No one is breathing easily in the SOL these days.
Especially not in a Continental Conference that seems to feature an ‘upset of the day.’
Last Friday, North Penn handed Central Bucks East its first league loss. That same night, Central Bucks West upset Pennridge.
Four nights later, Pennridge shocked an unsuspecting Central Bucks South squad, winning by 14. Also falling under the category of strange occurrences, Quakertown and Central Bucks East combined to score 138 points in a 73-65 East win. It’s a safe bet that few teams, if any, ever scored more points in a loss to East under coach Tom Lonergan, whose trademark has always been defense.
Yes, it’s a strange world.
In the midst of all the upheaval that has been the 2009-10 SOL season, there have been two constants - Council Rock North and Cheltenham.
Both teams are undefeated in league play, and both came up with big wins at last week’s SOL Challenge. Rock North downed Central Bucks East 51-41 while Cheltenham earned a 66-41 win over Council Rock North.
The Lady Panthers, who are 9-0 in SOL play and 17-0 overall, made a believer out of Rock South coach Monica Young after Saturday’s win.
“They are so athletic, they play great defense, they can jump, they can run, and they’re very fast,” the Golden Hawks’ coach said. “They might not be big in size, but they didn’t need it.
“I thought that would be one of our advantages, but nothing was to our advantage.”
The Lady Panthers spent the better part of Saturday’s game jumping into passing lanes and deflecting passes, forcing the Golden Hawks to rush their shots and just generally creating havoc at every turn.
“This is the best defensive team we have had so far because everybody hustles – don’t let our man get it, plus Schaef is putting more pressure on us about defense than offense,” senior Shayla Felder said. “We need defense, and he inspires us to do better on defense.”
The Golden Hawks actually took an early 6-2 lead over the Lady Panthers.
By halftime, the Hawks were staring at a 37-23 deficit.
“I didn’t see them cracking a smile,” Felder said. “After they got their first four points, they were all happy, but when we started bringing our defense, there were no smiles during the game.”
Speaking of no smiles – it’s a safe bet there aren’t many smiles when American Conference squads take the court against a Lady Panther squad that is averaging 62 points a game in league play while allowing 31.
If you’re counting, that’s an average point differential of 31 points.
“Sometimes you worry that when you’re not being pushed to excel and really play your best game – you’re afraid that when you finally do you’re not ready to get to that level,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “Of course, it’s our goal every year that we get the kids playing better than they think they can.
“They’ve really been stepping up and pushing that limit now, which is really nice.”
Schaefer insists his team hasn’t peaked yet, but it’s hard to imagine the Lady Panthers playing any better than they did in Saturday’s win.
“There are still a loft of instances where someone wasn’t doing what they were supposed to do – someone didn’t hustle to get the ball, someone didn’t box out,” the veteran coach said. “Basketball is a game of mistakes, and whoever makes the fewer mistakes stands a better chance of winning.
“Somebody told me a long time ago – you tell them something a thousand times, maybe the thousand first time they’ll do it. I just think they’re starting to come together.”
The Golden Hawks paid the price for being the game the players had circled on their schedule as an opportunity to make a statement.
“There’s no question the kids were up for that game,” Schaefer said. “They know when they’re playing against a weak team – they’re not putting out their ‘A’ game all the time. They just do what they need to do to win the game. I think that was a playoff kind of game for the kids. They raised their intensity. There’s no question about it – they came ready to play.
“People say, ‘You have a fairly weak schedule this year.’ It may not be as tough as some years, and I think they felt they needed to show something. I think they just decided that they wanted to show what they can do, and they did come out and play well. “
Setting the tone for the win was Felder, who scored 13 points and turned in a masterful floor game.
“Shayla came out poised and confidence,” Schaefer said. “Right from the beginning, she was going to make it happen.”
Sophomore Cicara 'CC' Andrews scored a game-high 17 points in a brilliant effort off the bench. Included in those 17 points was a basket after a steal that saw Andrews glide through a trio of defenders for the score.
Liz Taliaferro contributed 11 points and was a catalyst on defense.
