The giddy celebration after Abington’s 43-38 upset of second-seeded Council Rock North was just getting underway when senior Emily Leer already found herself looking ahead.
“Bring it on, Shayla,” the Ghosts’ senior star said in reference to Cheltenham standout Shayla Felder.
The stage has been set for a showdown in Friday night’s District One AAAA title game at Villanova University that has captured the imaginations of the two neighboring communities in a game that has more story lines than anyone can count.
Topping the list is the intriguing battle of Leer and Felder, the long and short of Friday night’s game.
“I am really excited because I have seen her just win games for her team, and I never have gotten a chance to compete against her,” Leer said. “It’s really fun to go against girls that you know and root for, so I’m just really excited to get a chance to not let her win the game for her team this time.
“She’s a phenomenal player, and I’m just excited to play her.”
While twelve inches may separate the two stars on the tape – Leer is 6-2 while Felder is a generous 5-2, the difference on the court between the two performers is far less obvious. Both average 17 points a game, and both can do damage from inside and outside.
Both are bona fide high school stars, and only one block prevented them from being teammates. Leer, it turns out, lives just one block from the Cheltenham School District, and she grew up going to the Lady Panthers’ games.
“They’ve been winning all these championships,” Leer said. “They won a state championship, and I was always so jealous, thinking - I only live a block over. I could be winning a state championship.
“For me to finally be competing with them is amazing.”
Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer makes no secret of the fact that he would have loved to have added Leer to his lineup.
“She may be disappointed living one block away, but I spent three years trying to get the townships to change the boundary,” he said with a laugh.
And then he offered high praise for Leer.
“She is just an outstanding young lady,” Schaefer said. “She’s very personable, and she’s a team player. She’s a one-girl wrecking crew. She can take it outside, inside and upside down.
“She can do it all. She will be a formidable opponent.”
Abington coach Dan Marsh is obviously glad to have Leer – who will be attending Villanova on a basketball scholarship - in his corner.
“We’re glad she didn’t move a block over,” he said. “I have known all along that all she wants to do is win, and all she wants to do is be competitive at the end.
“We have been good the past four years Emily has been here. This is our fourth straight 20-win season, but we always came up a little bit short of where we wanted to be. Finally, in her senior year, it’s almost poetic – she’s going to Villanova, and we’re playing great right now. It’s awesome for her, it’s awesome for everybody.”
While Leer is the undisputed leader of the Ghosts, Felder wears that same mantle for the Lady Panthers.
“Pound for pound – best player in the area, inch for inch – best player in the area,” Schaefer said of his senior captain. “She’s just a terrific ball handler.
“Her ball control and the things she does – in and out, left and right. I have never seen a kid who can control the ball and be so confident taking the ball at them or even jacking up 25-foot three-pointers in crunch time.”
While Leer relishes the role of go-to player, Felder is a reluctant star. She did not score a point in the first quarter of Cheltenham’s 55-47 win over Downingtown East on Tuesday night but finished the game with 26, which included a near-perfect 17-for-19 effort at the foul line.
“She’s like Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde,” Schaefer said. “You look at her in the first quarter, and she looks like a scared seventh grader. By the time the fourth quarter comes on, she looks unbelievable.
“We spend the whole first quarter screaming at Shayla to shoot the ball. It’s not just me – it’s my assistants. We’re like the ‘three amigos’ yelling, ‘Shayla, shoot the ball.’ She gets a lot of pleasure from making passes to other people and having them score, which is really commendable, but we need her to be a little more selfish.”
The Ghosts’ wouldn’t mind a bit if Felder spent the game dishing off to her teammates.
“You have to stop Felder,” Marsh said. “She is phenomenal in the clutch. She’s probably one of the most clutch players I have seen.”
Marsh goes on to recount the story of the title game in a pre-season tournament in October that saw Felder – with Abington holding a one-point lead – banking home a shot from beyond midcourt with three seconds to play to give the Lady Panthers the win.
With the game on the line, Felder is fearless, attacking the basket and drawing fouls or making impossible shots.
“I really don’t think about anything,” she said. “I just go. I don’t focus on the scoreboard because then I’ll make mistakes.
“There’s a lot of pressure, but I’m sort of used to the pressure. The team and the coaches depend on me, and I can’t let them down.”
While Leer and Felder are their team's go-to players, it is the performances of their teammates that could be the difference in Friday night's showdown.
***
Friday night’s game will pit friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor. This is by no means your ordinary district title game.
“I’ve played against them, hung out with them,” Leer said. “It’s going to be interesting.
“When I go to the Cheltenham games, I sit with all the Cheltenham fans. Now they’re going to be rooting against me.”
Leer and Cheltenham junior Tiffany Johnson have been Fencor teammates for seven years.
“Our main goal was to get back to the district championship to redeem ourselves from last year,” Johnson said of last year’s 51-33 loss to Downingtown East. “Playing against Abington makes it even better because I get to play against another one of my good friends.
