Neshaminy and Upper Dublin punched their tickets to the state tournament with wins on Saturday. Upper Dublin/CB West photos provided courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos. All SOS photo galleries for GIRLS’ BASKETBALL can be viewed by clicking HERE. Neshaminy/CB South photos provided courtesy of Jesse Garber (https://jsgarber.zenfolio.com/p556046530)
Class 6A playbacks
#10 NESHAMINY 44, #15 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 30
It’s mission accomplished for a young Redskin squad that ensured itself a spot in the state tournament, thanks to Saturday’s must-win in a playback game.
“It’s awesome,” sophomore Reese Zemitis said. “Ever since we started open gyms, our goal has always been to get to states. It was always playing one game at a time, doing what we have to do to get there. Being such a young team that we are, it’s such a great opportunity for us.”
The Redskins had to bounce back from a disappointing loss to Perkiomen Valley on Wednesday.
“Perkiomen Valley was a good, strong team, and we knew it was going to be a good game,” Zemitis said. “We had to come back together as a team because we knew this game was just as important to get to states, and it really mattered to us, so that was really our motivation. It was definitely hard at first (after the loss), but we knew what we had to do to come out and win today.”
Coach John Gallagher took intentional steps to make sure his players would put the PV loss behind them.
“Coming off a loss, you have to bring yourself back up and get ready to play this game,” the Redskins’ coach said. “I saw that, and the first practice we had – we didn’t practice at all. We played kickball just to break the tension – coming off a loss, are we going to be eliminated or are we going to go on?
“It went really well. Everyone had a really good time, and on Friday, we got down to business and went over Central Bucks South, and I thought we were in a pretty good mindset going into the game.”
Zemitis led the Redskins with 17 points, which included three 3-pointers and a perfect 6-for-6 effort at the foul line. She also had six rebounds, three assists and five blocked shots.
“Right before Reese went out for the tip-off, I told her, ‘Reese, you’re the best player on the court today, and that’s no disrespect to anybody else. Let this be your game,’ and she went out and just did it,” Gallagher said. “For a player the caliber of Reese – who maybe I’m constantly on, I think it’s important every once in a while to say, ‘You’re really good.’ As it turned out, she went off for 17 points.”
Iabarrondo added 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and four steals. Gurysh added nine points and eight rebounds – seven in the second half.
“She got every defensive rebound in the second half,” Gallagher said of Gurysh. “Reese – along with her offense – had five blocks, so any time 
anyone other than Taylor (Hinkle) got into the lane, Reese was there to deter or block it.”
Behind five points from Zemitis and four from Ibarrondo, the Redskins led 9-7 after one quarter, and in the second quarter, they seized control of the game, outscoring their visitors 12-2 to go into halftime with a 21-9 lead. Zemitis, who had a pair of 3s in the quarter, accounted for 11 of her team’s first-half points.
“It was back and forth at first, but in the second quarter, we were just finding our open shots, running our plays really well, and it created huge opportunities for us,” Zemitis said. “And it was just good defense all the way around. We started pressuring them in the second half, but we were keeping an eye out on the players we needed to and took it from there.”
Neshaminy took a 29-18 lead into the final quarter and then won it at the foul line where they connected on 13 of 16 in a final quarter that saw the Redskins edge the Titans 15-12.
In the fourth quarter, Ibarrondo connected on 6-of-8 from the line and had eight points while Zemitis was 4-for-4 from the line.
“Taylor (Gurysh), Lola (Ibarrondo) and Reese (Zemitis) all shoot over 75 percent from the free throw line, so I was really happy with that,” Gallagher said.
For the Titans, sophomore Yoyo Samayoa led the way with 13 points, which included two 3s and a 5-for-6 effort at the foul line.
“Yoyo (Samayoa) played phenomenal,” Gallagher said. “She kept them within striking distance. Every time we’d try and get the lead from eight to 12 or 14, Yoyo stepped up and hit a really big shot for them.”
Also for South, Samantha Schiesser added eight points.
A key to the win was containing Holy Family recruit Taylor Hinkle, who scored just three points – none in the first half.
“She’s phenomenal,” Gallagher said. “We spent so much time going over Taylor for the last day and a half. I coached two of the assistants that are at Holy Family right now, and I tell them all the time what a great player and person Taylor is. They’re going to be so happy. She’s going to be so good for Holy Family. I saw her in the second half of the Souderton game, and I couldn’t have been any more tense when she scored the first basket of the second half.
