The first several weeks of the SOL season have been interesting indeed.
In the SOL Continental Conference, four teams are within one game of each other. Central Bucks East has not lost while Souderton, North Penn and Quakertown each have lost only one game in conference play.
The National Conference boasts three teams that have not lost in conference play – Council Rock North, Abington and Bensalem. Rock North is riding a seven-game winning streak after a loss to Central Dauphin in its season opener. The Indians’ most recent win was a 60-38 drubbing of Oakland Catholic.
In the American Conference, there seems to be parity galore as well.
“Cheltenham seems to be the most potent team in the Suburban One American,” said Upper Merion coach Tom Schurtz, whose team fell to the Panthers 55-15 early last week. “They’re clearly the team to beat in the league.
“After that, you can pretty much flip a coin. The next five are going to be really close. I think what a lot of people don’t realize about the Suburban One American Conference is there have always been a lot of good teams in our league. It’s just that you get overshadowed because there have been two great teams.”
The addition of Norristown, and the coming of age of teams like Wissahickon and Upper Merion suggests there will be some serious wars fought on the hardwood this winter. The Trojans have not lost in conference play.
Stay tuned. It should be interesting.
Good days/bad days – North Penn coach Maggie deMarteleire thought her team had turned the corner after soundly defeating Souderton on Tuesday night. The Maidens downed the previously undefeated Indians 48-33, but it wasn’t nearly that close in a game that saw the Maidens take a 41-16 lead into the final quarter.
“They did all the things we’re teaching them to do – all the little things,” the Maidens’ second-year coach said. “We rebounded like crazy on both sides. We boxed out really well. Our help defense was really good without fouling.”
That wasn’t the case in the Maidens’ 49-45 loss to Perkiomen Valley four days later in a game that saw the Vikings take 27 trips to the foul line.
“We played poor defense,” deMarteleire said. “Against Souderton, we contained better, and even when we didn’t contain, our help defense stepped over early and stopped the drive.
“We did so many things well against Souderton.”
It didn’t hurt that the Maidens shot in the neighborhood of 60 percent in the first half of their win over the Indians.
“Most of the shots were either wide open looks or putbacks or layups or things you should be shooting 60 percent,” deMarteleire said. “For three quarters against Souderton, we played awesome basketball. That’s what we’re capable of doing. When our kids do what they’re capable of doing, we’re really good.
“I said to my kids (after the Perk Valley loss), ‘Everything we did right against Souderton, today we did everything we could do wrong in a basketball game.’”
Vikings find their stride– After suffering a lopsided loss to Cheltenham that saw the Vikings score just 15 points, Upper Merion rebounded to notch wins over Upper Moreland (54-26), Interboro (56-33) and Phoenixville (33-27).
A key to their resurgence has been the play of freshman Cassidy Koenig, who had 15 points – including four treys - in the win over Interboro and eight in just five minutes of action against Upper Moreland.
Lisa Ridgeway, according to coach Tom Schurtz, ‘could fill a stat page.’
“She’s leading us in points, leading us in rebounds,” he said. “She’s just rock solid. She’s hasn’t had a breakout game yet, but you can feel that coming.”
Schurtz plays a lineup that features four guards, and according to the Vikings’ coach, both Jess Moore and Paola Tinari have been major contributors. Tinari had back-to-back double figure games for the Vikings.
“We’re not as big as we were last year,” Schurtz said. “Last year we had some seniors that had good size, but we weren’t able to run the floor. We’re a little small this year, but every player can make a 15-foot jump shot.
“When you have five or six players that can score, it puts a lot of pressure on the defense to cover you all over the floor. I’m excited. It’s going to be fun.”
The Vikings will travel to Sherwood High School in Maryland for a holiday tournament.
Trojans come up big – Coach Jerry Hartman isn’t sure exactly when Wissahickon last defeated Upper Dublin in girls’ basketball.
“I know it’s been at least five or six years,” he said.
It might have been even longer than that, but the Trojans’ drought came to an end last week when they defeated the Flying Cardinals 58-50 on their home court.
“I felt our defensive presence for the whole game was the big key,” Hartman said. “We did shoot the ball well – it was probably our best shooting game of the year.
“It seemed whenever we needed to make a big shot, somebody stepped up and made a big shot.”
The Trojans had five players in double figures. Junior Kristy Ragbir led the way with 14 points while Colleen Hinde had 12. Anne Bracaglia had 11 points, including three treys. Rachel Schaible and Katie Vila each had 10 points. Vila had a pair of treys for the Trojans, who connected on eight three-pointers.
“It was a collective team game,” Hartman said. “We had people shooting the ball well, and Casey Bill was distributing the ball well. They tried to trap her, and she did a good job of getting around the trap.
“It was just one of those games where we shot the ball well, played good defense, and when we needed a big shot, we made a big shot. They kept coming at us. It was probably the best high school game I’ve been involved in in 15 years.”
Star watch: Each week SOS.com will recognize some of the preceding week’s big performances (although we can only report those we know about, so feel free to let us know if you have a player who delivers a noteworthy performance). A look back at last week will show the Cheltenham junior Monet Constant had four three-pointers and scored 18 points in Cheltenham’s 55-15 win over Upper Merion.
Paola Tinari (15 points), Cassidy Koenig (14 points) and Jessica Moore (10 points) paced the Vikings in their 56-33 non-league win over Interboro.
Junior Kristen Fuery had 14 points in Upper Dublin’s 58-50 loss to Wissahickon. Fuery had a game-high 21 points in the Flying Cardinals 50-35 win over Plymouth Whitemarsh.
Senior Chelsea Rota had 11 points to lead all scorers in Neshaminy’s 56-20 win over Harry S. Truman.
Council Rock North used a balanced attack to defeat William Tennent 57-39. Sarah Kiely (14 points), Kate Logan (13 points) Devin Gold (13 points) all contributed. Ashley Alden had 10 points in a losing cause. In Rock North’s 50-39 win over Neshaminy, Kielyhad 19 points and Kelly Scull, 12 points. Kelsey Ryan led the Redskins with 16 points. Kiely paced the attack in the Indians’ win over Oakland Catholic with 17 points while Lauren Gold had 14.
Abington’s Ajanae Boone and Council Rock South’s Ann Silverthorn both scored 13 points in the Ghosts’ 57-42 win on Friday.
Freshman Liz Mower (17 points) had a breakout performance in Souderton’s 55-46 win over Central Bucks South. Brittany Sandone added 16 points.
Wissahickon was led by Rachel Schaible (14 points) and Colleen Hinde (13 points) in the Trojans’ 40-35 win over Norristown. Senior Mercedes Harris (12 points) led the Eagles.
Upper Moreland’s Erin Dixon (15 points) led all scorers in Upper Merion’s 54-26 win over the Golden Bears. Lisa Ridgeway (11 points) and Alex Galdi (10 points) led the Vikings.
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