Four SOL teams were winners in opening round District One AAAA girls’ basketball action on Saturday. Check out the results for SOL teams in action.
#7 UPPER DUBLILN 65, #26 PENNRIDGE 38
Less than a minute had elapsed in Saturday’s all-SOL showdown against Pennridge when Josie Barrett hit nothing but net on a three-pointer. It marked the beginning of a magical first half for the sophomore sharpshooter, who connected on 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc.
“Yesterday in practice she made like 12 shots going around the arc, and we’re like, ‘Jos, what are you doing?’” senior Julie Cross said. “And then she does it in (a game). We really needed someone to do that since Allison (Chernow) was being guarded really well. She did an amazing job.”
Barrett scored 17 points in the first half, propelling the Flying Cardinals to a 39-24 lead. The Rams never threatened the rest of the way.
“I’ve been shooting a lot this week and just getting ready,” Barrett said. “After the first shot, it felt good, and we started running some plays for me, and that’s always nice because we’re good at executing.”
Execution is one thing, burying shots at the clip Barrett was in the first half is another entirely, and the Rams – whose game plan revolved around taking Allison Chernow out of the game – might have been able to offset Barrett’s strong showing, but Barrett was just part of the equation for the Cardinals.
Senior Julie Cross also chose Saturday to have herself a career day, scoring 14 points in the opening half and adding 16 more in the second half to finish with career high 30 to go along with nine rebounds and two steals. She was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range and has connected on 10-of-12 shots from beyond the arc in the last three games combined. Not exactly the kind of numbers opposing defenses are expecting from a 6-2 center.
“It’s ridiculous what she’s doing right now,” coach Morgan Funsten said. “She keeps getting better, which is really scary.
“She’s our leader off the court as well. We go as she goes, and she’s going right now.”
Barrett set the tone for Saturday’s game early, burying three three-pointers in less than four minutes.
“Yesterday at practice she had a different look,” Funsten said. “I told her, ‘Man, I wish we were playing today,’ and she carried that over.”
Barrett’s third trey put the Cardinals on top 11-4. Cross also had a busy first quarter, scoring eight points as the Cardinals opened up a 19-9 lead. In the second quarter, Barrett scored eight points while Cross had six.
“It kind of scared me going into (today’s game), knowing they were going to have us scouted and they were going to have Allison scouted because she’s a huge component to our game,” Cross said. “Allison played awesome even though she was being guarded well. Everyone stepped up.”
For the Rams, Lydia Konstanzer scored all 11 of her points in the first half. Schoonover – who had five three’s of her own in the game – scored eight of her team-high 19 points in the opening half.
In most games, the Rams’ 24-point first half would have been more than enough to stay in the game, but this was not most days, and they found themselves staring at a 15-point deficit.
“When you shoot 62 percent in the first half – no team in the world shoots 62 percent,” Funsten said. “I was so comfortable coming into the game with our mindset as a team that I was nervous because I don’t think I’m supposed to be that comfortable with where we’re at.
“Our week of practice was just really good. You’re always nervous, but my girls were ready. They had a great focused week at practice, and it certainly translated into the game today.”
For Cross, who has accepted a lacrosse scholarship to perennial national power Syracuse, the journey from benchwarmer as a sophomore to star center reads a bit like a fairy tale.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “I never, ever thought I was going to be in this position. I didn’t expect to come out and score 30 points in a game. I really didn’t know I could do it.
“Our week of practice going into (today) was amazing. We were so ready to play this game. We were ready to handle anything.”
The Cardinals (19-5, 14-0 SOL) will host 10th-seeded Perkiomen Valley in a second round game Wednesday. One win separates Upper Dublin from a coveted berth in the state tournament.
“That would be awesome,” Cross said. “I never thought I was ever going to be in this position.
“My sophomore year we made it to the state tournament, and I was just sitting on the bench, and I was like, ‘All right, when basketball is over, I’m playing lacrosse. That’s all I’m looking forward to.’
“Making it to states this year would be incredible. We set goals in the beginning of the season, and that was one of them.”
For the Rams (13-9, 6-8 SOL), Saturday’s loss brought an end to a memorable season as the team advanced to districts for the first time since 2010.
“My freshman year we were 3-19, so making playoffs my last year was definitely a highlight,” Schoonover said. “That was my goal at the beginning of the season.
