North Penn dominated the backboards in its big win over Souderton on Friday in an SOL Featured Game sponsored by Millennium Administrators. To view game photos, please visit the Photo Gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/g/011312_north_penn_vs_souderton_dl.
FRANCONIA TWP – Lynn Carroll studied her stat sheet. One number kept staring the Souderton coach in the face. It was the number 18, the total number of rebounds the Indians’ managed in Friday night’s 53-37 loss to North Penn.
That number became particularly significant when she heard that the Maidens had 41 boards.
“That was the game,” Carroll said. “That was the difference.”
And then she asked, “How many offensive.”
The answer – 21 – didn’t make Carroll feel any better but certainly told the story of a game the Maidens dominated in the paint from the outset.
“Not even just the discrepancy in numbers – it’s the number of offensive rebounds,” Carroll said. “You make them take a shot that doesn’t go in, and that should be a good thing, but most of the time it ended in a layup for them.
“You’re not going to win many games doing that, and you’re certainly not going to win against good teams. It was disappointing. They were more physical, and we were outworked around the basket.”
Leading the way were the Maidens were Steph Knauer and Lauren Crisler, who had 13 and 11 rebounds respectively.
“We really haven’t been that aggressive on the boards,” North Penn coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “I actually did the team stats, and I’m looking at the stats – none of the guards were getting offensive rebounds.
“I thought the kids did a great job. The guards crashing the boards make it a lot easier for Steph and Lauren. We can’t just count on them to be the only ones in there. I thought the kids did a really, nice job with that.”
Seven of Crisler’s rebounds came on the offensive end while six of Knauer’s were offensive boards.
“Coach wanted us to crash the boards on offense and box out on defense,” Crisler said. “Crashing the boards on offense and boxing out on defense really created a lot of fouls for them.
“I know (Bianca) Picard got in trouble with three fouls early on, and that was great because we were playing our game, and we were controlling it by controlling the boards.”
Crisler scored a game-high 14 points while Knauer added nine. Vicky Tumasz contributed 11 points, which included three bombs from beyond the arc as the Maidens had all phases of the game working.
“Not only were we crashing the boards offensively, but we were scoring from every position on the floor,” Crisler said. “We were hitting threes, we had low post moves, and we were hitting the mid-range jumpers too.”
The Indians received a huge performance from sophomore Allison Gallagher. The 5-8 guard battled all night long, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Biana Picard – in three quarters of action – added 10 points.
“I was thrilled with how Allison played tonight,” Carroll said. “She was fearless. Her motor – she could go forever. She played great.”
In a play that didn’t seem big at the time, Tumasz – who stands all of 5-5 – snuck in for an offensive rebound and putback to put the Maidens on the scoreboard on their second possession of the night. It turned out to be a prelude of things to come for the Maidens.
“We’ve had a lot of trouble crashing the offensive boards and also the defensive boards,” said Tumasz, who pulled down four offensive rebounds on the night. “We never usually crash the boards, but when we started crashing (tonight), we got fouled. They got in foul trouble, and we started making our foul shots.
“That changed our mentality the whole game – this is our time, this is our point and this is our time to get going.”
It didn’t take long for Tumasz’s teammates to follow her lead. Crisler was fouled going up after pulling down an offensive board, and after she buried both shots, the Maidens led 12-4.
The Indians suffered a setback when Picard, the Indians’ floor general, took a seat on the bench after picking up her third foul just 24 seconds into the second quarter. The Maidens opened up a 21-11 lead after a Knauer putback, but the Indians trimmed that lead to seven (21-14) after freshman Sarah Derstein sank a pair at the foul line. The Maidens took a 23-14 lead into halftime.
“I was very happy in the second quarter with how a couple of girls stepped up,” Carroll said. “We’re not used to playing without Bianca on the floor.
“That’s the first time all year we’ve had to do that. I thought Liz Mower and Katie O’Connor stepped up and kept us within nine, so I was really pleased with that.”
The Maidens took command of the game in the third quarter. A trey by Tumasz got the ball rolling, but Picard answered with a basket at the other end. Crisler hit nothing but net on a foul line jumper. Again Picard answered, scoring on a drive.
Crisler connected on a pair of foul shots, and Brenda McDermott sank one-of-two from the charity stripe. A Souderton turnover set the stage for a Knauer bucket, and after a Souderton miss, Erin Maher hit nothing but net on a trey, and just like that, the Maidens led 36-18.
The Indians never threatened the rest of the way as the Maidens rolled to the big win.
“We took care of the ball better than we have been,” deMarteleire said. “I thought we had nice balance. Everyone contributed.
“I thought Brenda McDermott did a great job directing our defense. I was just pleased with our overall performance from everybody. Hopefully with this stretch we have coming up, this will be our springboard.”
While the Indians fell to 4-2 in conference play (7-4 overall), the Maidens improved to 4-2 (8-4 overall).
“This is huge,” Tumasz said. “It changes our whole season.”
“This is a really big game,” Crisler added. “This kind of starts our run for the next couple of games. We have Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday and then our big game with CB East on Thursday. This gives us a lot of momentum.”
North Penn (53) – Erin Maher 3 1-2 9; Emily Hagan 2 0-1 5; Brenda McDermott 0 5-8 5; Lauren Crisler 5 4-4 14; Vicky Tumasz 4 0-0 1; Steph Knauer 4 1-2 9; Sierra Simon 0 0-0 0; Amy Check 0 0-0 0; Tehya Daneker 0 0-0 0; Leiana Dean 0 0-0 0; Jenarosa Auriemma 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 11-17 53
Souderton (37) – Allison Gallagher 4 3-6 11; Liz Mower 1 0-0 3; Katie O’Connor 0 0-0 0; Gabby McAndrews 0 0-0 0; Carley Kendall 3 1-2 7; Lindsey Kwiatkowski 2 0-0 4; Bianca Picard 3 3-4 10; Sarah Derstein 0 2-2 2. TOTALS 13 9-14 37.
North Penn 12 9 19 11-53
Souderton 5 9 9 13-37
3-point goals: NP – Tumasz 3, Maher 2, Hagan. Souderton – Picard, Mower.
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