North Penn and Central Bucks West were winners in Saturday’s SOL Tournament at Bensalem. NP/CR North photos provided by Keith Clemens Photography, and PW/CB West photos courtesy of Larry Small. Check back for a photo gallery of both games…CLICK HERE.
North Penn will face Central Bucks West in an all-SOL Continental Conference championship game on Monday night at Souderton Area High School at 6 p.m. North Penn defeated Council Rock North 41-27, and in a high-scoring contest, CB West upended Plymouth Whitemarsh 73-63.
Monday’s game will be a rematch of last year’s title game that saw North Penn edge CB West 48-47 in overtime to capture the league title. The Knights – the top-seeded team in District One 6A – will bring a 14-game winning streak into Monday’s title game. Their last loss came on Jan. 5 at the hands of Central Bucks South. The two teams met twice during the regular season. West won the initial meeting 46-43, but the Knights exacted revenge in the rematch, earning a 59-40 win.
NORTH PENN 41, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 27
The Knights are exactly where they want to be – playing for their second SOL Tournament title in as many years, but they were hardly turning cartwheels after Saturday’s win.
“It was a very ugly win,” Sam Carangi said.
“When the game’s physical, it will get ugly,” teammate Irisa Ye added.
The Knights won because they were remarkably efficient at the foul line, burying 18-of-19 (94.7 percent), and all but lost in the shuffle was their ability to hold their own under the backboards against a taller Indian squad.
“Our rebounding today – I thought Jess McKenzie’s rebounding was really outstanding,” North Penn coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “Just to be outsized – I don’t know how many inches her girl had on her, but she did a great job.
“Defensively, I thought we played really well, but offensively, we have to make better decisions.
Ye and Carangi both scored six points in a first quarter that saw the Knights open up a 15-6 lead. Back-to-back baskets by Ye spotted the Knights a 4-0 lead, and a three-point play by Jess Huber made it a 7-2 game. The Indians – behind baskets by Dana Bandurick and Emily Mackin – trimmed that lead to one. The Knights reeled off eight unanswered points to close out the quarter with Carangi accounting for six of those, connecting first on a 3-pointer and then converting a conventional three-point play.
In the second quarter, the game bogged down for both teams as they combined for just six points and, unofficially, connected on just 2-of-20 shots from the field. The Knights ‘outscored’ the Indians 4-2 in the frame to go into halftime with a 19-8 lead.
“We need to put ourselves in positions where we’re getting our teammates high percentage shots and that we’re able to finish high percentage shots,” deMarteleire said. “In the second quarter, we took some high percentage shots, but we made them as hard as possible.
“It was brutal. That second quarter was a mess.”
“In the first half, we were awful at finishing under the basket,” Carangi said. “But I think in the second half, we really gathered ourselves and did a good job finishing around the basket.”
The Knights opened up a 26-12 lead after Ye nailed a baseline three-pointer at the 5:30 mark of the third quarter, but the Indians came roaring back. Bandurick converted a three-point play, and after a Knight turnover, she scored on a drive to pull the Indians to within nine. A short jumper by Mackenzie Tinner cut a once 14-point Knight lead in half (26-19), but Carangi was fouled trying to launch a three at the buzzer and sank all three shots to give the Knights a 29-19 advantage heading into the final quarter.
“That was huge,” deMarteleire said. “I didn’t think she was going to get the shot off.
“Sam just went up there and calmly knocked them down. She has been struggling with her confidence shooting lately, so that was big for her and it was big for us because they were cutting into our lead.”
“I think that was a lot of momentum,” Carangi said. “It swung back and forth a lot of the game, and at that point, it was swinging more towards them.
“I think that really helped us get it back, and it helped us maintain it throughout the third quarter.”
The Knights spent the fourth quarter taking trips to the foul line, converting on 12-of-12 to account for all of their points in the frame. Ye was a perfect 6-for-6 in the quarter.
“Our coaches always say – that’s the difference between a good team and a great team, being able to focus and make foul shots,” Carangi said. “In our game against CB South, we missed so many foul shots, and coach said – it’s a lack of focus, and I agree with that.
