North Penn fell to Spring-Ford in Friday night’s District One AAAA title game at Villanova University. Upper Dublin defeated CB East to earn the ninth and final playoff berth. To view photos of the North Penn/Spring-Ford game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
VILLANOVA – Their pressure was relentless, and they came at North Penn in what must have felt like droves, creating turnovers and forcing the Maidens’ offense further and further from the basket in Friday night’s District One AAAA title game.
“They were trapping and then rotating up,” Maiden coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “Yesterday we were working on hitting the other person, and today they were throwing it right to the person who was rotating up.”
Spring-Ford spent the night making life miserable for the Maidens in their first trip to the district final since 1991, opening up a 24-15 halftime lead on their way to a 46-33 win.
“Mentally, I think the kids get fatigued,” deMarteleire said. ‘That’s it more than anything – they get fatigued. A couple of times we did the right thing and kept our dribble and attacked the basket because they’re overplaying you so much, and you should be able to attack the basket, but we were making turnovers because they were being aggressive, and we were being tentative.”
The Maidens never found any kind of offensive rhythm against the Rams’ high-pressure defense, but they did manage to stay with the Rams in the opening quarter.
After the Rams took a 2-0 lead on their opening possession, sophomore Vicky Tumasz buried a three-pointer to give the Maidens a 3-2 lead. They still led 8-5 after an Erin Maher trey with just under two minutes remaining in the quarter and had a chance to add to that lead but turned the ball over when senior JaidaBurgess, who torched Council Rock South for 19 points off the bench in Wednesday’s semifinal, came up with a steal that she converted into a bucket at the other end.
A basket by Steph Knauer put the Maidens on top 10-7 only to watch Burgess connected on a long distance trey to knot the score.
“(Burgess) hitting that three for them was big – I didn’t think we had to cover her that far out,” deMarteleire said. “Their people coming off the bench are playing better and better. I’ve seen them play a lot. They’ve given them minutes, but in the past, they haven’t given them as valuable minutes as they are now.”
A bucket by Lauren Crisler to open the second quarter put the Maidens on top 12-10, but that’s when the points stopped coming for North Penn. By halftime, the Maidens found themselves on the short end of a 24-15 score.
“I thought when we got off to a start that was even we would be okay, but the second quarter was the difference in the game,” deMarteleire said.
The Rams forced 15 turnovers in the first half – eight in the second quarter.
“It’s hard,” said Maiden senior Emily Hagan, who led the Maidens with nine points. “We thought we were ready. We had all these drills with dribbling and getting through the trap and everything, but having someone in your face the whole game takes a toll on you.
“It’s harder to make decisions because you have someone in your face, and we just didn’t make good decisions.”
By the time Brenda McDermott scored at the 6:32 mark of the third quarter, the Maidens were staring at a 30-15 deficit.
“Things that we go over all the time in practice we did not do today,” deMarteleire said. “To prepare for a team like this, you have to ball fake, you have to jump stop, you have to pump fake – you have to do all those things, and we did not do those things, and we did not attack the basket well.”
The Rams led 34-17 after a Burgess drive, but the Maidens, thanks to a reverse layup by McDermott and four straight foul shots from Hagan, made it a 34-23 game heading into the final quarter.
Two more Hagan foul shots cut the Rams’ lead to 35-25 early in the frame, and it was a 37-28 game after Tumasz buried a trey with five minutes remaining. That’s as close as the Maidens would get as the Rams rolled to their first ever district crown.
“I’m going to give them credit – they are good, but when we play up to our potential, we’re just as good,” Knauer said.
“We had that game within our reach,” Hagan added. “We could have won. Hopefully we will see them again.”
The Maidens will face the sixth place team from District 3 in an opening round state playoff game next Friday.
“We’re going to watch this film (of tonight’s game), and we’ll learn from it,” deMarteleire said. “That’s all we can do. We did not play well tonight.
“In the second quarter at every position, they were better than us. I just didn’t think (that) would happen, but it did.
“I’m happy that we’re here, but I’m not happy with the way we played. When you get here and don’t play your best, that’s just very disheartening.”
EXTRA POINTS: Knauer connected on 75 percent of her shots from the floor, but the Maidens’ senior center took just four shots and rarely touched the ball. “The guards couldn’t get her the ball, so that was pretty much it,” deMarteleire said…Helping to jumpstart the Rams in Friday’s win was Spring-Ford senior Mariah Traywick, who scored five of her game-high 12 points in the opening quarter. “She had an awesome game,” deMarteleire said of her niece. “I was really happy for her. She played really well.”
