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By Nate Oxman
Devin and Lauren Gold combined for a punishing 28 points, but it was a backdoor feed from Helena Gemmell to Alyssa Dumont with one minute, 10 seconds left that proved to be the biggest bucket of the night Friday in vaulting top-seeded Council Rock North to a trip to the District One Class AAAA semifinals.Trailing 38-37 to feisty eighth-seeded Central Bucks East after a beautiful offensive set resulted in a Lindsey Kelly hoop with 1:38 to play, Gemmell caught the ball near the foul line, turned and dropped a one-handed bounce pass to a cutting Dumont, who laid the ball in to ultimately hand the Indians a 39-38 quarterfinal win at Council Rock South.
The victory sets up a Wednesday showdown at Norristown at 7:30 p.m. against Saturday’s winner between fourth-seeded Cheltenham and fifth-seeded Lower Merion.“I thought there were a lot of keys to the game and No. 1 was Megan’s [Cunningham’s] defense on McManus,” said Council Rock North coach Lou Palkovics. “I don’t think she had a field goal. She covered her 90 percent of the time.
“Lauren covered her for a little bit. We gave different looks on defense. We played some man. We played a box and one in the second half. That was the first time we played junk defense all year, and I thought mixing up the defenses helped us.”
McManus was limited to just four points on the night, but was picked up by teammates Kelly (12 points) and Melissa Remmey (15 points), who combined for 27 points of their own.
The Indians survived a frenzied first quarter to take a 16-11 advantage before four straight turnovers led to four points: a bucket by Kelly and a pair of free throws from Remmey. The Patriots then took the lead after Kelly yanked down a defensive rebound and pushed the ball ahead to Margaret Anne Hubbell, who beat the Indians down the floor for a wide-open layup.
The Indians briefly regained the lead on two free throws from Lauren Gold (team-high 15 points) before a terrific pass from Shannon Devlin down low to Alexis Scrivano for two started a 5-0 spurt that gave the Patriots a 22-18 lead. That was until Dumont drained a three with five seconds left to pull the Indians to within 22-21 at the break.
Dumont’s triple was the only field goal in the second quarter for the Indians, thanks to a stingy Patriots zone defense that limited the touches of Emily Grundman inside and forced North to settle for shots from the perimeter.“I didn’t think we were attacking it too badly,” said Palkovics. “But we didn’t establish an inside game, which we need to do. And when we don’t do that, we need to hit shots. When we don’t hit shots, we’re in trouble. So I just stressed to the girls after the game that we have to get Emily involved somehow and I don’t think we did a good job of that. That’s something we have to work on.”
While the Patriots helped hold Grundman to just four points, they couldn’t contain the Gold sisters.
Lauren opened the second half with a steal that led to a three-point play and then converted four free throws - she was 7-for-7 from the line on the night - to give the Indians a 28-27 lead with 3:20 to play in the third period.
Devin Gold then buried a three, was fouled after the shot, and converted the four-point play to make it 32-29 Indians before the Patriots converted three of four foul shots to knot the game at 32-32 entering the final frame.
The Patriots appeared to seize the momentum, thanks to the spirited play of Remmey, who finished a tough drive down the lane for two and then made a pair of free throws to put the Patriots up 36-32.“We wanted to pressure their guards,” said Palkovics. “We thought that we could pressure everybody. I thought Remmey played really well for them. She stepped up when we pressured her. She really hurt us, but out front we were creating a lot of turnovers and a lot of havoc. They’re young and they’re going to get better so they have to take a lot of positives from this game too.”
Back came the Gold sisters again as Lauren and Devin hit back-to-back buckets, the latter a triple off of an offensive rebound and kick-out by Grundman, to give North a 37-36 edge with 4:57 left.
Kelly took the lead back for the Patriots after taking the aforementioned pretty pass from Kane and converting the hoop, before Gemmell and Dumont topped it with a spectacular play of their own to cap the win.
“I’ll go tomorrow and watch Cheltenham and I’ve already seen them a little bit on tape,” said Palkovics. “In my years of coaching and all of these runs in districts and states, this is probably the toughest run I think we’d have to make.
“With North Penn not really being a 16 seed, that was a hard match-up because they’re so big. Then you get the [SOL] Continental champ East and they’re always tough. Then you see Cheltenham sitting at four and if you win that you’ve got either Downingtown East or Mount St. Joseph. I don’t want to see any of those teams. But at the same time it’s fun. It’s a fun time of the year. The kids love the crowd. It was a good crowd tonight. We’re excited.”
Central Bucks East now awaits a playback game next week to determine its seed in the PIAA Class AAAA tournament.
#2 Nazareth 42, #7 Upper Merion 31
Don’t be fooled by the final score.
The Vikings came oh-so-close to pulling off the upset of the Class AAA tournament on Friday night and actually led for three quarters before Nazareth went on a 19-5 fourth-quarter tear to earn the win. Nine of those 19 points came from the foul line as the Vikings were forced to foul down the stretch.
“We just couldn’t make a shot when it got tight, and their lead of three became six, and six became eight,” coach Tom Schurtz said. “Then we fouled, and that was that.
“We controlled the game until the fourth quarter. They’re a very balanced, physical team, and we got in a little foul trouble. Ultimately, they had a couple of players make a couple shots when they needed to. It was one of those games where if you could get the lead with four or five minutes to go, you were going to hold on and win.
“I give Nazareth a lot of credit. We played our best basketball tonight.”
Nazareth – which trailed 9-5 at the end of one quarter and still trailed 18-11 at halftime - did not take its first lead until under six minutes remained in the game.
“They’re a good team,” Schurtz said. “They’re ranked 10th in the state in AAA. We did a really nice job on them early, frustrating them and limiting them to one shot per trip.”
A key to Nazareth’s win was its ability to contain junior sharpshooter Cassidy Koenig, who finished with just two points and did not connect on a three-point basket for the first time this season.
“It was the first game this season that Cassidy couldn’t shake loose,” Schurtz said. “I give Nazareth’s coaching staff and players a lot of credit. They were able to really bottle her up.
“It wasn’t that she wasn’t able to get shots. They didn’t let her get any shots in rhythm. She’s a great shooter, but you need to be in a rhythm, and they really frustrated her.”
Sophomore point guard Kristina O’Sullivan led the Vikings with 11 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and six steals.
“She played tremendous,” Schurtz said. “She filled up the entire stat line.”
Jackie VanLoan added eight points and 10 rebounds.
“She was awesome,” Schurtz said. “Jamie Mazzi hit a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter to put us back up by one.
“To be honest, the coaching staff and I felt that even though they did a great job on Koenig that in the end she was going to find a way to shake loose and make the shot that broke their backs, but Nazareth was draped all over her. I think they were guarding her when she got off the bus. They made a decision they were going to take her out of the game. The other girls stepped up, but we just couldn’t score enough points to beat them.”
Schurtz went on to credit the performance of Nazareth’s Lindsay Fluehr, who finished with 12 points. All 12 points came in the fourth quarter, which included a 6-for-6 effort at the foul line.
“We played tough,” Schurtz said. “That’s as good as my team has played all year. That team is 16-6, and they’re the number two team out of the Catholic Academies League, which is one of the toughest leagues in the state.
“We were up every quarter, and that gym was silent until the last four minutes. I have no regrets. I thought the girls played great.”
The Vikings closed out the year with an 11-13 record.
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