“I saw the second half of the Souderton game, and the score at halftime of that game and of our game today was very similar. I told the kids at halftime, ‘It was a 10 or 11-point game at Souderton, and Taylor Hinkle went crazy in the second half. She was hitting shots that were just phenomenal,’ and don’t you know, CB South scores the first two baskets of the second half, and they cut the lead to 21-13. I’m thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said that to the girls,’ but we gathered ourselves and we came back.”
“She was definitely our main focus going into the game today,” Zemitis said of Hinkle. “We know she’s such a strong, talented player. We definitely knew where she was on the court at all times, and on defense, we did a really good job at stopping anyone from being too wide open.”
Neshaminy (18-8, 13-3 SOL) will travel to #3 Methacton for a playback game on Wednesday for state tournament seeding.
“We talked to the girls in September, and I said, ‘Our goal for this year should be to make states and maybe win a game or two,’” Gallagher said. “As we got closer to districts and we saw that coming into focus, I reminded them, ‘Remember when we talked about that? This is our goal,’ and today we achieved it. I’m really happy for the girls and the school.”
Central Bucks South closed out its season with a 13-12 record (8-8 SOL).
Central Bucks South 7-2-9-12 30
Neshaminy 9-12-8-15 44
Central Bucks South (30) – Taylor Hinkle 1 1-2 3; Mackenzie Erb 0 1-2 1; Maddie Tantum 1 0-0 2; Samantha Schiesser 1 1-2 3; Yoyo Samayoa 3 5-6 13. TOTALS 9 10-16 30.
Neshaminy (44) – Taylor Gurysh 3 2-2 9; Maya Lewis 1 1-2 4; Lola Ibarrondo 4 6-10 14; Reese Zemitis 4 6-6 17. TOTALS 12 15-20 44.
3-point goals: CBS – Yoyo Samayoa 2; Neshaminy – Reese Zemitis 3, Taylor Gurysh, Maya Lewis.
#13 UPPER DUBLIN 47, #12 CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 42 (OT)
Upper Dublin – under coach Morgan Funsten – has made a habit out of going to the state tournament, advancing to states eight of nine years and winning it all in 2018.
Ask the UD coach to rank his wins, and Saturday’s win – which punched the Cardinals ticket to states – is certainly at or very near the top. This was a game the Cardinals had every reason to lose. They were coming off a heartbreaking loss to fourth-seeded Pennsbury in a district game they led much of the way. Making matters worse, they lost sophomore guard Amy Ngo – the team’s leading
scorer and primary ball handler – to a knee injury. Ngo was at Saturday’s game on crutches.
To trail early and rally for the win without their top offensive weapon – it’s easy to see why this one ranks among the program’s best. And certainly the gutsiest.
“This was a very emotional win,” said Funsten. “It ranks up there with any win that our program has had since I took over 10 years ago. It really does. Any win, literally any win, this is up there.
“I was more emotional after this game than after (the state championship). It’s just been a really tough week.”
Listening to Geena Sarnoski tell it, the Cardinals prepared for Saturday’s game like any other.
“Coming into Pennsbury, we knew it was going to be a tough game and a tough challenge,” Sarnoski said. “We were playing really well, and then Amy went down, and it was really hard the rest of the game without her. We fought really hard, gave it our all. It was an unfortunate outcome, but we weren’t going to let that get us down.
“We got to work and practiced every day in preparation for our game today, and we just prepared like we always did. With Amy being out, we’re obviously missing a big offensive presence and someone who can handle that ball well, so we all just needed to step up. That’s what Amy wanted. She wanted us to win, and we prepared like we always did, played hard and gave it our all.”
Things certainly didn’t look promising when the Cardinals fell behind 13-2 less than four minutes into the game.
“Playing at CB West, there was a nice crowd,” Funsten said. “Their student section started chanting ‘Start the buses’ four minutes into 
the game when we called a timeout down 13-2.”
Needless to say, that chant was decidedly premature, and there was plenty of credit to go around for the Cardinals comeback – none more significant, according to Funsten, than the contributions of the team’s three seniors.
“I talked to the girls ahead of the game, and I just said, ‘Hey, if we’re getting it done today, seniors, you’re going to pull us through,’” Funsten said. “We have three awesome seniors who have been nothing but unselfish their entire careers. We reset goals for our team after the Pennsbury loss. We had two great practices, and that’s exactly what the seniors did today – they put the rest of the team on their back and pulled us through.”
Geena Sarnoski led the Cardinals with 17 points – 14 of those in the fourth quarter and overtime combined. She also had six rebounds.
“I just take what’s open,” Sarnoski said. “My team was able to execute plays to get me open and I was just knocking down some shots. We knew that we needed to win. I just put everything out there and tried my hardest.
