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A glance at Tuesday night’s SOL schedule suggested it was going to be a pretty ho-hum night.
It was anything but that.
Daniella Ciccarone put her name in the record books at Quakertown when she broke the school’s all-time scoring mark of 1,303 points.
And that was just the beginning.
Upper Dublin senior Kristen Fuery surpassed the magical 1,000-point plateau in the Flying Cardinals’ 35-26 win over Springfield.
And Pennridge – four days removed from a disappointing loss to Central Bucks West – stunned Central Bucks South 63-49.
Hardly the dull night most people expected, but that’s life in the SOL – expect the unexpected.
Ciccarone makes history – Daniella Ciccarone put her name in the school’s record books when she buried a foul shot in the second quarter of Tuesday night’s game against Central Bucks East. With the basket, the gifted senior became Quakertown’s all-time leading scorer, eclipsing the previous mark of 1,303 set by Bob Gluck.
“It feels really good,” Ciccarone said. “I’m really happy I was able to do it. It’s a goal I’ve always wanted to reach, looking up at the banner every day.
“I actually wrote it on my to-do list to break the overall scoring record, so I’m really happy I get to cross that off now.”
Ciccarone finished the night with 20 points against conference leader Central Bucks East, which earned a 73-65 winner in Tuesday night’s game.
“Obviously, it’s a tremendous accomplishment and shows what she’s meant to our program,” Quakertown assistant coach Jim Maiorino. “She will be extremely hard to replace, not only for her scoring but for her basketball ability.”
Ciccarone also had 10 assists in Tuesday’s game and averages almost seven a game.
“She’s a great team player,” Maiorino said. “You would think somebody who scores that much would take all the shots, but she doesn’t. She’ll drive the lane and dish it off a lot even though she gets hammered.”
A look back at Tuesday’s game will show that the Patriots opened up a 20-7 lead at the end of one quarter only to watch the Panthers trim it to 32-26 at halftime. The Patriots outscored the Panthers 41-39 in a high-scoring second half.
The Patriots received big efforts from Liz Martin (23 points), Kristina Pogue (14 points), Sarah Martin (13 points) and Courtney McManus (12 points). They needed every one of those points as Quakertown, in addition to Ciccarone’s 20, received a game-high 26 points from Kristine Jackiewicz.
East improved to 8-1 in league play while Quakertown fell to 4-5.
Fuery hits milestone – Kristen Fuery connected on a jump shot from the elbow with 3.3 seconds remaining in the third quarter of Tuesday night’s game against Springfield. The basket vaulted the Upper Dublin senior to the 1,000-point plateau.
Fuery needed just five points to reach the historic milestone, and she admits she was putting pressure on herself - trying to make it happen sooner rather than later.
“It’s such a relief,” Fuery said. “If you watch the progression of the game, I got it at the end of the third quarter, so I had five points – I hit a layup, a foul shot and a jump shot from the elbow that gave me the thousand.”
In the fourth quarter, Fuery more than doubled her output of the first three frames, scoring seven points to finish with a game-high 12 points.
“I think that speaks for how relaxed I already am,” she said.
The progression that led to the historic basket included back-to-back 11-point efforts by Fuery, who admits she was pressing.
“It was like, ‘Cut me a break – just let me get it over with. Let me move on and think about my team,’” she said. “I felt kind of selfish – I’m not going to lie because there was so much emphasis being put on, ‘Well, she’s 16 points away, she’s five points away.’
“I felt like it was kind of taking away from the team. Now that it’s over we can focus on the team dynamics. It’s one less thing we have to worry about.”
Curtrena Goff added seven points for the Flying Cardinals (6-3) while Elise DiFilippo led the Spartans (3-6) with nine points and Morgan Smith added six.
Rams stun Titans – Exactly one week ago, Central Bucks South played Central Bucks East for first place in the Continental Conference standings.
Three days later, Pennridge fell to Central Bucks West. It was only the Bucks’ second win in close to two years in SOL competition.
Tuesday’s game between South and Pennridge proved that anything can happen as Pennridge – behind the brilliant 30-point effort of senior Sam Simononis - pulled off a huge win, downing South 63-49.
It was just the third win of the league season for the Rams, who improved to 3-6.
