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NEWTOWN – With a defender draped all over her, Kelly Scull wasn’t in any kind of position to take a shot when she received the ball on the low post late in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s SOL showdown against Abington.Undeterred, the Council Rock North’s senior co-captain invented a shot that isn’t in anyone’s playbook, somehow scoring under her defender on an impossible scoop shot.
“We had to score,” Scull said. “I had to make that. It was needed.”
Was it ever!
Scull’s acrobatic basket knotted the score 48-48 with 1:25 remaining, erasing a once nine-point, fourth quarter deficit.
“You’re down nine with three minutes to go, and you think about the five shots you hit to come back and take the lead – three of those shots probably go in 20 percent of the time,” Rock North coach Lou Palkovics said. “Kelly’s was one of them – it was an amazing underhand scoop behind someone’s back.
“That was big.”
Moments later, teammate Devin Gold turned a steal into a layup to put the Indians on top 50-48.
“I think after the first or second steal, we all picked it up, and we got back into the game,” Gold said. “We came out a little slow. We came out a little bit too relaxed, but with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, we picked it up.”
Sophomore Aiyannah Peal had an answer for the Ghosts, scoring from the low post to knot the score and send the game into overtime.
It looked as though the Ghosts might have regained a stronghold when Emily Leer found teammate Sarah Listenbee for an easy deuce to go on top by two early in OT, but the remaining three-plus minutes belonged to the Indians, who rolled to a 63-52 win over the stunned Ghosts.“We played great basketball for 29 minutes, and the last three minutes – we let them pressure us into turnovers,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “We totally changed our thought process.
“We were ready for their pressure, and we handled it for 29 minutes, and then for some reason, we didn’t finish.”
This was one of those rare games that not only lived up to all the pre-game hype. It may have actually exceeded it as the Indians rose from the ashes to pull out the improbable win in a battle of the National Conference’s unbeaten squads.
“It was great,” Rock North senior co-captain Sarah Kiely said of the come-from-behind win. “It was one of the best feelings.
“I think we did a great job on defense toward the end. We stepped it up at the end.”
Kiely survived an 0-for-12 start from the field to finish with 10 points, but her defense on Emily Leer – who came into the game averaging close to 20 points but scored just six – more than made up for a tough shooting night. She also had nine rebounds.“When you go 0-for-12, you have to have that confidence to keep going,” Kiely said. “You can’t stop shooting and isolate yourself from the game.
“I translated all my frustration into defense and tried to stop Emily Leer as much as possible. I think playing Fencor with her and playing against her every single day at practice helped a lot. I know the little habits she has, and I know the little things she does, but help defense was definitely key in this game.”
While Kiely and Leer all but negated each other, Devin Gold scored 17 points to lead the Indians while Lauren Gold added 16 and Kelly Scull, 15 points.
For the Ghosts, Jamie Shectman and Aiyannah Peal shared game scoring honors with 18 points each.
“We said before the game – if those two (Leer and Kiely) could negate each other, I’d feel good about our chances,” Palkovics said. “But I didn’t realize Shectman would step up – a girl who averages four points a game drops 18 on us. I didn’t plan on that.”
Marsh, for one, wasn’t surprised.
“We have other weapons,” he said. “When people take away Emily, which they did, we have other girls who can step up.“We’re a complete team, and if people don’t know that by now, they should. I’m very proud of them. We came out and did what we needed to do. We didn’t have a great start, but we battled back. We just didn’t finish.”
In a deserted stairwell outside of her team’s locker room, Peal made no attempt to hide her emotions as she reflected on went wrong.
“We didn’t handle the pressure because we rushed and didn’t take our time,” the sophomore standout said. “We bailed them out every time they went to the basket because we fouled.
“That’s the number one thing that we said we weren’t going to do. It really hurts.”
The Ghosts led 48-39 after Shectman – who buried four three’s – connected on a trey just inside the arc.
“I was a little worried because when coach gave us a scouting report, he didn’t really have a lot on her,” Kiely said. “She hit everything.”
Unfortunately for the Ghosts, Shectman’s basket marked the beginning of the end. Kiely turned an inbounds play under her team’s basket into a three-point play, and after a Devin Gold steal, Scull banked home a tough shot over her defender.