“I knew we were going to make it just by how hard we work every day and how we work together as a team.”
EXTRA SHOTS: Josie Barrett is the sister of UD standout John Barrett. When asked who would win a game of horse, Josie gave the nod to her older sibling. “It’s tough, but sometimes he plays left handed and I win,” she said. “He’s a good role model for me.”…Pennridge coach Lindsey Tennett bids farewell to seniors Schoonover, Kaeli White and Kate Wycheck. The Rams’ coach credited White for her performance on Chernow, who had just one field goal and four points. “Our big thing is defense, and if you look at the way Kaeli plays defense – if I had a team of Kaeili’s out there playing defense, we’d be unstoppable,” she said…Upper Dublin’s Alissa Klammer had six assists, four points and two steals.
Pennridge 9-15-7-7 38
Upper Dublin 19-20-13-13 65
Pennridge (38) – Devan Rimmer 6, Shelby Schoonover 19, Jenna Dominic 2, Lydia Konstanzer 11.
Upper Dublin (65) – Josie Barrett 21, Julie Cross 30, Allison Chernow 4, Alissa Klammer 2 0-0 4, Demi Balasa 2, Alison Gouveia 2.
#8 NORTH PENN 45, #25 DOWNINGTOWN WEST 20
Taylor Thames, who transferred to North Penn for her senior year, had never won a postseason game during her high school career, but she made sure that trend would change, leading the Lady Knights with a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds in Saturday’s win.
“She had a very good game,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “It’s her first playoff win ever, so she was very excited for the game, and she played well.”
The Lady Knights led 13-8 after one quarter, this despite the fact that the Whippets had 12 rebounds in the quarter.
“They only had six of the rest of the way, so we did buckle down in that area,” deMarteleire said.
The Whippets scored just four points in each of the next three quarters. The Lady Knights led 21-12 at halftime and stretched that to 32-16 after three quarters. A key to the game was their ability to take the dangerous Maddie Dew – who scored just four points – out of the game.
“Defensively, we played a man, but we played a different man – we sagged off of people,” deMarteleire said. “The whole game plan was to force Maddie Dew to get the ball in the backcourt and then not let her get it in the front court.
“Irisa Ye did a great job on her. Sam Carangi did a great job because she would leave her girl and go up and double team her to force her to give the ball up. Taylor Thames spelled Irisa, so the three of them did a great job defensively because that girl is a scorer.”
In addition to Thames, Mikaela Giuliani and Jess Huber both had seven points while Ye added six. Carangi had just two points but was a key contributor.
“Sam Carangi had an off day shooting, but she played awesome on defense, took care of the ball and set her teammates up, and she did everything else right,” deMarteleire said. “Sometimes it’s just like that.
“Jess Huber played well. She had some nice finishes around the basket. Overall, it was a really good team effort. I was pleased.”
The Lady Knights showed no ill effects from last Saturday’s 51-25 loss to Abington in the SOL Tournament semifinals.
“I told the kids to delete it from their memory,” deMarteleire 
said. “It was hard to delete it from mine, and I was just a little nervous how they would respond, but it was nice to have five days of practice and have everybody back healthy.
“Hopefully, we can stay that way and make a run at things because it’s really been rough this year as far as the injuries and the sickness goes.”
The Lady Knights (18-6, 11-3) will host ninth-seeded Bishop Shanahan in a second round game on Wednesday.
Downingtown West 8-4-4-4 20
North Penn 13-8-11-13 45
Downingtown West (20) – Maddie Dew 4, Kerri Caruso 2, Heather Camden 2, Hannah Supplee 5, Megan Camden 2, Holly Schanck 3, Meghan Graham 2.
North Penn (45) – Irisa Ye 6, Taylor Thames 14, Mikaela Giuliani 7, Jess Huber 7, Sam Carangi 2, Isabelle Schwenk 3, Jess McKenzie 4, Bri Hewlitt
#12 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 42, #21 COATESVILLE 40
The Titans eked out a win in a tightly contested game against the visiting Red Raiders to advance to Wednesday’s second round against fifth-seeded Abington.
“It was an excitable crowd – people were definitely into the game,”’ coach Beth Mattern said. “The first round is stressful.
“You know you’ve worked hard all season and you know what you can do, and now you’re in a one-and-done game. The team that travels has nothing to lose. They know since they’re the away team they’re the underdog. You have to be able to withstand that intensity that they come out with and play your game.
