Check out the results for SOL basketball teams in action on Wednesday and Thursday.
GIRLS
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 44, NORTH PENN 36
Erin Maher admits she really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to the score during Thursday night’s showdown against the Bucks.
“When you’re in the game, I barely looked up at the scoreboard,” North Penn’s senior captain said after the Maidens dropped their first game of the season. “We were just trying to hustle and get back into the game any way we could, but when I hear we only scored 36 points - that’s just jaw-dropping.”
The Bucks had something to do with North Penn’s offensive woes. They came at the Maidens in waves, playing relentless defense for 32 minutes on a night that saw nine players receive significant playing time. Their high energy performance came after a lengthy team talk following Tuesday night’s loss to Central Bucks South.
“Sometimes I get caught up in trying to win the game too much,” West coach Terry Rakowsky said. “I went back to square one, and I said, ‘Here’s the rotation that we use. Use it.’
“Everything is square one. It sort of got us back in the mentality of playing each possession. Forget about rankings, forget about division titles, forget about all that stuff, and just play one possession at a time and play with energy in that possession. I thought today was a totally different energy game for us.”
The first quarter featured more defense than offense, and the Bucks held a tenuous 4-3 lead until Mackenzie Carroll buried a three-pointer for her team’s first field goal at the 2:24 mark of the quarter. Corrinne Godshall followed with a driving basket, and when Peyton Traina buried a trey, the Bucks led 12-3 at the end of one frame.
Another Carroll three-pointer to open the second quarter put the Bucks on top 15-3.
They still led 18-8 after a Maggie Rakowsky bucket, but back-to-back baskets by Bri Cullen and Vicky Tumasz (a trey) made it an 18-13 game. Carroll and Irisa Ye exchanged buckets, but a basket by Godshall in the closing seconds sent the Bucks into halftime with a 22-15 lead.
Carroll stretched her team’s lead to 25-15 when she hit nothing but net on a three-pointer to open the fourth quarter. The Maidens made it a 26-22 game after Maher connected on a trey, but a Makenzie Mason basket was followed by Carroll’s fourth three of the game, and the Bucks led 31-22.
“We were looking for her a little bit more,” coach Rakowsky said of Carroll. “She’s been open, and tonight very few times did we come down and take one pass and then a shot.”
Rakowsky turned a steal into a layup, and the Bucks led 33-22. Another Godshall bucket upped West’s lead to 35-22. The Maidens would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“We were trying to fight back, and they just kept hitting big shots,” Maher said. “We just got outhustled tonight. Defensively, we usually get a lot of steals, grab the loose balls and work that into transition. We’ve been working on our halfcourt sets, but unfortunately, it didn’t show tonight.
“Offensively, we really could not find our shot tonight. It felt like there was a lid on the basket.”
The Maidens connected on 26 percent of their shots, but take away a second quarter that saw them bury 45 percent of their shots, and they shot under 20 percent in the other three.
“Obviously, our shooting was terrible,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “I think that had something to do with our poor shot selection.
“The good thing is we’ll play them at least one more time. We have to learn from this. As painful as it’s going to be, we’re going to watch this film at some point because we need to get better from here on. It’s probably not a bad thing that we lost. It’s just disappointing that we lost the way we did.”
The Bucks were led by the 16-point performances of Godshall and Carroll. Junior point guard Nicole Munger scored just three points but was a presence under the boards, pulling down eight rebounds.
For the Maidens, Tumasz led the way with 14 points while Maher added nine and Ye, six.
“It’s hard to say a loss is a good thing right now because of the way we’re feeling,” Maher added. “We really wanted to come out and show everybody the level we can play at tonight. Unfortunately, we did not do that.
“In the grand scheme of things, a loss is a good lesson for us. We can come out and play hard against Upper Dublin (on Saturday) and for the second half of the season play our best and take a few pointers away from this game.”
While the Maidens fell to 5-1 in the league (9-1 overall), the Bucks are 3-2 in the league (7-3 overall).
“This game was huge,” Carroll said. “After that South loss and the Souderton loss, we were really down, and this just helped our spirits so much.”
Central Bucks West 12 10 13 9-44
North Pen 3 12 10 11-36
CHELTENHAM 51, UPPER MERION 27
Gabrielle Wright turned the first quarter of Thursday’s game into her own personal layup drill, scoring 10 of her 12 points in the frame as the Lady Panthers sprinted to a 20-3 lead. They upped that lead to 24-4 when Amarri Trueheart scored on a layup before the Vikings rallied to make it a 27-12 game at halftime.
“They started out in a triangle-and-two on me and Ash (Jones), and they left our big man, Gabby Wright, open, and she started out on fire,” Trueheart said. “I think she got our first eight or 10 points. They left her wide open, and I guess they were regretting it after that.”
Ashley Jones once again led the Lady Panthers, scoring a game-high 18 points, which included a 10-for-11 effort from the foul line. She was 6-for-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch, and there is no mistaking the impact the gifted freshman has had this season.