“I think they came in thinking we just lost to West, and it would be an easy win,” Pennridge coach Brooke Martin said. “Regardless of our loss on Friday, we played really well on Saturday (in a win over Upper Dublin).
“We’re playing really good defense inside the three-point line, and that’s what our goal was. If they got the three, we’re not worried. They got shots, we got the rebounds and pushed the ball up the court. We got a lot of points in transition.”
The Rams jumped out to a 14-7 lead at the end of one quarter and upped that to 32-19 by halftime. They never looked back.
“Things were just clicking,” Martin said. “We were moving the ball. We probably had the most assists we’ve had in a game.
“They were focused from beginning to end and didn’t let the ups and downs of the game get to them, which is what we’ve talked about all season. That was led by Jordan (Dominic) and Sam. They’re really beginning to show their true leadership on the court as far as handling game situations.”
Martin lauded the shot selection of Simononis.
“Nothing was forced,” the Rams’ coach said. “We had good ball movement offensively. There have been games in the past where it was one pass – shot, one pass – shot.”
Dominic added 11 points and Katie Franchois had nine. Jen Cooley chipped with eight. Brianne McGrath – who did not play in Friday’s loss to West – had a game-high 12 rebounds. Dominic added eight boards and six assists, and Simononis, five steals and three blocks.
The Titans (7-2) were led by the 10-point effort of Katelyn Schneider. Nicole Mummert added nine, and Brittany Kaewell, eight points.
Golden Hawks hold on to defeat ‘Skins – It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t always pretty, but Council Rock South edged Neshaminy 42-38. The Golden Hawks jumped out to a 16-8 lead at the end of one quarter and extended that lead to 25-12 at the intermission.
That’s when the points stopped coming.
Rock South managed just four points in the third quarter, but Neshaminy wasn’t doing much better, scoring just six.
“It was really physical,” Rock South coach Monica Young said. “It was more like a rugby match.
“It’s a different story going to somebody else’s court. There’s a lot on the line, so every game – everyone wants to beat everyone. I was happy to come out with a win, but we need to do a lot of things better.”
Young lost Alex Wheatley for a stretch in the second half because of a bloody nose, but the sophomore forward still scored 11 points. Chelsea Allen led the Golden Hawks with 13 points, and Emily Nowicke added 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Kelsey Ryan led the Redskins with 18 points.
Rock South improved to 7-2 in league play while Neshaminy dropped to 4-5.
Falcons’ balanced attack dooms Owls – Pennsbury trailed 11-10 early in its game against Bensalem, but the Falcons outscored their visitors 39-19 in the second and third quarters combined on their way to a 59-43 win.
The press, according to Falcon coach Donna Nicholson, turned the tide.
“We got more aggressive on defense and created the turnovers, which resulted in easy baskets for us,” the Falcons’ coach said. “We rebounded better, and we were able to push the ball up the court and create mismatches.
“In the first two minutes of the game, we missed five layups. We finally converted some shots, and the defensive pressure picked up the intensity and created some easy baskets.”
Kelsey Moulton led the Falcons with 13 points and 13 rebounds – nine on the offensive end. Kelly Rebert, the Falcons’ senior captain, had 11 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots. Junior captain Molly Phillips contributed 10 points and seven rebounds. Lacey Balascsak added 10 points, including a pair of three’s.
“It was definitely a team effort,” Nicholson said. “We passed the ball. Everybody contributed, everybody was getting good looks, and they were converting.
“Our shooting percentage was not that high – we took 65 shots. We had a lot of opportunities. Finally, in the middle periods, we were making the layups and making the shots.”
Ashleigh Spence led the Owls (1-8) with nine points while Jody Sokol added eight.
The Falcons improved to 3-6 in league play.
Vikings edge Eagles – Upper Merion was 2-for-7 from the foul line and misfired on the front end of three one-and-one’s in the final 40 seconds of Tuesday night’s game against neighboring Norristown.
That was the bad news.
The good news was that the Vikings still managed to eke out a 33-32 win over the Eagles.
“It was one of those games you had to see to believe,” Upper Merion coach Tom Shurtz said. “Usually when you shoot that poorly in the last 40 seconds, you lose a game like that, particularly if it’s that close.”
With 16 seconds remaining, Paola Tinari connected on a pair from the foul line to put the Vikings on top 33-30. The Vikings sent Norristown’s Nicole Graham to the foul line for a huge one-and-one.