“Foul shots, I think, are 90 percent mental, so if you go up thinking, ‘I’m making this,’ then it’s going to go in.”
“All the little things add up,” Ye said. “Free throws definitely were important because I know Council Rock North didn’t hit as many free throws as we did.”
The game was a rematch of a Jan. 21 meeting that saw North Penn eke out a 45-40 win in the Kobe Bryant Classic at Lower Merion High School.
“I think today’s game was less physical than the last time, but I think today we were more prepared for their physicality,” Carangi said.
“The first time it just hit us and we weren’t expecting it,” Ye added. “This time we came in and we knew we had to stay tough, hold our ground and just take care of business.”
Ye led the Knights with 17 points while Carangi added 13 and Huber, nine. McKenzie led the Knights with eight rebounds.
For the Indians, junior point guard Becca Margolis – the team’s undisputed engine – was playing at less than full strength.
“I don’t like to make excuses,” coach Lou Palkovics said. “She had the flu, and it was up until game time whether she would even play. I commend her for going out there today.”
The Indians’ coach gave his team props for its play in a third quarter that saw Rock North outscore North Penn 11-7 until Carangi’s foul shots.
“We’re going to learn from what we did, and we’re going to build on what we did in the third quarter,” Palkovics said.
Bandurick led all scorers with 18 points, but no other North player had more than four. Tinner had nine rebounds.
“Any time you’re 3-for-12 from the foul line and have 17 turnovers against a team that doesn’t press – you’re going to struggle,” said Palkovics.
North Penn (20-2, 10-2 SOL) will face CB West on Monday night at Souderton while Council Rock North (15-7, 11-1) is off until the District One Tournament.
Council Rock North 6-2-11-8 27
North Penn 15-4-10-12 41
Council Rock North (27) – Becca Margolis 2, Emily Mackin 4, Dana Bandurick 18, Mackenzie Tinner 2, Olivia Boyle 1.
North Penn (41) – Irisa Ye 17, Jess Huber 9, Sam Carangi 13, Bri Hewlett 2.
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 73, PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 63
The Colonials – who brought a perfect 22-0 record into Saturday’s SOL semifinal against the Bucks – found themselves staring at a 31-7 deficit less than nine minutes into the contest.
A rout appeared imminent, but that didn’t happen. The Colonials saw to that, pulling to within five midway through the fourth quarter before the Bucks closed it out with an 8-3 run.
“Our motto with playoff basketball is – on to the next one,” PW coach Daniel Dougherty said. “You’re always on to the next play.
“I probably could have made adjustments sooner in the first half, but I felt like we were right there. We just missed free throws, we missed layups to start the game, and they were knocking down threes. There was no panic or desperation. We felt we were getting what we wanted. The shots just weren’t going down, and their shots were going down.”
The Bucks didn’t miss often in a torrid first quarter that saw them bury six 3-pointers – two by Maddie Burke and one each from Alex Burkauskas, Diane Nicholson, Bailey Tracy and Maggie Rakowsky. The Bucks led 26-7 after one, and after Rakowsky buried a short jumper and Bukauskas connected on her second three, that lead ballooned to 31-7.
The Colonials – behind the hot hand of Lauren Fortescue – outscored the Bucks 21-9 to close out the half. Fortescue buried a pair of threes and scored nine points in the frame while Taylor O’Brien added six to make it a 40-28 game at the intermission.
“I thought a couple of things (happened) – when you go out that early on a team, I think focus changes just a little bit,” West coach Terry Rakowsky said. “You start taking some quick shots. Our mentality went from – let’s shoot the ball and not play defense. We gave up a lot of layups.
“That kid (O’Brien) did a great job. They played a little game where they had a shooter and a driver – you’re giving up one of them, and they did a really good job with that.”
The Bucks also were hampered by fouls, a problem that has haunted them on occasions this season.
“I don’t know what it is about our fouling,” senior Maggie Rakowsky said. “Everyone knows going into the game not to reach, slide your feet. We really work on that. It might have been the refs a little, but obviously, it’s a lot of us being lazy on defense. Our offense in the beginning was really on, but our defense was really lacking.”
