SOUDERTON –Souderton coach Lynn Carroll admits she didn’t game plan to stop Shannon Knauer.
She should have.
North Penn’s junior forward came off the bench in Friday night’s SOL showdown and scored 18 points, leading the Maidens to a 46-34 win. It was a far cry from Knauer’s two-point effort against the Indians in an early-season meeting between the neighboring schools.
“She’s not the kind of kid you talk about before the game, but she definitely had us talking at halftime,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said.
Knauer had 11 of her points in a second quarter that saw the Maidens outscore the Indians 19-7 on their way to a 30-15 halftime lead.Her season high prior to Friday’s outburst?
“Six or eight,” Knauer said with a smile. “Nothing compared to this.”
Knauer, who was a perfect seven-for-seven from the foul line, hit her first shot from the field at the 5:24 mark of the second period, and she was off and running. She admits there was nothing to suggest this would be her night during warm-ups.
“I pretty much didn’t make a shot,” Knauer said. “I guess I showed up in the game.”
Knauer was pressed into extended duty when Taylour Alston, who suffered a back injury at practice the preceding day, took a seat on the bench early in the opening half.
“We needed somebody big to step up,” Maiden coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “Taylour’s been playing really well. She twisted her back yesterday at practice, and she was really struggling out there.
“Shannon came in and gave us just what we needed out there. She just played outstanding. She was so focused. She played good defense, she rebounded really well on both sides, and she made good decisions. I’m really pleased with the way she played.”
The win upped the Maidens SOL mark to 7-3 and gave them sole possession of second place in the Continental Conference standings. The Indians , meanwhile, fell to 5-5 and find themselves tied for fourth place.
For the Maidens (8-8), it was the first time they reached the .500 mark in the last two seasons.
“I wanted to win this game to be .500,” Knauer said. “It feels amazing. We have been working so hard for this.”
“It’s amazing,” teammate Shakia Robinson said. “I love the feeling.
“Our team has come so far, and finally for us to make .500 – it shows that all the practice, all the hard work is finally paying off.”
Robinson, despite being the focus of the Indians’ defense, had 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
“Double and triple teaming me only makes matters worse because other people score just as well as I do,” Robinson said. “I was so proud of Shannon for breaking out of her shell and showing everyone what she’s capable of doing
“This is going to make us even better. Now we have three different threats on the floor, and people won’t know what to do. I think it will make other teams uneasy.”
The Indians, who connected on an abysmal 11-for-51 from the floor, did not have anyone in double figures.
“It’s tough to win games when you shoot 20 percent,” Carroll said. “Some of them were good looks that we just need to make in moments of the game where you have to step up and make them.
“But I think the 20 percent was largely due to shot selection. It was like we were just throwing it up and hoping something good would happen, and time and time again, something good wasn’t happening, but we continued more of the same.”
Brittany Sandone led the Indians with nine points while Monica Schmidt had eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds to go along with three blocked shots.
Once again, the Indians were doomed by a slow start.
“I really couldn’t tell you,” Schmidt said when asked what has gone wrong. “If we knew that, we would probably be winning more games.”
Schmidt looked at her team’s shooting stats.
“Wow, that’s pretty bad,” she said. “It was pretty frustrating.
“I know I was frustrated. I had a lot of opportunities to score that I should have finished.”
The Indians hung tough in the first quarter and trailed by a slim 11-8 count at the end of one quarter.
Knauer gave a preview of things to come when she buried a pair of foul shots early in the second quarter to put the Maidens on top 13-9. A Janelle Stawasz three-pointer gave the Maidens a 16-9 edge, but Schmidt answered with a pair of foul shots for the Indians.
Knauer connected on a baseline jumper, and after Liz Mower buried one-of-two from the charity stripe for the Indians, Robinson turned a drive to the hole into a three-point play, putting the Maidens on top 21-12.
It was still an eight-point game after Emily Price buried a 15-footer for the Indians, but Knauer, who simply could not miss, calmly answered with a baseline trey to put the Maidens on top 26-15.
“I have been working on my outside shot with one of my shooting coaches, and Maggie (deMarteleire) has helped us work on our shooting,” Knauer said.
When Brenda McDermott found Knauer wide open under the bucket for an easy hoop, the Maidens led 28-15, and after a Mary Newell basket at the buzzer, they upped that lead to 30-15.
Knauer opened the second half with a short baseline jumper, and after Robinson, who benefitted from teammate’s hot hand, scored off a Souderton turnover, the Maidens led by 19.
But the Indians - accustomed to slow starts - came roaring back. Averie Brittin got things started with a trey, and then Schmidt connected on back-to-back putbacks. When Mower scored in the closing seconds of the quarter to cap a 12-1 Indian run, the Maidens’ lead had been trimmed to eight (35-27).
The Maidens’ lead was cut to five (39-34) after Sandone scored on a drive at the 3:14 mark. Moments later, Knauer was fouled shooting a trey, and she calmly buried all three shots, giving the Maidens a 42-34 lead and all but sealing the Indians’ fate.
“It’s a rerun of the last seven games,” Carroll said. “We play extremely well in the second half. We play well some of the time in the first half, but it’s not consistent. There’s not consistent execution in the first half.”
While the Maidens have won five of their last six games, the Indians have dropped seven of their last nine.
“We need a big win,” Schmidt said. “We need to step up.”
NORTH PENN 46, SOUDERTON 34
North Penn (46) – Shakie Robinson 7 2-5 16, Taylour Alston 0 0-0 0, Mary Wells 0 0-0 0, Janelle Stawasz 1 1-2 3, Steph Knauer 2 1-1 5, Brenda McDermott 0 1-2 1, Shannon Knauer 5 7-7 18, Mary Newell 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 12-17 46.
Souderton (34) – Monica Schmidt 2 4-4 8, Sarita Kundrod 1 0-2 2, Liz Mower 2 1-2 5, Brittany Sandone 3 2-2 9, Jess Bard 0 0-1 0, Averie Brittin 1 2-4 5, Emily Price 1 1-4 3, Sabrina Walley 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 10-19 34.
North Penn 11 19 5 11-46
Souderton 8 7 12 7-34
Three-point goals: NP – Janelle Stawasz, Shannon Knauer. Souderton – Averie Brittin, Brittany Sandone.
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