“Sarah is a phenomenal post player, and when they shut her out, it opens things up,” Scull said. “Before the season started, coach came up to me and said, ‘Teams are going to try and shut Sarah out, so this is your year.’
“I went out this summer and busted my butt to do what I could to help out the team.”
An Abington turnover set the stage for a Devin Gold bucket on tough baseline drive, making it a 48-46 game.
The Indians had a chance to win it but were whistled for a traveling violation in the closing seconds of regulation.
The Ghosts scored first in OT, but sophomore Megan Cunningham converted a tough fast break bucket after a Lauren Gold steal, knotting the score 52-52 at the 2:15 mark.
“I thought Lauren Gold was really big,” Palkovics said. “When Meghan made that shot to tie it –you want to score first in overtime, and Megan Cunningham made a great move to answer, banking that running layup.
“Once we got it even, I felt a little better about our chances.”
A pair of Abington misses were followed by a three-point play by Lauren Gold, and after another Ghost miss, Kiely, who came down with the rebound, buried both ends of a one-and-one to put the Indians on top 57-52.
For good measure, Lauren Gold came up with another steal – her fifth of the game – and buried two more from the charity stripe.
“Me and Devin were putting pressure on the ball, and we were getting help,” Lauren Gold said. “I just pressured the ball and stole the ball whenever I could. They were getting frustrated.”
The Ghosts were never heard from again as the Indians cruised to the emotional win.“All the games in Florida – it was nice beating some of those teams, but this is a local team that we’re going to see again,” Kiely said. “We’re both ranked in the state, so it is a great feeling. I think I still have butterflies in my stomach.”
Early on, it looked as though the Indians had things going their way as they opened up a 7-0 lead after Lauren Gold buried a pair from the foul line, but the Ghosts came roaring back.
A three-pointer by Shectman pulled the Ghosts to within one heading in the second quarter (13-12).
“The first three or four possessions we came down, ran what we wanted and got what we wanted,” Palkovics said. “Then all of a sudden we got stagnant.”
Things didn’t improve in a second quarter that saw the Ghosts go on a 15-10 tear to go into halftime with a 27-23 lead over the Indians, who connected on just 4-of-18 shots in the half. In the quarter, Shectman buried a pair of treys while Jess Schmidt also added a three-point bucket.
It was still a four-point game at the end of three quarters (39-35), and it looked as though the Indians were down for the count after back-to-back buckets by Shectman put the Ghosts on top 48-39 at the 3:24 mark.
Palkovics called a hasty timeout, and things were never the same again.
“It was like we were off,” Scull said. “We weren’t hitting shots. Coach sat us during the last timeout and said, ‘Look guys, it comes down to heart.’
“From there, we just got it. We just played. It comes down to who wants it more.”
While the Indians improved to 6-0 in league play (9-3 overall), the Ghosts suffered their first loss of the season (5-1 SOL, 10-1 overall).
“I don’t think they wore us down,” Marsh said. “We just panicked, and we weren’t ready to finish, but we will be the next time.”
The ‘next time’ will be Feb. 9 when the Indians will travel to Abington. Mark your calendars!
EXTRA SHOTS: The Indians took 34 trips to the foul line while the Ghosts took 10, a fact that was not lost on Marsh. “I’m not blaming the referees,” he said. “They didn’t lose the game, but there were too many fouls. You want your best five or six girls on the floor.”
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 63, ABINGTON 52
Abington (52) – Jamie Shectman 7 0-0 18; Chynna West 0 0-0 0; Jess Schmidt 3 0-0 8; Aiyannah Peal 8 2-2 18; Emily Leer 1 4-8 6; Sheila Longo 0 0-0 0; Sarah Listenbee 1 0-0 2; Carli Fitzgerald 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 6-10 52.
Council Rock North (63) – Jodi Marrazzo 1 1-1 3; Devin Gold 6 5-5 17; Lauren Gold 3 10-11 16; Sarah Kiely 2 6-7 10; Megan Cunningham 1 0-0 2; Emily Grundman 0 0-0 0; Steph Brennan 0 0-2 0; Helena Gemmell 0 0-0 0; Alyssa Dumont 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16 30-34 63.
Abington 12 15 12 11 2-52
Council Rock North 13 10 12 15 13-63
3-point goals: Abington – Jamie Shectman 4, Jess Schmidt 2. CR North – Kelly Scull.
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