Neshaminy, Souderton & Abington were winners in District 1 6A playback games Friday. Neshaminy/Upper Dublin photos provided courtesy of John Gleeson. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f884733941
CLASS 6A 5th Place Playback
#8 NESHAMINY 43, #19 UPPER DUBLIN 41
Alena Cofield is a difference maker.
Best known for her speed and ability to steal offensive rebounds, the Neshaminy sophomore’s quickness also gives the Redskins a spark on defense. In Friday’s come-from-behind win, Cofield displayed an offensive game that even her coach was not expecting. With the Cardinals more than willing to leave Cofield open beyond the arc,
she buried four 3-pointers and doubled her previous season high of 10 points with a game-high 20 points to go along with five steals.
Reese Zemitis scored the game-winner on a tough drive to the hole with 14 seconds remaining to break a 41-41 tie in a contest played at Bucks County Community College, but Cofield was the undeniable catalyst in the Redskins’ come-from-behind win.
“I’ve been working on my shooting a lot,” Cofield said. “It’s been improving. I don’t know – there’s something about this court. I was just knocking down the shots.
“I think it was more or less – I want to win this game. I was feeling hyped. I just started shooting, and one after another, they were going in. It boosted my confidence. Also, really important was how much trust my teammates put in me by continuing to pass me the ball even after I missed a couple of times.”
Cofield didn’t miss often in Friday’s win, and there was no mistaking her impact in Friday’s second-half comeback as she scored 12 of her points after the break.
“I saw what she could do with her speed and hands, and I told her in June – you’re going to start for us,” Neshaminy coach John Gallagher said. “She grabbed hold of that, and we’re slowly bringing along her ability to score, not only just her defense.
“At our last practice, I explained to her – ‘We’re going to need you to shoot the ball next year, but I see in practice you’re shooting the ball a lot better.’ I talked to her about a couple of other things she needed to work on. She confirmed she has things lined up in regards to skill improvement over the summer aside from what she’ll do with Neshaminy. For her to hit a 3 wasn’t surprising, but to hit four was a complete shock to me and anybody else that has been following us.
“No one plays her at the 3-point line, and we understand that’s going to happen. I don’t blame them, that’s what I would do. She just happened to have a real good day today, and she just built her confidence with each shot she made.”
The Redskins needed every bit of Cofield’s second-half heroics after a first half that saw them open up an early 5-0 lead only to find themselves trailing 23-10 after a Colleen Besachio 3-pointer with 2:21 remaining in the first half. A three-point play by Lola Ibarrondo and a 3-pointer by Zemitis sandwiched around a Besachio bucket made it a 25-16 game at halftime. Besachio – who had a stellar outing of her own – led the Cardinals with 10 first-half points.
“Upper Dublin played with a lot of energy – we came without any energy, and that’s on me,” Gallagher said. “Taylor and Lola in foul trouble in the first half didn’t help us a whole lot. At the same time, Lindsay (Little) and Ava (Irizarry) came off the bench and filled important minutes for us. It’s probably the least amount of minutes that Taylor and Lola have played in our district run so far.
“That’s a credit to Upper Dublin. It looked like their game plan was to try and get Reese in foul trouble. I understand the strategy. Reese just played straight up on their freshman (Colleen Besachio). Reese had four blocks – three on her to start the game.”
Interestingly, Cofield’s big second half started out with a miss on a basket in close on the Redskins’ first possession.
“We actually ran a play for her to start the second half – we set her up for a skip pass right in front of our bench,” Gallagher said. “She missed the shot, but back on defense, she got a steal and a layup, so we kind of got what we wanted.”
It marked the beginning of a remarkable quarter for Cofield, who turned three steals into layups in the opening two minutes of the third quarter.
“It put them on their heels a little bit,” Gallagher said. “Coming back from nine against Upper Dublin is like coming back 15-18 against other teams because they are so good with the ball, they get a good shot every time down the court.”
In addition to Cofield’s six points, Ibarrondo also had a pair of buckets on drives to the hoop in a 10-3 Neshaminy run to open the quarter. UD’s only bucket in that span was a 3-pointer by Amy Ngo.
“I just tried to jump the passing lanes,” Cofield said of her string of steals. “I saw they were getting trapped, so I knew they were going to pass it because they were stuck. I just jumped the pass.
“Honestly, I just tried to play better than the first (half), tried to put up as many shots as possible, get people open.”
Cofield capped what turned into a 12-3 run with her third 3-pointer of the game to pull the Redskins to within one.
“They have so many weapons offensively that you kind of have to pick how you want to defend them,” UD coach Morgan Funsten said. “(Cofield) had two made 3s all year according to our stats. You could see she’s a good player. We didn’t disrespect her as a player, but we decided we wanted her to beat us, and she certainly beat us. She made some nice plays defensively too. A lot of credit to her.”