“As soon as you get the ‘W,’ you can kind of breathe. Now we’re in double elimination. Obviously, we want to win to make the state tournament, which is a goal every year, but now we get to be the underdog and get to go against a very good Abington squad.”
In a game that saw the Titans struggle to make their shots, they also found themselves saddled with foul trouble. Jordan Vitelli was whistled for her second foul in the first quarter.
“We had five players with two fouls in the first half,” Mattern said. “Our whole bench played in the first half, and they did a great job.
“In the second half, we cleaned it up and went from 12 team fouls in the first half to three in the second half.”
Despite their foul woes, the Titans led 11-9 after one quarter and took that two-point lead into the halftime (22-20). They took a tenuous 32-31 lead into the final quarter and held on for the win.
“It just was a back and forth game,” Mattern said. “They played with a lot of intensity. We led almost the entire way, but it was work every time down the court.
“We only shot about 20 percent from the floor, and that’s not including three-pointers. That’s not a very high shooting percentage, and you’re going to allow teams to play with you. They shot 40 percent from the floor, so that’s a big difference.”
“I thought my team worked incredibly hard. I thought they did a nice job putting bodies on people and really withstanding their intensity. Decision making and execution from time to time is where we’re going to have to work to keep getting better.”
Junior Jordan Vitelli led a balanced Titan attack with 12 points while senior Kaley Smith added 10. In the fourth quarter, Smith, despite being fouled, banked home a clutch three-pointer.
“That was big,” Mattern said. “The bench was into it, and in general today, I thought she was a spark.
“She scored 10 points, and she really hit some big shots that we needed in the moment. Taylor Dunn hit a big three-pointer in the third quarter in a moment we needed to score. Jordan went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the second half to help us take control of the game in the fourth quarter.”
The Titans (18-5, 10-4 SOL) will travel to Abington for a 7 p.m. game on Wednesday.
Coatesville 9-11-11-9 40
Central Bucks South 11-11-10-10 42
Coatesville (40) – DeeDee Irwin 9, Bockman 6, Brown 3, McLaughlin 8, White 2, Nafisa Saunders 9.
Central Bucks South (42) – Kaley Smith 10, Taylor Dunn 7, Chloe Entenberg 4, Meghan Kuypers 2, Haley Meinel 5, Jordan Vitelli 12, Emma Gardy 2.
#15 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 49, #18 UNIONVILLE 37
Don’t be fooled by the final score.
The Indians had to earn this one and put some distance between themselves and their visitors in the game’s closing minutes
“I give them credit – they were ready, they were well coached,” coach Lou Palkovics said. “That was not a 12-point win. That was a four-point win.
“We hit all nine of our free throws in the fourth quarter, which is big. People are going to see 49-37, but it wasn’t 49-37. It should have been a 42-39 game. It was a lot closer than the score showed.”
Unionville was anything but an unknown entity to the Indians heading into Saturday’s district opener.
“It was nice that I had so many scouts – we saw them play against Great Valley, Shanahan, Red Lion, and what we had noticed was that they kind of peter out,” Palkovics said. “They only play six people and their third and fourth quarters weren’t good, so I kind of stressed to the girls, ‘Don’t think we’re going to jump on them and be up 25 in the first quarter. If it’s close in the first and second quarters, we’re fine, but we should wear them down.’”
The game was following that script, at least for a while. The Indians broke a 7-7 tie after one quarter with a 17-10 second quarter to go into halftime with a 25-18 lead. Rock North scored the first four points of the third quarter to up that lead to 11.
That’s when the game took an unexpected turn.
“All of a sudden, (Micayla) Flores started playing really well,” Palkovics said. “They started to expose us inside. They started going inside, and we weren’t helping.
“I called timeout and said, ‘Have they even taken an outside shot yet?’ They didn’t have one three. Everybody needed to sag in and help. They went on an 8-1 run, and they were up one point in the fourth quarter.”
Rock North – or specifically Becca Margolis – had an answer.
“Becca had two amazing steals where she just took it out of people’s hands and we went up three,” Palkovics said. “I decided to go zone in the fourth quarter. We had been playing man, and they were spreading us out.
“We went zone, and it worked. Out of the man, we weren’t rotating and helping good enough.”
Also coming up big in the fourth quarter was Emily Mackin.