She buried both shots, and it was a one-point game with 10 seconds remaining.
“They fouled immediately,” Shurtz said. “Our freshman (Kristina O’Sullivan) gets fouled, and she misses both free throws but then gets a steal to end the game.
“It was exciting, and as a coach, you like to see a player who makes a mistake but doesn’t give up on the play. We had three steals in the last 40 seconds. We didn’t shoot particularly well from the line. However, our defense was very solid throughout the game.”
Alex Galdi was given the task of defending Natasha Matthews. Both players ended up with eight points. Cassidy Koenig and Brianna Alvarez also had eight points for the Vikings. Cashae Hinton led the Eagles with 10 points.
The win upped the Vikings’ record to 5-4 in league play while the Eagles fell to 3-6.
“We’ve had some ups and downs, but the nice thing about this team is they just keep working,” Shurtz said. “Every night it’s a tough game, and you just have to keep grinding.”
The game was played in front of a large crowd that came out to support the Vikings’ March for Relief, a fund raiser for the earthquake victims in Haiti.
“The fans were really into the game, and that’s a big reason we won tonight,” Shurtz said. “If that gym was empty, I think we come up a little short. We had a sixth man tonight. It was nice.”
Indians end Bucks’ winning streak – Souderton trailed 18-17 at halftime of Tuesday night’s game against Central Bucks West but outscored the Bucks 31-9 in the second half on its way to a convincing 48-27 win.
“In the first half, we were taking quick shots,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “It was like there was a seven-second shot clock.
“I think we got caught up in their pace of the game. They set the tone, and we talked at halftime – if we’re patient and run the plays, we’re going to get the shot we want.”
Senior Brittany Sandone, who was a near-perfect 9-of-10 from the foul line, scored 14 of her game-high 18 points in the second half. She also had seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Sophomore Carley Kendall – after being sidelined for a week with a concussion –contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds and scored eight of her team’s points in a second quarter.
For the Bucks, the loss halted a three-game winning streak that began a week earlier with their win over Hatboro.
“With them beating Pennridge and Hatboro, we know anything can happen,” Sandone said. “They come out strong every game, and they had a lot of confidence going into this game.
“We just had to adjust to that and play our game.”
Bia Jurema led the Bucks with 10 points, but she didn’t have a lot of help offensively.
“Sometimes girls this age that are in ninth and 10th grades are in that transition phase of life, and you have good days, and you have bad days,” West coach Terry Rakowski said. “I thought Katie Ross played with a lot of energy, played hard.
“Other than that, none of the other kids came to play tonight.”
While the Bucks fell to 2-7 in league play, the Indians improved to 6-3.
Around the league – North Penn was led by the 17-point effort of sophomore Steph Knauer in its 49-39 win over Hatboro-Horsham. Taylour Alston added nine points and Lauren Crisler, eight, for the Maidens (6-3) while Kate Romano had 17 points to lead the Hatters, who fell to 0-9 in league play.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (2-7) took a 19-11 lead into halftime of Tuesday’s game at Wissahickon, but the Trojans (8-1) held the Spartans to just six second-half points as they regrouped to notch a 29-25 win. Colleen Hinde led the Trojans with 10 points while Dominique Earland added seven. Alyssa Butcher paced the Colonials with eight points.
Cheltenham improved to 9-0 in league play (17-0) overall with a 71-36 win over Upper Moreland. Shayla Felder scored 15 of her game-high 19 points in a first quarter that saw the Lady Panthers sprint to a 34-13 lead. By halftime, they led 53-16. Also coming up big for the Lady Panthers were Ciara Andrews (17 points), Kira Ogden (10) and Lorraine Oliver (7). Erin Dixon led the Golden Bears (0-9) with 10 points while Katie Costello added seven.
Emily Leer scored 18 points while teammate Aiyannah Peal added 14 to lead Abington to a 43-28 win over William Tennent. The Panthers were led by the six-point efforts of Emily O’Donnell and Liz Koval.
Council Rock North jumped out to a 42-9 halftime lead on its way to a 54-22 win over Harry S. Truman. Sarah Kiely scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the first half. Lauren Gold added 11 points and Devin Gold, eight points. Shakeya Palmer led the Tigers with eight points. Shalaya Lynch added seven.
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