“We always talked about – if we ever got to play in the championship game – how good it would be. We weren’t expecting it to come to this.”
But it has come to this, and Leer knows it will be a war.
“I played against her in summer league, and we get so into it,” the Abington senior said. “Tiffany will strip me, and I will block Tiffany.
“We always trash talk because usually when we play each other she’ll get a couple of strips, and I’ll get a couple of blocks on her. It’s back and forth between us.
“Her mother texted me yesterday and said, ‘Good luck tonight. We’ll see you Friday night at Villanova.’ They tell me, ‘We’ll be cheering for you up until Friday night.’”
Felder is close friends with Abington sophomore Aiyannah Peal.
“Since we beat them by one this summer with a buzzer beater, they have been wanting to play us again,” Felder said. “We want to show them we really can beat them this time.
“We’re real excited because it’s our rivalry school. Everybody is pumped. They’re getting fan buses so everyone can come to the game.”
There’s a similar feeling of excitement at Abington.
“Our whole school is really involved, everyone is really into it,” Leer said. “I walked into a class, and the whole class started cheering. At our schools, it’s not common that you see this.
“It’s real exciting. Everyone is talking about the big game.”
Friendly wagers are popping up everywhere. The winning team will pick five students of their choice from the losing team’s school, and those students must come to the winning school and sing that school’s alma mater. Rumor has it the losing principal will buy dinner for the winning principal and coaches, and that’s just the beginning.
“It means a lot to the communities,” Schaefer said. “It will probably be a very high-spirited game. It should be a lot of fun for everybody.”
***
Playing in a district championship game is nothing new to a Cheltenham program that has won four district titles and is coming off a district runner-up finish last year.
For Abington, it’s a whole new world, and Leer admits she could empathize with Council Rock North’s players as they left the gym in tears after Tuesday night’s semifinal game.
“It’s been a long time since we haven’t been the team that was crying at the end of the game (in the postseason),” Leer said. “I felt very bad for them, but I was relieved that for once it wasn’t Abington that was doing that.
“I said to my team before Tuesday’s game, ‘We deserve this more. They’re used to this. It’s all new to us. It won’t be as special for them as it is for us. Council Rock North is there every other year. We have not been there for 35 years, so let’s do something special.’
“Everyone is so excited. The team, all the girls that don’t play – they’re all so eager, and it’s just a great thing to see everyone coming together.”
The Ghosts have already made history, and they’re trying to add to their legacy.
“There’s a banner hanging in our gym that says ‘Girls’ AAAA District Championship 1975,’ and that’s the last time they made it to the final four, made it to the district championship and won it,” Leer said. “If we could put up another banner 35 years later, I just think that would be a great legacy to have.
“That’s one of the things that really gets me excited.”
The Lady Panthers, meanwhile, will be looking to avenge last year’s loss to Downingtown East in the title game.
“I want it so bad,” Felder said. “Last year we got embarrassed and blown out. Now we have another chance.
“Why not take that chance and get a win. I’m ready to play right now. I like competition. I would rather play a very good team than a team we’re going to blow out by 50.”
The chances of the neighboring schools squaring off in the district title game seemed a long shot when the District One AAAA brackets were announced, but the improbable happened.
“It’s a fairy tale,” Marsh said. “It really is. It’s just such a great ending to this run in districts.
“People might think we’re crazy, but we wouldn’t want it any other way. If we’re going to win a district championship, there would be nothing better than to win it from Cheltenham. The whole town, the whole schools feels the same way.”
Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Villanova for what promises to be a most interesting battle between the neighboring schools.
(#1) Cheltenham (25-1) vs. (#6) Abington (22-4)
Friday, 7 p.m., at Villanova University
Last meeting: Jan. 28, 2006 – Cheltenham defeated Abington 81-54
Common opponents: Council Rock South
Abington split its regular season games at CR South, winning the first 57-44 but dropping the second 46-33. Cheltenham defeated Rock South twice, winning the regular season game 66-42 and downing the Golden Hawks 53-48 in the district quarterfinals.
Central Bucks South
Abington defeated Central Bucks South 59-57.
Cheltenham down Central Bucks South twice, winning the first 51-50 and downing the Titans 74-32 in the second round of districts.
Methacton
Abington defeated Methacton 33-23. Cheltenham defeated Methacton 64-52
Bensalem
Abington won a pair of regular season games against Bensalem, winning by scores of 66-33 and 52-27. Cheltenham defeated Bensalem 71-23.
Last game: Abington advanced to the district final with a 43-38 upset of second-seeded Council Rock North. The Ghosts, who fell behind 15-2, were led by Emily Leer (15 points) and Aiyannah Peal (13 points). Chynna West added eight points.
