SOL Liberty Division
ABINGTON 64, QUAKERTOWN 59
Dan Marsh needed just one word to describe his emotions after Wednesday’s hard-fought win over the visiting Panthers.
“Phew,” the Ghosts’ coach said, breathing a sigh of relief.
The Panthers made things tough on the Ghosts, although it looked as though Abington might run away with it after scoring 24 first-quarter points. Abril Bowser had a monster quarter, burying four 3 pointers and scoring 15 points. The Panthers – thanks to six points from Kayla Sicher – stayed within striking distance, and it was still an eight-point game at halftime. Carolyn Sipprell’s seven points in the second quarter led the Panthers. Both Sipprell and Katherine Hagerty had nine points in the half.
Bowser’s 19 points led the Ghosts in the opening half while Jordyn Reynolds added 10 points, eight in the second quarter that included two 3s.
If it seemed as though the Panthers would surely fade in the second half, guess again. They outscored the Ghosts 18-11 in the third quarter and trailed by just one heading into the final quarter, 51-50. Katie Catalano was the catalyst for the Panthers, burying a pair of 3s and scoring eight points.
Cire Worley stepped to the fore in the final quarter, scoring six points as the Ghosts edged the Panthers 13-9 in the frame.
Bowser’s 19 points led the Ghosts while Worley added 16 and Reynolds had 10. Piper McGinley contributed seven.
“They gave us a scare, and we lost Jordyn Reynolds to an injury, but our freshman, Mikiaya Durham, who has really stepped up the last few games, came in and did well,” Marsh said.
For the Panthers, Sipprell had a team-high 18 points to go along with 16 rebounds and three blocked shots. Catalano added 13 points, which included four 3-pointers. Hagerty added nine points and seven rebounds. Pistone also had nine points while Sicher had eight points and 12 rebounds.
Abington (7-1, 4-0 SOL) will travel to Penn Charter for a non-league match Thursday, and Quakertown (4-5, 2-3) will host Lower Moreland on Tuesday.
Quakertown 16-16-18-9 59
Abington 24-16-11-13 64
Quakertown (59) – Ava Pistone 4 0-0 9; Carolyn Sipprell 7 3-3 18; Katherine Hagerty 4 0-0 9; Katie Catalano 5 0-0 13; Kayla Sicher 4 0-0 8; Julia Henry; TOTALS 25 3-3 59.
Abington (64) – Cire Worley 5 4-7 16; Maya Johnson 2 0-0 5; Abril Bowser 7 1-1 19; Mikaya Durham 2 0-0 4; Jordyn Reynolds 4 0-1 10; Piper McGinley 2 2-2 7; Sara Oleary 1 1-2 3; TOTALS 23 8-13 64.
3-point goals: Quakertown – Katie Catalano 3, Katherine Hagerty, Carolyn Sipprell, Ava Pistone; Abington – Abril Bowser 4, Jordyn Reynolds 2, Cire Worley 2, Maya Johnson, Piper McGinley.
SOL Patriot Division
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 69, HARRY S TRUMAN 28
Twenty-four hours after their emotional win over Pennsbury, the Golden Hawks were back on the court at Truman. They led by just a 10-6 score after one quarter and then went on to take a 38-16 halftime lead.
“This is just another instance of where I am really proud of our group,” Rock South coach Blair Klumpp said. “We showed a different type of toughness in this game, and that was a sign of growth for us as a group. We were coming off a really good win last night in a game that was tightly contested and had a short turnaround time to go on the road.
“Playing at Truman is rarely an easy task, no matter what the discrepancies in records are. They feed off of the energy of their crowd/parents. We started off, not necessarily sluggish, but it felt like we were just kind of there and going through the motions. We weren’t playing our brand of basketball that’s been much improved the last week plus. We got a spark off the bench in the first half with Miranda Cantor hitting a 3 to give us some solid separation, and Lily Bross got us going in transition a bit. We played ten kids again in the first quarter. We didn’t shoot as well as we did this past weekend, but it was another game where we assisted in more than 70 percent of our field goals (14 asst/17 FG). We had 12 kids score today – in our seven games, we had four different leading scorers.”
Cam Gregory’s 10 points led a balanced Rock South attack. She also had three steals. Fiona Reckner added nine while Lily Bross and Miranda Cantor both had eight points. Bross led the Hawks with five assists. Liliana Metrick contributed seven points and three assists, and Maria Freeman chipped in with six points and two assists. Katie Purpura led the Hawks with six rebounds and also had three steals. Reckner and Karissa Smedley both had four rebounds.
“I thought Cam Gregory and Fiona Reckner gave us some good spurts off bench in the second half as well,” Klumpp said. “We challenged the girls to be better on the backboards in the second half, and I think KP (Katie Purpura) rose to that challenge immediately with two defensive rebounds on subsequent possessions. She’s been our most consistent rebounder all year. She’s been playing with a really high motor and high energy.
“Smed and Fi (Karissa Smedley and Fiona Reckner) were also solid on the glass. Today was also good because we had three girls who swing get a bit of an extended run, and all three (Miranda Cantor, Maria Freeman, and Sarah Freeman) had solid runs today. Miranda was solid in both halves, and both Freeman girls have been doing everything that’s been asked/expected. They work really hard in practice and don’t always get to play in games, but their approach is the same.
“The thing I’m most proud of was the mental toughness and composure we showed through stretches of the game when things got chippy (they had four technicals). The girls did a really good job of just playing the brand of basketball that we have been talking about playing since we talked about a few things after our Neshaminy game. The girls deserve a lot of credit for that because it wasn’t an ‘everything is well and good’ film session. It was constructive with specific areas we need to improve and get consistently better at, and they have accepted the challenge and gotten better in practice and games in a lot of those areas. We head into the break 6-1, we need to get healthy heading into the crossover portion of the schedule and keep working to get better one day at a time. Our practices leading up with be very important.”
The Tigers were led by Secret McCleve’s 12-point effort while Patricia Monroe and Shylah McCleve both had six points.
Council Rock South (6-1, 4-1 SOL) is off until Tuesday, Jan. 3 when the Golden Hawks will travel to Central Bucks East for a crossover game. Harry S Truman (0-7) will host Pennridge on Tuesday, Jan. 3.
Council Rock South 10-28-11-20 69
Harry S Truman 6-10-12-0 28
Council Rock South (69) – Kathryn O’Kane 1 3-4 5; Sarah Freeman 1 0-0 2; Liliana Metrick 2 2-4 7; Maria Freeman 2 2-2 6; Lily Bross 1 6-8 8; Miranda Cantor 3 0-0 8; Katie Purpura 1 0-0 2; Cam Gregory 2 5-5 10; Fiona Reckner 2 5-6-9; Karissa Smedly 0 5-8 5; Darcy Leight 0 2-2 2; Jess Mangoni 2 0-0 5; TOTALS 17 30-39 69.
Harry S Truman (28) – Patricia Monroe 3 0-1 6; Saniya Blount 0 0-3 0; Shylah McCleve 3 0-3 6; Secret McCleve 5 1-3 12; Ya’mazijah Thomas 2 0-1 4; TOTALS 13 1-11 28.
3-point goals: CRS – Miranda Cantor 2, Cam Gregory, Jess Mangoni, Liliana Metrick; HST – Secret McCleve.
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