Besachio scored on a drive, but Taylor Gurysh buried a three to knot the score. Another Besachio bucket on a strong move to the hole put the Cardinals on top. A Zemitis 3 gave the Redskins their first lead since the opening quarter, but Besachio answered with another basket for the Cardinals, who led 34-33
Cofield turned her fourth steal of the quarter into an easy basket that sent the Redskins into the fourth quarter with a 35-34 lead.
“We’re best when we’re taking care of the ball, and I thought we got away from that in the second half,” Funsten said. “They definitely made us pay, and she especially made us pay.
“Coming out of halftime with the score the way it was – it felt like the first half was easy, and it wasn’t easy. You saw on the first few possessions of the second half, we relaxed, and when you relax, bad things happen, and that seems to be what happened.”
Another Cofield 3 to open the fourth quarter put Neshaminy on top 38-34. The Cardinals battled back and took a 39-38 lead after a Besachio 3 from the top of the circle. They upped that led to 41-38 after Megan Ngo scored on a short pullup, but Zemitis found Gurysh cutting to the basket for and easy deuce, and Gurysh, after coming up with a steal on the defensive end, sank 1-of-2 at the foul line with 4:20 remaining to knot the score 41-41. Neither team scored again until Zemitis’ game-winner. The Cardinals shot as time expired fell short, and the Redskins had a win and fifth place in the district.
“We were holding for the last shot, and Reese – with about 15 seconds left – hit that shot,” Gallagher said. “If she hits it, everybody’s happy, including myself. She took it upon herself to say listen, ‘We’re not going to wait for the last shot. I have a little bit of an opening.’
“Lola (Ibarrondo) goes down and turns her ankle (late in the third quarter). Our bench stepped up and filled the minutes when she wasn’t in, and we did fine. Lola’s one of the tougher kids you’ll ever come across. I looked at her, and she nodded her head. I said, ‘All right, let’s see what you got.’ Our trainer, Justin, did a nice job with her. She finished the game strong for us.”
Ibarrondo finished with seven points, three rebounds and two assists. Zemitis stuffed a stat sheet with 10 points, five rebounds, four blocked shots and two assists. Gurysh added six points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal.
“I’m thrilled,” Gallagher said. “Last year we finished 11th in the district, this year we finished fifth, so that’s a mark of improvement. Last year we had 19 wins, we’re on our 21st win now. Hopefully, we’ll get our 22nd one in states next Friday.”
Cofield is hoping to carry the momentum of Friday’s win into the state tournament.
“I’m just going to keep working as hard as possible, try to perform as well in states as I did today,” the sophomore guard said.
Neshaminy (21-7, 11-3 SOL) will face District 12’s third place team, Archbishop Carroll, in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament.
For the Cardinals, Besachio turned in a monster performance. The freshman finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds in an impressive double-double. She also had two assists, one steal and one block. Amy Ngo had six points, five rebounds, six assists and one steal while Megan Ngo had seven points, three assists and two rebounds.
Upper Dublin (17-10, 11-5) will face Liberty, District 11’s second place team, in an opening round state game.
Upper Dublin 15-10-9-7 41
Neshaminy 7-9-19-8 43
Upper Dublin (41) – Alaina Sanders 3 0-0 6; Megan Ngo 3 0-0 7; Amy Ngo 2 0-0 6; Colleen Besachio 8 1-2 19; Nora Brady 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 17 1-2 41.
Neshaminy (43) 0 Alena Cofield 8 0-0 20; Lola Ibarrondo 3 1-2 7; Taylor Gurysh 2 1-2 6; Reese Zemitis 4 0-0 10; TOTALS 17 2-4 43.
3-point goals: UD – Amy Ngo 2, Colleen Besachio 2, Megan Ngo, Nora Brady; Neshaminy – Alena Cofield 4, Reese Zemitis 2, Taylor Gurysh.
CLASS 6A 7th Place Playback
#4 SOUDERTON 39, #7 SPRINGFIELD-DELCO 32
At first glance, the Indians – without Northwestern-bound Casey Harter and with a hobbled Erin Bohmueller – would seem to have gone into Friday’s seventh place game at Indian Valley Middle School as decided underdogs.
Bohmueller saw very limited action, but in the absence of their two key ball handlers, the Indians responded and simply refused to lose.
“We had a lot of people step up in a lot of ways,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “Brooke Fenchel did the bulk of the ballhandling the entire game. She really had not had to play any point guard for us in her career, and she pretty much did it for 32 minutes, helped us get into our sets. Her defense was very good.
“We’re down Casey for the whole game and Erin for most of the game – those two kids are usually assigned the best players on the other team. Brooke had to step in there.”
Sophomore Grace McDonough stepped into the varsity lineup and made an immediate impact.
“On their first offensive possession, we blocked four shots, and Grace had at least two of them, if not three of them,” Carroll said. What she can do on the defensive end with her length and her speed was great.