Cheltenham rallied from a 17-4 first-quarter deficit to defeated fourth-seeded Downingtown East 55-47. Shayla Felder scored a game-high 26 points, which included a 17-for-19 effort at the foul line. Sophomore Ciara Andrews came off the bench to score 15 points. Tiffany Johnson added 11 points. Senior Kira Ogden had a game-high 16 rebounds. The Panthers had one less field goal than the Cougars (14-13) but finished the game a collective 32-of-40 from the charity stripe.
Abington coach Dan Marsh: “The key will be if we can take care of the basketball and not turn it over, but that’s easier said than done against them. They’re so intense, they’re so in-your-face. They want to dictate the flow of the game, and they’ve done it in 25 of 26 games. We know that’s an uphill climb.
“We have to establish what our strengths are. We have to be strong inside. Obviously, I don’t think they can stop us inside. They’re going to try and stop that, and we have to stop their transition and their ability to make teams turn the ball over.
“We know we have to play as a team in order to be successful. We can’t just rely on Emily, we can’t just rely on Aiyannah. We all have each other’s backs, and that’s what this team gets right now. We only use six or seven girls tops in games, but even our girls at practice get it. They know they have to push the starting five to be prepared. They know they have a hand in getting this team ready. This team gets it. They get that they have to play defense.
“I don’t think we would be in the district final if it wasn’t for our losses to Lower Merion and Council Rock North. I really think those needed to happen in order for us to develop and be where we’re at now. Losses are okay as long as you learn from them. It’s perfect because that’s what happened. We have learned from the losses and gotten better at the things that were our Achilles heel.
“I also want to say it’s quite an honor to be playing against Bob Schaefer. People underestimate what he’s done for girls’ basketball. We all have a lot of critics – I have a lot of critics, he has a lot of critics, but it’s an honor to be playing against him.”
Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer: “We have to make shots, which we didn’t do on Tuesday night. We’re not going to be able to pound it inside. Even Council Rock North wasn’t able to do that, and we’re not going to be able to either.
“We’re just going to put a lot of pressure on them and hope that they’re going to wear down from the pressure. They’re a very good team. They have had their ups and downs, but that doesn’t lessen the talent they have. When they put it together, they’re a real good team, which they proved Tuesday night, but we’re a pretty resilient bunch too. We’re never out of it. We’re always going to be in there fighting, but getting points is going to be our issue. We have to shoot better than we did Tuesday night, no question about that.
“We’re not a prolific scoring team, but somehow we end up in the 50s and 60s. Shayla’s going to need some help on Friday. Fortunately, CC (Ciara Andrews) is coming on every game, and Tiffany Johnson is stepping up more now. Liz (Taliaferro) didn’t have a good night (offensively) on Tuesday, but she’s still out there harassing people.”
Abington
Projected starters and season averages:
#5 – Jamie Shectman (5-10, Jr., F) 6.4 PPG, 3.8 rebounds
#22 – Chynna West (5-7, Jr., G) 4.9 PPG, 4.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.0 steals
#33 – Jess Schmidt (5-11, Jr., F) 3.8 PPG, 5.4 rebounds
#34 – Aiyannah Peal (5-10, Soph., G) 10.8 PPG, 5.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.9 steals
#55 – Emily Leer (6-2, Sr., F) 17.1 PPG, 10.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 2.9 assists
The rest of the Ghosts:
#1 – Emily Willard (5-3, Soph., G)
#2 – Sheila Longo (5-4, Jr., G)
#11 – Francesca Monterosso (5-4, Soph., G)
#12 – Carli Fitzgerald (5-8, Jr., G)
#14 – Lauren Perretti (5-4, Sr., G)
#42 – Lovell Faison (5-10, Sr., F)
#44 – Sarah Listenbee (6-0, Soph., F)
Cheltenham
Projected starters and season averages:
#3 – Monet Constant (5-8, Sr., G) 5.1 PPG, 4.6 rebounds, 2.1 steals
#14 – Tiffany Johnson (5-4, Jr., G) 4.4 PPG, 2.7 steals, 2.4 assists
#24 – Kira Ogden (5-9, Sr., F) 6.6 PPG, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 steals
#32 – Shayla Felder (5-3, Sr., G) 17.7 PPG, 3.2 rebounds, 3.8 steals, 2.9 assists
#35 – Austen Hamler (5-9, Jr., F) 3.9 PPG, 5.0 rebounds
The rest of the Lady Panthers:
#1 – Liz Taliaferro (5-5, Sr., G) 6.2 PPG, 3.2 rebounds, 2.7 steals, 2.3 assists
#5 – Artavia Sheffield (5-3, Jr., G)
#10 – Ciara Andrews (5-8, Soph., G) 10.8 PPG, 3.6 rebounds, 2.7 steals
#11 – Shayla Peoples
#15 – Christina Coleman (5-10, Soph., F)
#25 – Lorraine Oliver (5-7, Sr., G/F)
#40 – Jiana Clark (5-10, Soph., F)
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