“This year is a big difference,” Trueheart said. “Ashley is a big help. We play great together, and this is only our first year of playing together. We have another year and the rest of this season to get to know each other, to get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Trueheart and Monet McGorda both added eight points for the Lady Panthers, and although the Vikings never threatened, coach Brendan Nolan had some concerns.
“We had a real nice stretch in the beginning where we didn’t give them any good looks, and then it felt like a stretch where they got a ton of good looks, but none of their shots went down,” the Panthers’ coach said. “I kept saying, ‘You can’t count on teams to keep missing shots. We have to get back to defending and back to contesting and forcing the right people to shoot that we want to shoot.’ We got back to that, and that’s when we recovered a little more.”
Regie Robinson led the Vikings, who fell to 2-4 in the league (6-6 overall), with nine points.
The Lady Panthers upped their record to 4-2 in the league (7-3 overall), and they already equaled their win total of the entire season last year.
“Last year we came in and we were all brand new,” Trueheart said. “It was everyone’s first year playing varsity, and we didn’t have that much experience.
“It was really tough sometimes, trying to be a point guard and trying to score while setting everybody up. I got frustrated a lot when teams were in box-and-one’s.”
This year, thanks to the presence of Jones, it’s been a different story entirely for Trueheart and her Lady Panther teammates.
Upper Merion3 9 8 7-27
Cheltenham 20 7 11 13-51
NESHAMINY 54, INTERBORO 25
The Redskins seized early control of Thursday’s non-league game, opening up a 17-4 lead at the end of one quarter and extending it to 30-6 by halftime.
Sarah Oliveira and Tiara Porterfield led a balanced Neshaminy attack with 11 points each.
Interboro 4 2 12 7-25
Neshaminy 17 13 11 13-54
Wednesday, Jan. 8
BOYS
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 66, HATBORO-HORSHAM 48
The Titans continued their winning ways, sprinting to a 19-8 lead at the end of one quarter en route to a 36-21 halftime lead. They never looked back.
Matt Scamuffo led the Titans with 17 points, and Bryce Dobisch had 12. Hatboro’s Walt Kimble led all scorers with 18 points, and Brian McEachern and Chris Hobbs both added nine points.
Central Bucks South 19 17 18 12-66
Hatboro-Horsham 8 13 13 14-48
NORRISTOWN 65, SPRINGFIELD 36
Eleven players got in the scoring column for the Eagles, who were led by Curt Lever’s 14 points. Chris Evans added 12 and Kip Patton, 11 points. Springfield was led by the 10-point effort of Larry Clark.
WISSAHICKON 42, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 39
Wissahickon senior Chase Wilson scored 16 points to lead all scorers in Wednesday’s non-league win. It was Wilson breaking a 35-35 tie with two minutes remaining when he buried a three-pointer from NBA range. Chris Villa added 10 points while Chris Carradorini had eight.
For the Patriots, Tommy Strasburger and Matt Gentry led a balanced attack with nine points each. Ben Kardane had eight points and Brendan McLaughlin added seven.
Central Bucks East 10 12 5 12-39
Wissahickon 13 7 8 14-42
PENNRIDGE 67, NESHAMINY 55
Neshaminy led 12-11 at the end of one quarter and took a 31-29 lead into halftime of Wednesday’s non-league contest. The Rams outscored the Redskins 17-12 in the third quarter to go on top 46-43, and they put the game out of reach with a 21-12 fourth quarter surge.
Zach Muredda led all scorers with 21 points, which included an 11-for-12 effort from the foul line. Stephen Lowry buried three three-pointers and finished with 20 points while Joe Molettiere added 17 points, connecting on 5-of-6 from the foul line.
Kyree Moore led the Redskins with 15 points while Jaylen Pickett had 13. Juwan Lee and Jenkins Kimber had 11 and 10 points respectively on a night that saw the Redskins put four players in double figures.
Neshaminy 12 19 12 12-55
Pennridge 11 18 17 21-67
GIRLS
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 39, NORRISTOWN 32
Courtney Webster scored 13 points and Katelyn Miller added 12. Emily Sebesky and Lindsay Nier added eight and six points respectively for East.
The Patriots 12-10 at the end of one quarter but put some distance between themselves and the Eagles with a 14-4 second quarter to go into halftime on top 26-14. With the win, the Patriots improved to 6-3.
Central Bucks East 12 14 8 5-39
Norristown 10 4 13 5-32
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 50, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 38
The Titans led 13-8 at the end of one quarter and stretched that lead to 27-18 by halftime on their way to a non-league win that upped their record to 9-2.
Emma Gardy (12 points), Alysha Lofton (11 points) and Brie Wade (10 points) led a balanced Titan attack. The Golden Hawks were led by Taylor Dillon with 17 points while Shannon Boyle and Emily DeAngelis both added six points.
Central Bucks South 13 14 9 14-50
Council Rock South 8 10 11 9-38
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