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WYNCOTE – Shayla Felder has only one thing on her mind these days, and that’s winning basketball games.
“We’re playing for our lives right now,” Cheltenham’s senior standout said after the Lady Panthers downed Central Bucks South 74-32 in a District One Class AAAA second round game on Wednesday night. “We have no choice but to go hard because we’re not going home.
“It’s serious. It’s live or die, so we’re all motivated.”How motivated?
Consider only a play late in the opening half when Felder – fully extended – dove into a passing lane and deflected a Titan pass off a South player and out of bounds.
It didn’t matter to Felder that her team already owned a comfortable 13-point lead or that the senior guard landed hard on the court. Felder – it was clear - was not about to leave anything on the court.
“Cheltenham just came out to win,” South coach Beth Mattern said. “They flat out came out and played to win. They had intensity, and we didn’t match their intensity.”
It’s a safe bet few teams could have matched the Lady Panthers’ intensity in their final home game of the season on Wednesday.
By halftime, Cheltenham had a commanding 38-22 lead on its way to an impressive win over a Titan squad that had lost to the Lady Panthers by just one point during the regular season (51-50).
The Lady Panthers, according to Felder, were ready.
“Instead of worrying about anything else, we have to focus on basketball - that’s our priority,” the senior guard said. “Before every game, I text everybody to get them hyped and ready to play.
“Schaef got quotes from the other team saying, ‘We’re going to redo our game against Cheltenham,’ and that got us hyped. He put them all around the gym. We were pumped.”
Felder was magnificent in the win, scoring a game high 23 points in just over three quarters and also contributing three assists and seven steals. Teammate Austen Hamler added 13 points and nine rebounds. Liz Taliaferro contributed 10 points, three steals and five rebounds while Ciara Andrews had 10 points and three steals.
Monet Constant had eight points and seven rebounds, and Kira Ogden had six rebounds and four steals. Junior point guard Tiffany Johnson added six points, seven steals, five rebounds and six assists.If it sounds as though everybody contributed, they did. Perhaps that’s because the Lady Panthers had a point to prove.
“The kids saw the article where CB South said they were happy to have a redo,” Schaefer said. “It was one of those situations – be careful what you wish for.”
Mattern wasn’t wishing for a date with the Panthers and knew her team would have its hands full against the district’s top-seeded squad.
“This is a spot they’re very familiar with, and they showed it,” she said. “They wanted it.”
In perhaps an omen of things to come, the Titans turned the ball over on their first possession of the game. Constant made it hurt, converting a runner at the other end of the court. A basket by Katelyn Schneider knotted the score, but Johnson scored on a putback at the other end.
The Panthers led 6-2 after Hamler converted an offensive rebound into a bucket, and then – after a Titan turnover – Felder somehow scored on an off-balance shot with a pair of Titan defenders surrounding her.
“They shot the ball really well,” Mattern said. “I couldn’t even guess what they shot – maybe 100 percent – from the floor.
“They made some nice off-balance shots, and I was thinking, ‘They can’t keeping shooting this well,’ but yes, they can and even better than that.”
Another Hamler putback made it a 10-2 game, and then it was Johnson turning an Ogden steal into a bucket, putting the Panthers on top 12-2 and prompting Mattern to call her second timeout in a two-minute span.
“We knew coming in Cheltenham was a great team,” said Schneider, who led the Titans with 13 points. “We knew they would come out and give us a run for our money.“They were definitely fired up, and I know we were too. We were in the locker room getting each other pumped up. We missed some shots, and unfortunately, that’s the way it fell.”
Brittany Kaewell broke the Panthers’ 10-0 run by sinking one-of-two from the foul line, but Johnson – who spent the quarter attacking the Titans’ defense – scored on a drive to make it a 14-3 game.
“Tiffany is a prime time player,” Schaefer said. “She steps up her game. I would like to see her play like that all season, but at this point, I’ll take it for the playoffs.
“There’s no question she upped the level of her play tonight tremendously.”
Johnson, it seems, has a friendly little rivalry going with the Titans.
“I have a friend on CB South, and she texted me on Friday when they beat Wissahickon and said, ‘ See you on Wednesday’ with a cocky attitude, and it got me hyped,” said Johnson, who is teammates with Gab Vass on Fencor.
“It’s the playoffs,” she continued. “We’re going to bring it. It’s not going to be the same result. I was just pumped, making it to states this game.”