NORTH PENN (33) – Emily Hagan 1 6-6 9; Brenda McDermott 2 0-0 4; Lauren Crisler 2 0-2 4; Vicky Tumasz 2 1-2 7; Steph Knauer 3 0-1 6; Tehya Daneker 0 0-0 0; Leiana Dean 0 0-0 0; Amy Check 0 0-0 0; Erin Maher 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 11 7-11 33.
SPRING-FORD (46) – Brittany Moore 2 2-2 7; Courtney Hinnant 0 0-0 0; Sammy Stipa 1 2-2 5; Mariah Traywick 4 4-6 12; Sarah Payonk 2 0-0 5; Kirsten Landis 0 0-0 0; Nikki Lynch 2 1-2 5; Maggie Locke 0 0-0 0; Jaida Burgess 3 0-0 7; Sammi Haas 0 0-0 0; Haley Puckett 0 0-0 0; Shelby Mueller 1 2-2 4. TOTALS 15 11-14 46.
North Penn 10 5 8 10-33
Spring-Ford 10 14 10 12-46
3-point goals: NP-Tumasz 2, Hagan, Maher; SF-Moore, Stipa, Payonk, Lynch, Burgess.
****
Upper Dublin used a last-second three-pointer to earn a 36-33 win over Central Bucks East in a battle for the ninth and final state playoff berth.
By Scott Huff
‘The Shot.’
Upper Dublin junior Brianna Spector fired home a 3-point field goal with three seconds left in the game to send the Flying Cardinals (22-5) to the PIAA Quad-A state playoffs with an exhilarating 36-33 victory over Central Bucks East (20-7).
“All I really know is that it felt good coming out of my hand,” said a giddy Spector amid a crowd of celebrating players and fans. “Taylor (Bryant) was supposed to drive down the lane, and she was able to get me the ball with an open shot.”
The game winning – state clinching – points were the only points of the game for Spector.
“That shot was nothing short of magical,” said Upper Dublin head coach Vince Catanzaro. “The rotation on the ball was perfect, and the shot was definitely in her range.”
The Play.
With the score knotted 33-33, Upper Dublin held the ball outside the CB East zone for the final 3:15 before calling timeout with 10.4 seconds. The Flying Cardinals ran an inbounds play that began with Curtrena Goff throwing an uncontested inbounds pass to Bryant. Bryant flashed toward the center of the lane, was cut off by an East defender, and connected with Spector who had both the good look and the good finish with the game-winning basket.
“The play was for me to go the basket,” said Bryant who finished with a team-high 15 points. “I’m not too sure what happened, but I saw that Brianna had an open shot. She is a good shooter, and she really came through for us.”
“We wanted the ball in Taylor’s hand, and we felt that if she took it to the rim she might either make the basket or get to the foul line,” said Catanzaro. “But I guess she had a better idea.”
The odds on Upper Dublin winning the game in the final moments were a long shot at best at the beginning of the fourth period. CB East used its size advantage to take a 31-24 lead into the final period and were led by senior Lindsey Kelly who scored all 15 of her points in the first three periods.
“I thought that our guards did a great job of putting pressure on them in the fourth period,” said Catanzaro as the Cardinals limited the Patriots to just two fourth quarter points. “Our guards really got after them, and we had a few good stops on defense.”
The victory will extend the season for Upper Dublin as the Flying Cardinals (District 1 – 9 seed) will face the (2-2 seed) in a Preliminary Round game to be played on Tuesday (3/6/12).
The season is over for the Patriots who will graduate captains Kelly and Shannon Devlin – along with Lexi Scrivano.
“When we lost to Haverford, we knew it was going to be a long way back to get into states,” said Bryant. “When we were down seven, I wasn’t too sure that this wouldn’t be my last game. But we played with great energy in that fourth quarter, and know we get to play more basketball.”
Thanks to ‘The Shot!’
Central Bucks East Patriots 6 12 13 2 - 33
Upper Dublin Cardinals 4 11 9 12 - 36
CB East: Lindsey Kelly 15; Karoline White 7; Shannon Devlin 4; MargaretAnne Hubbell 4; Courtney Webster 2; and Lexi Scrivano 1. Total – 33
Upper Dublin: Taylor Bryant 15; Lauren Rothfeld 8; Curtrena Goff 4; Jen Myers 4; Brianna Spector 3; and Taylor Linus 2. Total – 36.
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