Neshaminy travelled to Cardinal O’Hara and earned a non-league win over the perennial PCL power.
NESHAMINY 55, CARDINAL O’HARA 46
Brooke Mullin had nine points heading into the final quarter of Wednesday’s non-league showdown at O’Hara. The senior captain was certainly pulling her weight, but with the outcome still very much in doubt, she elevated her game to the next level, scoring 14 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to propel the Redskins to the impressive win over the PCL power.
“Right now she’s playing as good as I’ve ever seen her play,” coach Joe Lally said. “She’s worked really hard, she’s spent a ton of time in the gym, and you can see it paying dividends.
“In the fourth quarter in a three-point game at O’Hara in that atmosphere, Brooke gets a two-point field goal, a three-point field goal and nine free throws. That’s pretty big-time if you ask me. I won’t know until I see tomorrow’s stats, but I’m pretty sure she had four or five rebounds in there too. She’s been great.”
Mullin was 9-for-10 at the foul line in the fourth quarter while point guard Kristin Curley was 2-for-2. It’s the kind of clutch effort that wins games.
“Obviously, you need to make the foul shots,” Lally said. “The team did a great job of understanding – ‘This is what we want to do to beat the press, and we want the ball in our good free throw shooter’s hands.’ We’re fortunate that we feel we have five, but we definitely have three kids that are 85-90 percent in Brooke, Kristin and Alli (Harvey).”
The Redskins’ game plan heading into Wednesday’s game included neutralizing O’Hara’s gifted guards.
“Number three (Amaris Baker) and number five (Sydni Scott) – we knew they were not going to beat us,” Mullin said. “They’ve been doing really good, and we had to shut them down and make other people beat us.
“We just had to play our defense – no penetration – and make them make contested twos rather than wide open threes.”
The duo combined for 35 of their team’s points with Scott scoring a team-high 18 but only three after halftime.
“Their guards are phenomenal,” Lally said. “They’re great athletes, they’re great players, and their guards do a lot of really good things.
“It really boiled down to the fourth quarter, and instead of getting lost in – we’ve got to outscore them, we were fixated on stops. The whole team did a great job of just hunkering down in the fourth quarter and saying, ‘Okay, this is how we’re going to win this game by getting some quality stops here.’”
Wednesday’s game was a classic battle from the outset. The Redskins led 12-11 after one quarter and took a 24-23 lead into halftime. They still led by just two (35-33) heading into the final quarter. The fourth quarter was Mullin time, and O’Hara had no answer.
“Brooke’s playing at a very high level,” Lally said. “We talk to her a lot during the game, and she’s a very unselfish player, but there are just times when the matchups are in our favor. She’s getting the ball in good positions. She can play with her back to the basket, she can play out on the perimeter – she’s a tough guard.”
In addition to Mullin’s 23 points, Alexis McCoy added 10 and Kelli Kowalick had nine, but it was the team’s defense that most pleased their coach.
“I’m really pleased with how hard they’re working,” Lally said. “It was a pleasure to see them all understand – this game’s going to be won in the fourth quarter with stops. It’s not going to be won with – we’ll shoot one more three than they will, so they’re getting it.”
This is a veteran Redskin squad that has plenty of experience playing together.
“The juniors – I’ve known most of them since I was very young,” Mullin said. “One is my cousin and the rest of them are basically family friends, so we’ve been together for a long time, and we’re always on the same page, which is very good.”
Wednesday’s win came on the heels of wins over Central Bucks East and Central Bucks South, and this win was especially sweet.
“It was exciting to play a team in the Catholic League just to show them the public (schools) are good and show them who we are,” Mullin said. “This shows that we’re good, and we’re going to get even better. We’ll keep building from this.”
For Lally, who intentionally toughened up his team’s schedule, traveling to O’Hara was a special treat.
“I grew up in the Philadelphia Catholic League,” the Redskins’ coach said. “It’s a whole different basketball world, and they’re really into it. From the announcers announcing lineups and positions and their music during timeouts, it’s a whole different show.”
Neshaminy (3-0) will travel to Bensalem for Thursday’s SOL opener at 7 p.m.
Neshaminy 12-12-11-18 55
Cardinal O’Hara 11-12-10-13 46
Neshaminy (55) – Emily Tantala 1, Kacie Sienko 3, Brooke Mullin 23, Kristin Curley 4, Alexis McCoy 10, Kelli Kowalick 9, Allison Harvey 5.
Cardinal O’Hara (46) – Kerry Patterson 9, Amaris Baker 17, Sydni Scott 18, Siobhan Boylan 2.
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