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PLYMOUTH MEETING – Shayla Felder, generously listed at 5-3, had just come up with steal number eight of a brilliant outing when she was sent sprawling to the floor by a hard foul late in Saturday afternoon’s District One AAAA quarterfinal contest against West Chester Henderson.Cheltenham’s diminutive guard gingerly picked herself up off the floor, rubbed her aching leg and hobbled to the foul line where she buried to front end of a one-and-one. Felder and her Lady Panther teammates were battered and bruised.
But they were victorious.
It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty, but the Lady Panthers – displaying the kind of guts and heart reserved for champions – had survived monumental foul woes and a tenacious Henderson comeback to earn a hard-fought 61-52 win over the Warriors.
Felder, who scored 19 of her team-high 27 points in the second half, needed just two words to describe how she felt after this win.
“Beat up,” she said.
There was little celebration on the Lady Panthers’ sidelines after this win. Just a sigh of relief that they had escaped with a win in a game that saw 6-2 Shante Evans dominate the paint while scoring a game-high 31 points and getting everyone in her path in foul trouble.
“She’s amazing, she really is,” said junior Monet Constant, who added 16 points. “No matter how many people we put on her, she just got through.”
“She couldn’t be stopped,” Felder added. “Nobody could stop her. The whole team could be on her, and nobody could stop her. She took the whole team.”
“And we’re a small team at that,” Constant said.
Evans was an immovable force in the paint, and both of Cheltenham’s inside players – Dayna McCrewell and Jenna Peoples – were on the bench with their fourth fouls less than two minutes into the second half. McCrewell sat most of the second quarter after picking up her third foul.
“This was against all odds, no question about it,” Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer said of the big win. “With the style the game allowed, we ended up being in serious foul trouble, and it took our speed away completely. Everybody was in foul trouble.
“We had to hold the ball just to run the clock down so we could get back in the game. It was a great game for the kids to have to go through that. Who knew what was going to happen?”
The Panthers, who led by as many as 12 early, saw the Warriors come roaring back to knot the score 46-46 after a basket by Evans. Felder, who was nothing short of magnificent in the Panthers’ spread offense, scored on a floater in the paint, but Evans once again had an answer.
Tiffany Johnson sank one-of-two from the foul line to put the Lady Panthers on top 49-48, but Jenna Cullinan surprised everyone when she connected on her first basket of the day to give the Warriors a 50-49 lead with 2:21 remaining in regulation.
Peoples answered with a short baseline jumper, and then Felder turned a steal at midcourt into a bucket, putting the Panthers on top 53-50.
Johnson came up with back-to-back steals, but the Panthers couldn’t convert – turning the ball over on a backcourt violation on the first and missing a shot in close on the second.
“I was just going for it, taking a chance,” said Johnson, who had five steals. “We had to take a chance.
“Even though they were calling fouls, I’m still playing aggressively.”
The Panthers’ inability to convert those steals into points gave one-point game with 52 seconds remaining.
Johnson, who has struggled from the charity stripe this season, sank the front end of a huge one-and-one to put the Lady Panthers on top 54-52.
“I was more calm than I have ever been,” the sophomore guard said. “I knew I had to make at least one.”
“Tiffany’s on a real upswing,” Schaefer said. “She’s a good, tough kid that works hard. She’s moving quicker and reacting faster the last couple of games. I was just delighted with her game.”The Panthers’ defensive pressure forced a Warrior turnover, and Felder made it hurt, burying both ends of a one-and-one to put the Panthers on top 58-52. A Felder steal all but the sealed the deal for the Lady Panthers.
Felder scored 13 of her team’s 19 points in the fourth quarter, which included a near-perfect seven-of-eight from the foul line. She had assists on the Lady Panthers’ only other two field goals.
“Let’s face it – she’s a wonderful ball handler and a deadly foul shooter,” Schaefer said. “She made big plays there both scoring and dishing off.”
Felder admits she was feeling the heat with the ball constantly in her hands.
“In my head, I was thinking, ‘We have to score. We have to score.’ because it was too close,” she said. “It’s hard. The coach is yelling, and the fans are getting excited because the other team is coming back. You don’t know what to do with it.
“This isn’t us – we’re usually blowing teams out, but playing together as a team and finishing out with a win – that’s good.”
Certainly no one could have predicted the nerveracking ending when the Lady Panthers – behind a pair of Constant treys and a Felder trey – jumped out to a 13-1 lead less than four minutes into the contest.
But then Evans went to work, scoring six of her team’s next eight points to keep the Warriors within striking distance. The Panthers took a 19-12 lead into the second quarter.
McCrewell scored on a putback to make it a 21-12 game but shortly thereafter took a seat on the bench after picking up her third foul. A three-point play by Felder put the Panthers on top 24-13, but the Warriors trimmed that lead to 26-20 after a three-point play by Evans.
The Lady Panthers went on top 32-24 after Constant – who scored all of her 16 points in the half – connected on a pull-up off the dribble.
“Monet just makes it happen offensively and defensively,” Schaefer said.
The Lady Panthers were hit by a barrage of foul calls to open the third quarter. With a pair of starters on the bench, they lost their offensive rhythm, and the Warriors crawled back in it.
But the Lady Panthers quite simply would not be denied.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Schaefer said. “We had everybody in foul trouble, and their center – oh god, what a player she is.”
The Panthers will face fourth-seeded Lower Merion – a 48-29 winner over Upper Darby - in a semifinal game on Wednesday.
“It feels like I’m on top of the world,” Constant said. “People said the reason we were 21-1 was that everybody in our league wasn’t that good, but this shows even in a game like this, we can still pull together and win.”
With the win, the Lady Panthers improved to 24-1, and if ever a win deserved a celebration, this one did.
“Party at Kira’s house,” Johnson said with a smile. “It feels good.”
EXTRA POINTS: Schaefer was pleased to see his bench players – Liz Taliaferro, Lorraine Oliver, Kira Ogden and Sydni Epps - quietly contribute. Epps had five rebounds and two steals while Ogden had a big bucket in the third quarter. “It was a team effort,” Schaefer said. “A perfect example of that was Lorraine Oliver, who hasn’t been playing much varsity at all, but because all of our forwards got into foul trouble, we had to put her in the third quarter, and she got in and helped us run the time out. As a substitute, you know you’re not going to be playing much, but you have to be ready to go, and she was. She went in and did a great job when she was called upon. Those kids on the bench have got to be ready because you never know. Something she did contributed to us winning the game.”
CHELTENHAM 61, WEST CHESTER HENDERSON 52
West Chester Henderson (52) – Katie Armstrong 3 3-4 10, Danielle Puccino 0 1-2 1, Jenna Cullinan 1 3-4 5, Jaclyn Panichi 1 3-4 5, Shante Evans 12 7-8 31, Michelle Worst 0 0-0 0, Michelle Cooper 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 17-22 52.
Cheltenham (61) – Jenna Peoples 3 2-2 8, Monet Constant 6 2-4 16, Tiffany Johnson 1 2-4 4, Dayna McCrewell 1 0-0 2, Shayla Felder 9 8-9 27, Liz Taliaferro 0 0-0 0, Sydni Epps 1 0-0 2, Kira Ogden 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 14-19 61.
West Chester Henderson 11 13 15 10-52
Cheltenham 19 13 10 19-61
Three-point goals: WC Henderson – Katie Armstrong. Cheltenham – Monet Constant 2, Shayla Felder.
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