"I think she scares ball handlers really," Schaefer said. "I think that's so exhausting emotionally and physically to have her constantly one foot from them with her hand right on them. That's what we want - whoever has the ball, we want them to feel heat all the time.
"That's why it was hard for them to throw it in to their big girls."
The Golden Hawks were left to regroup after this one.
“What do you do when you’re not used to that,” Young said. “I did tell them on Monday at practice – we have to forget about that game.’”
The Lady Panthers, meanwhile, will want to not only remember it but replicate it.
Ciccarone on top of her game – Daniella Ciccarone scored 40 points in Quakertown’s win over Neshaminy in the SOL Challenge.
It was only the second highest point production of her young career.
As a seventh grader playing for St. Edmond’s in Brooklyn, N.Y., the Quakertown senior lit up the net for 51 points in a win over Our Lady of Grace.
Five years later, Ciccarone is rewriting the record books every time she scores a basket for the Panthers. In Tuesday night’s loss to Central Bucks East, she eclipsed the 26-year old all-time scoring mark of 1,303 set by Bob Gluck in 1984, and not even a loss could detract from her accomplishment.
“I’m extremely happy for Daniella,” coach Greg Swavely said. “I have seen her work extremely hard the last four years.
“She plays basketball year-round. She has a work ethic that is second to none, and it makes me real happy to see her have that hard work pay off with a record like this. I’m just glad I can be a part of this with her. The neat thing is she’s taking her game to a whole new level this year.”
And that’s making quite a statement.
Ciccarone, after all, was hardly a slouch last year. As a junior, she not only averaged 15.18 points a game, she also earned first team all-league status. This year, Ciccarone is averaging 22.3 points a game through 15 games.
“She’s putting up big-time numbers right now, and she’s putting up those numbers with everyone focusing on her, double teaming her,” Swavely said. “She plays hard.
“She takes beatings.”
Those beatings are reflected in the number of trips to the foul line Ciccarone takes. In her 40-point effort against Neshaminy, the senior point guard was 22-of-27 from the foul line, 16-for-19 in the fourth quarter.
“I like to penetrate a lot, so there’s going to be a foul somewhere,” she said. “People will try and reach in.”
“Daniella is fearless,” Swavely said. “She takes the ball to the hole strong and is not afraid of contact. Where a lot of other people might shy away or go timidly, Daniella is looking for contact.
“Really, she’s a tough person to stop. You almost have to put a body on her to stop her. She gets bumped around. There are probably more calls that should be made that aren’t called.”
To those who suggest that Ciccarone’s countless trips to the foul line are the result of some good acting, the senior point guard has a message for her critics.
“That makes me so mad when people are like, ‘Oh, you’re such an actress. You fake it all the time,’” the Quakertown senior said. “I do not like getting pushed to the floor.
“I would never ever, ever fling myself to the floor. I’m not a three-year-old who’s having a temper tantrum. It’s just part of my game getting fouled. It’s something I’m used to. I get beat up constantly.”
Her coach will vouch for that.
“After games, she’s black and blue,” Swavely said. “You can look at her body, look at her arms. You can see fingernail marks, you see black and blue marks. The evidence is there, but she’s tough. She gets right back up the next day and does it again.
“She gets those fouls because nobody can get the ball back from her. I have literally seen her triple teamed, and they’re still not able to get the ball from her. She’s a phenomenal dribbler. That’s the long and short of it, and when you have someone like that, you have to foul to get the ball. Sometimes she gets the call, sometimes she doesn’t, but to think she’s just getting calls, and she’s not really getting hit is ridiculous.
“If there’s a better dribbler out there, I would like to know who it is because I haven’t seen it. It’s just an amazing ability that she has. That kind of ability doesn’t come around very often. She’s a once in a lifetime player.”
So what does Ciccarone plan to do for an encore now that she’s the new standard bearer at Quakertown?
“I’m really happy that it’s over and done with,” she said of the school record. “I really want to try to get to 1,500 – that would be awesome.
“Being a point guard, I want to be number one in the state in assists. I really want to get everyone else on my team to be a better player.”
And that’s not just lip service for a player who averages over seven assists a game.
