lonergan was not surprised to see Kelly come out strong.
“I thought she had a great practice, especially the other day,” the Patriots’ coach said. “I told both her and Lexi (Scrivano) that this was an opportunity to come in against two very good post players like Crisler and (Steph) Knauer.
“That’s the time to shine when you’re going against kids that are good. This is the time to see what you really have.”
The third quarter began with Hagan burying a three-pointer on the Maidens’ opening possession. An errant East pass resulted in Knauer – after pulling down an offensive board – going to the foul line and sinking a pair.
The Patriots interrupted that run with a bucket by Kelly on the break, but Crisler answered by burying a pair of foul shots, and when Hagan connected on a foul line jumper, it was a 27-20 game
“I thought we came out of halftime flat,” Lonergan said. “That’s one of the things we talked about. You can’t go in at halftime with the energy we had in the first half and leave it in the locker room.
“In the second half, the first three possessions changed the whole game. The lead went from 14 to seven, and then we struggled.”
The Patriots took a 33-25 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Maidens refused to go away.
“We definitely believed we could come back,” Crisler said. “We knew we weren’t going to give up. We just knew we had to take it to them. We put forth a great effort.”
The Maidens trimmed East’s lead to 33-28 after a pair of Meg Gallagher foul shots, but the Patriots – sparked by a pair of outside jumpers by Devlin as well as a Kelly putback – regained a 39-28 lead with just under five minutes to play.
Again, the Maidens came back.
Crisler hit nothing but net on an outside jumper, and after a Brenda McDermott steal, Knauer, who finished with 13 points, connected on a foul line jumper. After another East turnover, Knauer buried a trey from the top of the circle, and suddenly it was a 39-35 game.
The Patriots went on top 41-35 after a drive to the hole by Scrivano with 1:25 remaining. Crisler answered by sinking the front end of back-to-back one-and-one’s, making it a 41-37 game.
“We sent them to the line way too much,” Lonergan said. “They were 10-for-13 in the second half. We were giving them opportunities. In the first half, they had to work for everything.
“That’s the difference between the first half defense and the second half defense. They scrambled and went into a helter skelter defense, and instead of moving to the open spots on the floor, we just kind of went into a panic mode.”
The Patriots uncharacteristically missed the front end of their second straight one-and-one, and Knauer turned a McDermott pass into a bucket that made it a two-point game with 28 seconds remaining. Another missed front end of a one-and-one by East set the stage for the final dramatic sequence that saw the Maidens come up just short.
“I can’t say enough about my kids’ effort in the second half,” deMarteleire said. “If we didn’t spot them a 15-point lead, it might have been a different story.
“We had a good shot at the end – it just rimmed out. We just dug ourselves too deep of a hole.”
The Patriots, who improved to 11-0 in league play, lost Remmey for a key second-half stretch after the senior co-captain went down with an ankle injury. She returned in the game’s final minutes.
“With Melissa down, that didn’t help at all,” Lonergan said. “The thing Melissa brings us – she’s not just big, she handles the ball.”
The Maidens, who fell to 8-3 in the league, remain in second place in the Continental Conference standings.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 56, Pennridge 42
Three Colonials finished the game in double figures. Erin Martin turned in a superb 19-point, 10-rebound effort while Lex Borkowksi also finished with a double-double, contributing 14 points and 14 rebounds. Gabby Schumacher scored 13 points and hauled in seven rebounds. Maya Thomas led the defense with five steals to go along with five points and five rebounds. Kelly Hackenbrack had three steals, three rebounds and three points.
For the Rams, Alyssa Marchunsky scored 10 points. Shannon Chynoweth added eight points and Nici Bonacci, seven points.
The Colonials held a tenuous 14-12 lead at the end of one quarter but stretched that to 34-24 by halftime on their way to the non-league win.
Council Rock North 74, Harry S. Truman 20
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