Daniella Ciccarone has secured her spot in the record books.
The senior guard established a new standard of excellence at Quakertown when she shattered the school’s 80-year-old scoring mark for female basketball players, and she did it in style, burying a three-pointer from well beyond the arc at the buzzer ending the first quarter of Tuesday night’s game at North Penn.
The basket vaulted Ciccarone past Miram Afflerback, whose record of 1,144 points had stood since 1930.
“I’m extremely proud for Daniella,” coach Greg Swavely said. “This has been on her mind. It’s hard not to think about an 80-year-old record being broken, and it couldn’t happen to a better person.
“She’s meant so much to our program the last four years, and I’m just extremely proud and happy for her.”
Ciccarone surpassed the 1,000-point plateau in the Panthers’ second game of the season against Conestoga. She became only the fifth female basketball player at Quakertown to reach that milestone, joining Colleen Gavin (2009), Jen Carlson (1989), Anita Serge (1980) and Afflerbach (1930).
Everyone – including the fearless guard – knew it was only a matter of time before Afflerbach’s record would fall. She needed 10 points entering Tuesday night’s game at North Penn, and the only question that remained wasn’t if she would score 10 but when it would happen.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘You’re 10 away, you’re 10 away,’” Ciccarone said afterwards. “But I wasn’t keeping track, and when it happened – it was just like my thousandth point, ‘Alright, just let it come to me.’”
On a night when her team struggled to get out of the gate, Ciccarone was relentless, repeatedly taking the ball to the basket and drawing fouls. She scored all 10 of her team’s first-quarter points and finished the night with 25, which included a 14-for-19 effort at the foul line.
“We struggled, and Daniella gave us a chance to be in it in the first half,” Swavely said after his team’s 76-52 loss to the Maidens. “Our defensive effort was poor, but thankfully, Dani kept us in it and gave us a chance.”
Ciccarone presented the game ball to her father, Frank Ciccarone. It was her father who instilled the love of the game in Ciccarone as a youngster growing up in Brooklyn.
Next on Ciccarone’s ‘to-do’ list is breaking the school’s all-time record of 1,303 points.
National Conference
Golden Hawks looking to recapture magic – It’s been an interesting season for Council Rock South. The Golden Hawks flew out of the gate to a 7-1 record but then dropped a pair to two of the SOL’s premiere teams last weekend – Abington and Central Bucks East.
They recuperated from that to win their next two, including Wednesday’s 52-38 non-league win over Souderton.
“We’re still not where we need to be,” senior Chelsea Allen said. “We’re not playing as consistently as we should be, but I think we’re going to get there.”
If there was a piece of the puzzle missing last season, that piece has been found with the addition of point guard Alexis Hofstaeder, who looks anything but the part of a freshman.
“She sees the floor very well,” coach Monica Young said. “It lets us get out in transition.”
While Hofstaeder, Emily Nowicke and Lea Britton can all handle the ball and connect from the outside, Allen (5-11) and sophomore Alex Wheatley (6-3) are capable of dominating the paint. In Tuesday’s win over Souderton, Wheatley had 17 points and 10 rebounds while Allen had 15 points and 12 boards.
Talk to Allen, and she admits that life is different with Hofstaeder in the lineup.
“It’s been great because we can attack both inside and out,” the senior center said. “We have some pretty good three-point shooters, so it’s really been helping us out a lot because people don’t know how to guard us.”
The short-handed Indians – minus starting point guard Averie Brittin and starting center Carley Kendall because of injuries - kept things interesting for a while, cutting into the Golden Hawks’ lead late in the first half with Wheatley on the bench to go into intermission on the short end of a 26-23 score.
“We have been playing in some spurts lately,” Young said. “We’re tired.”
The Golden Hawks completed a stretch of four games in six days with Wednesday’s win.
“I think we’ve had lapses in concentration,” Allen said. “We’ll come out roaring in the first quarter, and in the second quarter, we’ll be like, ‘We’re already up. Why do we need to play?’
“We need to be consistent and keep going the entire game, not just 16 out of 32 minutes.”
The Golden Hawks are trying to find the magic they displayed en route to a championship in the Boardwalk Classic at Wildwood.
“It was actually pretty incredible,” Allen said of the holiday tournament. “I have never seen us play like that. We were hitting on all cylinders, and we were playing really well. We just need to get back to that, and I think we will. We obviously have the potential to get back there.”
The Golden Hawks will face William Tennent on Friday and then face a showdown against neighboring Council Rock North on Tuesday.