“We all knew that we had to be more aggressive offensively. We put in a couple of new plays to get us some easy open looks at the basket. We just executed our offense really well. We took what they gave us, and that was that.”
Bliss Brenner scored a season high 11 points to go along with four assists and three deflections. Colleen Klammer had four points, six rebounds and four assists.
“Collen Klammer, who’s banged around with the forwards all season – we asked her to play Emily Spratt today,” Funsten said of his third senior. “Just matchup-wise, we asked her to step out of her comfort zone. Spratt had a good game, but Colleen made her work for everything she had, and she’s a steadying force for us offensively.”
Junior Aditi Foster also came up big for the Cardinals, contributing a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four steals.
“She had huge baskets throughout the game and just continues to improve every second,” Funsten said. “I could talk forever about the dramatic turns of the game.”
There were plenty of them, beginning with the Cardinals’ response to finding themselves trailing by double digits early.
“We rebounded after being down 13-2 and got it to 15-8 by the end of the first quarter,” said Funsten, whose team trailed 22-15 at halftime. “We made a nice run in the third quarter.”
Brenner and Foster both had five points in the third quarter, and the Cardinals trailed 28-25 heading into the fourth quarter. Sarnoski buried a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points in the final quarter as the Cardinals rallied to knot the score 37-37 at the end of regulation.
“It was back and forth,” Funsten said. “That was when Geena started taking over. We were down 33-29, Geena hit a deep three with five minutes to go to cut it to one, and without about four minutes to go in the game, Didi Foster had a basket that put us up one. It was the first time we took a lead.
“We got a stop defensively, and (Ava) Longo stepped up and made two foul shots to put them back up by one with a minute-and-a-half to go. Geena (Sarnoski) followed up with a three in the corner 10 seconds later to put us up by two. (Emily) Spratt attacked the basket and got fouled and made both foul shots with about a minute to go. It was 37-37, and we didn’t get a great shot off in regulation.”
The overtime was also an emotional roller coaster.
“Geena made a ridiculous move to open the scoring to put us up by two,” Funsten said. “They responded – Spratt finished at the rim to tie it up. Then Aditi Foster jumped the passing lane, got a breakaway layup to put us up two with a minute-and-a-half to go.
“We got a stop, turned the ball over before we got it over half court, they came down in transition and (Longo) had an and-one. We’re down one, we turn the ball over the inbounds pass. We eventually foul, they miss the front end of a one-and-one, and with about 40 seconds to go, Geena Sarnoski made a pull-up – very tightly defended and she’s not the biggest girl. She made a contested pull-up to put us back up one.”
A pair of UD defensive stops were followed by Brenner and Sarnoski each connecting on both ends of a one-and-one to stretch the Cardinals lead.
“It was dramatic, it was emotional,” Funsten said. “It took us a while to get to the locker room because the girls were celebrating with each other.
“When the buzzer sounded, the bench rushed the floor, and I turned and there’s Amy trying to crutch over to her teammates. The girls came over and celebrated around Amy.
“We had met as a team in my room on Thursday after our game Wednesday, and the seniors were talking about how they didn’t want the season to end. I said, ‘Let’s believe we can make that happen.’ Sometimes you lose sight of how important the senior leadership is in moments like this. The younger girls look at them as how to react to adversity. They’re just such great kids and competitors. I’m so proud of them.”
For the seniors, earning a trip to states when the odds were stacked against them was especially significant.
“This means the world,” Sarnoski said. “Losing to Pennsbury and coming into the game without Amy, we knew we had a shot to win, but we had to give it our everything. I’m so happy that we were able to win and continue the season. I think the girls definitely deserve it.”
Upper Dublin (17-9, 12-4 SOL) will host #16 Great Valley in a playback game on Wednesday. Central Bucks West closed out its season with a 17-9 record (11-5 SOL).
Upper Dublin 8-7-10-12-10 47
Central Bucks West 15-7-6-9-5 42
Upper Dublin (47) – Alaina Sanders 1 0-0 2; Bliss Brenner 3 4-4 11; Aditi Foster 5 3-5 13; Geen Sarnoski 6 2-2 17; Colleen Klammer 1 2-4 4. TOTALS 16 11-15 47.
Central Bucks West (42) – Tai Henkels 4 0-1 10; Katie Finnan 1 0-0 3; Nia Perry 0 2-2 2; Emily Spratt 4 7-8 15; Ava Longo 3 3-3 10; Gabi Senior 1 0-2 2. TOTALS 13 12-16 42.
3-point field goals: UD – Geena Sarnoski 3, Bliss Brenner; CBW – Tai Henkels 2, Kaite Finnan, Ava Longo.
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