“It is frustrating,” Tori Abelson said. “We try to play good defense, and we try to keep it a quick game, and when we get fouls, it slows us down and takes us out of our rhythm. Getting those fouls is just lazy. We have to do better than that.”
The two teams exchanged baskets in the third quarter, and the Bucks took a 59-46 lead into the final quarter. They still led by 10 after Abelson scored at the 4:44 mark (63-53), but O’Brien converted a three-point play, and after a West turnover, Laurel Suchsland buried both ends of a one-and-one to make it a 65-60 game with 3:49 remaining.
Abelson – who had 10 points in the quarter – sank one-of-two at the foul line to up the Bucks’ lead to six. The Colonials misfired on a 3-pointer that would have trimmed the lead to three, and when Abbey Spratt found Rakowsky for a bucket, West led by eight. After a Colonial miss, Abelson converted a three-point play to put the Bucks on top 71-60. O’Brien hit nothing but net on a three, but Abelson answered with a basket to close out the scoring.
“We ran out of time,” Dougherty said. “It’s something we do to other teams – we stall the ball.
“We absolutely ran out of time. They’re a team that will go 10 or 11 deep, but my kids weren’t tired. We ran the ball right back up the floor against them. Credit to them – they’re obviously a very, very good team. I thought that was a high level basketball game out there today. Our girls so badly wanted it. They wanted to play a team like this and show they belonged.
“That’s what we kept saying in the first quarter – just keep working, show that you belong here. I don’t feel like they let up. They were doing what they do, and we came right back at them.”
The Colonials made believers out of West coach Terry Rakowsky.
“They’re 22-0, and there’s a reason they are,” the Bucks’ coach said. “They’ve got shooters, they handle the ball well.
“We didn’t press them a lot, but they handled it well. They made shots, they got rebounds when they needed them.”
O’Brien led all scorers with 24 points, which included a 7-for-8 effort at the foul line.
“Taylor O’Brien – I feel like a lot of people undervalue her,” Dougherty said. “They don’t realize how good she is until they step on the floor with her.
“Lauren Fortescue – the same thing. I felt like we handled what they do well. They just made more shots than we did. I feel like that’s what it really came down to.”
Fortescue added 16, and Ali Diamond had 12 points.
The 63 points scored by PW was second only to the 70 points the Bucks allowed in an overtime loss to Deep Creek, Va., in the Boo Williams Holiday Classic. The Colonials scored 56 of those points over the final three quarters.
“One of the things I talked to them about – over the years, we’ve prided ourselves on playing defense, and I think the people who built the building blocks of our program would not have necessarily appreciated the way we played tonight from the defensive standpoint,” coach Rakowsky said.
“We just need to come out and be focused all the time out there,” Abelson said. “When we do have a lapse on defense, we have to come back and not let it happen again.
“The people that came before us obviously emphasized defense, and playing like we played is not really what we want to represent as a program, so we just have to get back to that and focus on what’s important, which is those good defensive stops.”
Abelson was one of five West players in double figures with 12. Burke and Rakowsky led a balanced attack with 13. Burkauskas added 12 on four three-pointers, and Izzy Treon had nine.
Central Bucks West (18-4, 9-3 SOL) will take on North Penn on Monday at Souderton (6 p.m.). Plymouth Whitemarsh (22-1, 14-0) is off until the District One 6A Tournament.
Central Bucks West 26-14-19-14 73
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7-21-18-17 63
Central Bucks West (73) – Alex Burkauskas 4 0-0 12; Abbey Spratt 0 1-2 1; Diane Nicholson 4 1-2 10 Bailey Tracy 1 0-0 3; Maddie Burke 5 0-0 13; Tori Abelson 4 4-5 12; Izzy Treon 4 1-2 9; Maggie Rakowsky 5 1-2 13, Totals 27 8-13 73.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (63) – Taylor O’Brien 8 7-8 24; Lauren Fortescue 6 1-4 16; Ali Diamond 4 2-3 12; Laurel Suchsland 0 3-6 3; Sydney Kesselman 2 0-2 4; Lauren Coscia 2 0-0 4; Totals 22 13-23 63.
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