Continental Conference
Nelson coming on strong – When Dara Nelson was named MVP of her North Penn squad as a freshman, it was the first of many accolades that figured to come the gifted point guard’s way.
The script didn’t exactly go as planned for Nelson, who was sidelined the better part of her sophomore and juniors seasons with injuries. This year she’s back at point for the Maidens after sitting out last year with a torn ACL.
Nelson’s glittering performance in the Maidens’ 76-52 win over Quakertown on Tuesday saw the crafty point guard score 16 points – which included a pair of treys, but that was just the beginning. Nelson also repeatedly found her teammates with laser passes for easy baskets and also was a force on defense.
“Dara’s been in a little bit of a funk, and she was putting too much pressure on herself,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “I said to her, ‘You’re going to keep shooting until I tell you to stop shooting.’ I don’t say that very often.
“She did a lot of other things really well. She was really good on defense, she took care of the ball and made some real nice passes.”
After the game, Nelson admitted that it’s starting to feel like old times.
“I felt like my old self,” she said. “I have been in a slump the last couple of games, and it finally felt nice to have my shot on, and my passes were on – we were finishing out there.
“It was nice to be the old me out there.”
Nelson buried a pair of treys to thwart a Panther comeback attempt in the second half.
“I felt like I was playing the game again,” she said. “There was nothing to think about – just go out and do it. I wasn’t worrying about if I was going to make the shot or miss it.
“I just felt tonight was a good night.”
It’s not a coincidence that the Maidens won big with Nelson in charge. The senior point guard had plenty of support. Sophomore Steph Knauer had a team-high 21 points and Mary Ward added 15 points and plenty of hustle.
The Maidens – after staggering through the month of December – have won three in a row. They are 3-2 in league play (5-5 overall).
American Conference
High Drama – Looking for high drama and topsy-turvy action?
Look no further than the SOL’s American Conference where the only sure thing in conference play is that Cheltenham has established itself as the clear frontrunner.
Tuesday night’s game against Wissahickon in a showdown between the conference’s lone undefeated squads was a battle only on paper. The two teams entered the game with identical 4-0 records in league play, but the Panthers –buoyed by their aggressive defense – sprinted to a 34-8 halftime lead on their way to a 61-33 win.
The rest of the league is in line to battle for second.
While Wissahickon has a stronghold on second with its 4-1 mark, Upper Merion and Upper Dublin are not far behind with 3-2 records in conference play. Springfield and Plymouth Whitemarsh threw the standings into turmoil by notching big wins – Springfield defeated Upper Merion while PW edged Norristown.
Stay tuned!
On the schedule - On Saturday, Upper Dublin will host the Blue Star Elite Invitational Tournament, a showcase tournament featuring eight schools. The schedule is as follows:
Noon – Don Boscoe (Md.) vs. New Beginnings Academy (Pa.)
1:45 p.m. – Sacred Heart (NY) vs. Prep Charter (Pa.)
3:30 p.m. – Maria Goretti (Pa.) vs. St. Dominic’s (NY)
5:15 p.m. – Upper Dublin (Pa.) vs. Little Flower (Pa.)
Council Rock North will face Harvest Prep at the Scholastic Play-by-Play at Archbishop Carroll on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., and Abington will face Lower Merion at the Play-by-Play, but first the two teams have to take care of the not-so-little matter of Friday night’s 7 p.m. showdown at Rock North.
On Tuesday, Rock North and Rock South will square off in a battle of neighboring rivals and two of the conference’s elite squads.
There will be a pair of key Continental Conference contests this week as well. A suddenly resurgent North Penn squad will travel to Central Bucks South on Friday night, and on Tuesday, South will take on cross-town rival CB East in a potential battle of the conference’s only undefeated squads.
Hatboro-Horsham and Central Bucks West’s contest on Tuesday could well give one of the two squads its first conference win.
SOS.com’s Fab Five
- Cheltenham (12-0) (The Lady Panthers survived a tough test against Central Bucks South to remain undefeated.)
- Council Rock North (8-3) (Friday’s showdown against Abington will give the winner a leg up in the battle for supremacy in the National Conference.)
- Abington (7-0) (The Ghosts earned an impressive win over Council Rock South on Friday and have an even tougher test awaiting them Friday when they take on CR North.)
- Central Bucks East (8-1) (The Patriots defeated CR South in a key non-league match on Saturday and will take on Continental Conference foe Central Bucks South on Tuesday.)
- Council Rock South (9-3) (The Golden Hawks suffered back-to-back losses to Abington and CB East but recuperated to win their next two games. Tough tests against CR North and Cheltenham loom on the horizon for the Hawks.)
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