“She was a big difference,” Palkovics said. “For me, that’s the biggest difference I can take out of this game.
“She hit five straight free throws, and she had a big steal and layup in the fourth quarter. She scored seven straight points that were huge.”
Senior captain Jessica Gerber scored a game-high 17 points and also contributed three rebounds and two steals. Margolis added 12 points and six huge steals as well as one block, one assist and one rebound. Hailey Burns had five rebounds, one steal, four blocks, two assists and four points. Mackin had seven points, four rebounds and one steal.
The Indians (16-6, 11-3) will travel to Central Bucks West Wednesday for a match-up against the district’s second-seeded team.
Unionville 8-10-11-8 37
Council Rock North 8-17-7-17 49
Unionville (37) – Maddie Shanahan 8, Sam Pancoast 4, Lexi Shanahan 5, Emily mason 4, Micayla Flores 16.
Council Rock North (49) – Becca Margolis 12, Jessica Gerber 17, Michaela Finneyfrock 6, Megan Haggerty 3, Emily Mackin 7, Hailey Burns 4.
#10 PERKIOMEN VALLEY 39, #23 NESHAMINY 33 (OT)
The Redskins threw a scare into the 10th-seeded Vikings and had two chances to win Saturday’s district opener in regulation – their final after coming up with a steal with 30 seconds remaining, but they came up just short.
“Considering that we only have one senior and considering what we had last year that we lost – to get into the first round of the playoffs against the number 10 seed and almost pull it off, I’m proud of the girls,” coach Joe Lally said. “I would have liked to have executed down the stretch and won.”
KT Armstrong – who had just nine points in four quarters – took control of the game in overtime, scoring all nine of her team’s points as the Vikings escaped with the win.
“We defended really well,” Lally said. “We held KT in check for regulation, but she had nine in overtime, and that’s what killed us.
“She’s a tough guard. We played a 2-3 on her. We did a couple of different things, and I thought we did a pretty good job.”
The two teams were deadlocked 6-6 after a low-scoring first quarter, but the Vikings took a 19-16 lead into halftime. In the third quarter, the ‘Skins outscored their hosts 7-2 to go into the final quarter with a 23-21 lead, but the Vikings sent the game into overtime.
“We just did what we normally do – we have quarters where we score and quarters where we don’t,” Lally said. “Getting offensive consistency has been a struggle for us all year long.
“The kids play defense really well. It’s the offense that kills us.”
Sophomore Thyra Tuttle led the Redskins with 12 points on four three-pointers.
“We reviewed the tape,” said Lally, whose team fell to PV 44-36 in mid-January. “We knew they zoned us a lot and pretty much dared us to shoot the ball.
“(Tuttle) is a very good shooter, and she’s really made some nice progress, so we were comfortable with getting her in the game and getting her opportunities, and she did really well.”
Morgan Goldenbaum added seven points, and Tyra Porterfield had six. Devon Storms, playing on a torn MCL the entire season, added five.
“Devon is tentatively set for surgery on March 3,” Lally said. “Her doctor said she could do no harm (playing on it). It was basically her tolerance to pain.
“She played the entire season with a knee brace, lots of rest in between things. She’s a great kid.”
The Redskins closed out the season with a 14-8 record (9-5 SOL).
Neshaminy 6-10-7-7-3 39
Perkiomen Valley 6-13-2-9-9 39
Neshaminy (39) – Morgan Goldenbaum 7, Tiara Porterfield 6, Maddie Murray 3, Devon Storms 5, Thyra Tuttle 12.
Perkiomen Valley (39) – Katie Leahy 6, KT Armstrong 18, Megan Jonassen 6, Taylor Hamm 5.
#9 BISHOP SHANAHAN 60, #24 WILLIAM TENNENT 48
The Panthers gave Shanahan all it could handle, rallying from a 14-9 deficit after one quarter to trail by just one at the intermission (24-23). Shanahan outscored the Panthers by five in the fourth quarter and then sealed Tennent’s fate with a 22-16 fourth quarter.
Sophomore Kyla Gibson (14 points) and senior Angie Pomponio (12 points) led the Panthers. Alyssa Christiansen and Braylin Dougherty both added eight points.
Tennent closed out its year with a 13-10 record (7-7 overall).
William Tennent 9-14-9-16 48
Bishop Shanahan 14-10-14-22 60
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