Johnson knew she needed to look for her shot since Felder was the focal point of the Titans’ defense.
“They were trying to stay on Shayla, so I knew I could attack the basket,” she said. “I know that when I want to - I can get the shot I need.”
When Hamler converted a three-point play, not only did the Panthers lead by 14, but the junior forward already had seven points. In the initial meeting between the two teams, the junior forward did not score.
“Another thing that probably surprised them was Austen Hamler,” Schaefer said. “She played about three minutes the last time we played them, and she came out and ripped them in the first half.”
Schneider connected on back-to-back baskets for the Titans, making it a 17-8 game, but Felder scored on a tough shot under her defender. Kaewell answered for the Titans, but Felder - who was a near-perfect 9-for-10 from the foul line - buried a pair from the charity stripe to give the Lady Panthers a 21-10 lead.
The Titans pulled to within eight after Vass scored from just inside the three-point arc, and it looked as though things might get interesting.
They still remained within striking distance after Taliaferro connected on a pair from the foul line with 1:25 remaining in the half (32-21), but the final 60 seconds proved to be deadly for the Titans.
Andrews turned a steal into a layup, and after Felder forced a turnover, the senior guard banked one home on a short pull-up in the paint. A South miss set the stage for Felder finding Andrews for a bucket that made it a 38-21 game. Nicole Mummert sank one-of-two from the foul line in the closing seconds, but this one was all but over.
Unlike the initial meeting between the two teams, the Lady Panthers owned the backboards in Wednesday’s rematch, outrebounding the Titans 24-6 in the half.“One of the points of concentration I wrote on the board before the game was to control the loose balls – hit the floor, get under them, box out and deny the lane,” Schaefer said. “There definitely was a big difference tonight. The last time they out-muscled us all over the court, and we allowed them to do that.
“We didn’t allow it as much tonight. They still played a good, hard, physical game, but we came out hot, and it was hard for them to ever get their mojo going.”
Felder scored on a drive in the paint to open the third quarter, and after a Titan turnover, Constant – who had six points in the frame – scored off the dribble to give the Panthers a 42-22 lead.
“As soon as the ball was thrown up tonight, it was game time,” Constant said. “We weren’t thinking about the past or how we only beat them by one. It was a whole new game.
“Tonight it was about working together. Everybody was helping each other on defense, passing the ball around on offense, and when you do that, everything will fall into place.”
The Panthers never had a letdown in Wednesday’s win, outscoring the Titans 36-10 in the second half.
“At the beginning of the game, we were going to shut them down out of the gate,” Felder said. “The second half we had to play the way we did coming into the game.
“It’s a whole new game. You can’t let up, keep working hard. There’s no time to get tired.”
There was no big celebration after Wednesday’s convincing win as the Lady Panthers looked very much the part of a team on a mission.
“I think we’re a team that’s not only on a mission but determined to complete that mission, no matter what it takes,” Constant said. “It’s great we won, and we’re happy, but you can’t hang onto the past. We have to keep pushing ourselves. It’s a new day, and it’s time to work even harder.”
While Central Bucks South will face Methacton in a playback to earn the ninth and final state playoff berth, the Lady Panthers will face Council Rock South in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
CHELTENHAM 74, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 32
Central Bucks South (32) – Katelyn Schneider 5 0-0 13; Brooke Eife 1 2-4 4; Tyler Vitelli 0 0-2 0; Nicole Mummert 1 1-2 3; Kaycee Schaefer 1 1-2 3; Maura Kane 0 1-2 1; Brittany Kaewell 1 2-4 4; Kelsey Herrmann 0 0-2 0; Shannon Senour 0 1-2 1; Gab Vass 2 0-0 4; Tori Steinberg 0 0-0 0; Kimmy Green 0 0-0 0; Maddi Vitelli 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 11 7-18 32.
Cheltenham (74) – Liz Taliaferro 3 2-2 10; Monet Constant 4 0-2 8; Artavia Sheffield 0 0-0 0; Ciara Andrews 4 1-2 10; Tiffany Johnson 3 0-4 6; Christina Coleman 0 0-0 0; Kira Ogden 0 0-0 0; Lorraine Oliver 0 0-0 0; Shayla Felder 6 9-10 23; Austen Hamler 6 1-1 13; Jiana Clark 0 0-0 0; Shayla Peoples 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 28 13-21 74.
3-point goals: CB South – Schneider 3. Cheltenham – Felder 2, Taliaferro, Andrews.
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