“The combination of Mikayla (McGillian), Teya (McConnaha) and Grace in the post – they were playing us in a zone, and we were having a lot of success getting the ball down low. We would get it to one of our post players, and she would find her post teammate, and we were scoring a lot of baskets that way – just a combination of those three and what they did around the basket was great. We know what Grace is capable of offensively, but she prefers to defer a lot, and we couldn’t afford for her to do that today. She stepped up. She didn’t score a ton of points, but it was probably the best game she’s played for us in her two years.”
Alexis Stefanowicz also gave the Indians a lift.
“Alexis played a ton of minutes, and she hit three jump shots,” Carroll said. “She’s mostly passing the ball and setting screens for us. Again, it was a situation where we needed other people to take some shots and hit some shots. She shot the ball with confidence tonight.”
The game came down to the wire with Teya McConnaha completing a three-point play to put the Indians up by five and then burying both ends of a one-and-one to give Souderton a 39-32 lead with just over a minute remaining in regulation. They went on to win by that score.
“We played most of the game with one guard on the floor,” Carroll said. “People were playing out of position a little bit, and Teya played a lot of our possessions offensively on the perimeter. She was 6-for-6 from the line tonight. We have not been shooting the ball well from the line, so that was huge.
“At the end, Springfield was trying to crawl back into it, and they pressured us a little bit. The two kids we normally have handling the ball in that situation were on the bench, so for the young kids to step up was just great.”
McConnaha’s 17 points led the Indians while McGillian also was in double figures with 11. Stefanowicz added six points.
Souderton (23-6, 15-1 SOL) will return to action in next Friday’s opening round of the PIAA 6A Tournament at District 3 runner-up Central York.
“We feel pretty good about the fact that we’re going to be healthy when we need to be healthy, but that aside, there were so many positive things to take from our game tonight,” Carroll said. “I feel like kids stepping up, being productive and being effective and playing with confidence, especially on the offensive end, can only help us going into the state tournament.”
Springfield-Delco 9-10-9-4 32
Souderton 8-9-9-13. 39
Springfield-Delco (32) – Molly Clifford 0 1-2 1; Kaitlyn Kearney 1 3-4 6; Alyssa Estep 1 0-0 2; Sophia Ward 1 0-0 2; Cora Fattori 2 0-0 4; Alexis Aaron 2 1-1 6; Taylor Hunyet 1 0-0 3; Caroline Williams 1 0-0 2; Anabel Kreyott 3 0-0 6; TOTALS 12 5-7 32.
Souderton (39) – Mikayla McGillian 5 1-4 11; Alexis Stefanowicz 3 0-0 6; Grace McDonough 2 1-2 5; Teya McConnaha 5 6-6 17; TOTALS 15 8-12 39.
3-point goals: Springfield-Delco – Kaitlyn Kearney, Alexis Aaron, Taylor Hunyet; Souderton – Teya McConnaha.
CLASS 6A 9th Place Playback
#6 ABINGTON 67, #9 UNIONVILLE 56
Cire Worley continued her torrid offensive production for Abington.
On the heels of a 35-point effort in the Ghosts’ convincing win over Conestoga, the University of Massachusetts-Lowell poured in 30 points to lead Abington to another convincing win.
Behind 14 points from Worley, 11 from Abril Bowser and 10 from Piper McGinley, the Ghosts went into halftime with a commanding 44-26 lead over the visiting Indians.
“We had a great first half, phenomenal,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “We were up 20, and then we decided to hit cruise control I guess, and Unionville fought back.
“I don’t think they ever got closer than eight, but it was just annoying because we could have buried them but decided not to. The kids got tired and unmotivated, and these playback games are tough.”
Four players finished in double figures for the Ghosts. In addition to Worley, Bowser and Maya Johnson each scored 11 points while McGinley added 10.
“Johnson had another great game as our floor point guard,” Marsh said. “A win is a win at this point. The second half wasn’t pretty, but we were able to persevere and finish the game.
“I even told them after the game – ‘I don’t have anything to say about this game. We’ll see you Monday, and we’ll start getting ready for states.’”
Abington (23-6, 14-2 SOL) will travel to District 2/4 champion Wyoming Valley West for Friday’s PIAA 6A opener.
Unionville 10-16-16-14 56
Abington 22-22-9-14 67
Unionville (56) – Savannah Lang 2 1-2 5; Allie D’Angelo 1 0-0 3; Milana Amoss 4 7-8 16; Elle Johnson 2 4-6 8; Riley Angstadt 6 4-6 16; Shannon Megill 4 0-0 8; TOTALS 19 16-22 56.
Abington (67) – Cire Worley 8 8-12 30; Maya Johnson 3 4-4 11; Abril Bowser 3 2-2 11; Mikiaya Durham 1 0-0 2; Jordyn Reynolds 1 0-0 3; Piper McGinley 4 1-3 10; TOTALS 20 15-21 67.
3-point goals: Unionville – Allie D’Angelo, Milana Amoss; Abington – Cire Worley 6, Abril Bowser 3, Maya Johnson, Jordyn Reynolds, Piper McGinley.
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