Interestingly, Ciccarone reached the 1,000-point plateau when she buried a layup. She broke the female scoring mark on a three, and most recently, became the school’s all-time leading scorer on a foul shot.
Eagles stun Indians – Souderton was primed and ready for Friday’s showdown against North Penn. Or at least that’s how it seemed after Tuesday night’s convincing 48-27 win over Central Bucks West.
Then along came a 3-10 Norristown squad that was still stinging from its 33-32 loss to Upper Merion squad the night before to derail the Indians, defeating Souderton by an identical 33-32 score in non-league play on Wednesday night.
“You look in the newspapers and see the scores and you’re like, ‘What is going on?’ because you never know,” Norristown coach Ashlee Harrison said. “You just never know what’s going to happen.
“You never know who’s going to come and play on any given night. Tuesday’s loss was crushing because obviously, we need the win, and that would have moved us up in our league standings. Both teams played really hard, and it wasn’t for lack of effort. It was a constant fight from beginning to end.”
Souderton, which brought a 6-3 league mark into the game, opened up a 21-16 halftime lead in Wednesday’s game but then managed just 11 second-half points.
“Our focus today was we need to go back to the basics, and we need to focus on defense,” Harrison said. “In the second half, number 32 (Averie Brittin) had a three and their big girl (Carley Kendall) had the rest of their points.
“I focused on (Liz) Mower, (Emily) Price and (Brittany) Sandone and trying to shut them down, and that showed in the second half because they were held to nothing.”
The ending was yet another dramatic one for the Eagles, who trailed by as many as nine points in the third quarter.
Stephanie DiNolfi delivered a big steal and basket to give the Eagles a two-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but Kendall - who had a team-high 12 points - scored underneath for the Indians to knot the score.
Cashae Hinton, who contributed nine points, connected on a pair from the foul line to give the Eagles a 33-31 advantage.
The Indians drew a foul with 0.3 seconds showing on the game clock but connected on just one-of-two as the Eagles held on for the win.
“This is huge for us, especially for our confidence,” Harrison said. “We have to continually fight to prove ourselves.
“We go up against good competition on a nightly basis, but I feel we can compete.”
While the Indians fell to 9-6, the Eagles – who were led by the 13-point effort of Natasha Matthews - improved to 4-10.
“If we didn’t win this game, it could have been a miserable week for us because going in against Springfield with our heads held down, we would have been a sinking ship, but we were able to bounce back okay tonight,” Harrison said.
Big guns – Coming as no big surprise, Quakertown’s Daniella Ciccarone finds herself in the top spot on the most recent list of the league’s top scorers (based on stats received through Jan. 25). The gifted senior is averaging 22.3 points a game.
Her closest competitors are Abington’s Emily Leer and Cheltenham’s Shayla Felder. Both are scoring at a 16.7 PPG clip. Pennridge’s Sam Simononis is right behind with a 15.8 PPG average, and Central Bucks East’s Liz Martin averages 15 points a game.
Rounding out the top 10 are Neshaminy’s Kelsey Ryan (14.3), Council Rock North’s Kelly Scull (14.0), Norristown’s Natasha Matthews (14.0), Quakertown’s Lauren Starzecky (13.6) and Council Rock South’s Alex Wheatley (13.6).
An updated list of the SOL’s top scorers has been posted on the site.
SOS.com’s Fab Five
- Cheltenham (17-0) (The Lady Panthers solidified their hold on the top spot with a convincing win over Council Rock South.)
- Council Rock North (13-4) (The Indians, who stand alone atop the National Conference standings, defeated Central Bucks East.)
- Abington (15-1) (The Ghosts have struggled offensively in recently outings, but their defense has been stellar, and it’s hard to argue with a 15-1 mark.)
- Central Bucks East (11-3) (It’s been a while since Central Bucks East lost two in a row, but the Patriots remain one of the SOL’s premiere squads.)
- Council Rock South (12-5) (The Golden Hawks may have lost to Cheltenham by 25, but there aren’t many teams that wouldn’t have on that day. Until proven otherwise, they’re still one of the SOL’s top squads.)
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