Check out the recaps for SOL girl’ basketball teams in action Thursday. Pennsbury/Neshaminy photos provided courtesy of Darryl Rule of J&D Photography. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f582224377
SOL Patriot Division
PENNSBURY 42, NESHAMINY 41
Navaeh Dash knew she had only one option.
With her team trailing by one and the final seconds ticking off the scoreboard clock, the Falcons’ senior took a perfect crosscourt pass from Layla Matthias and didn’t hesitate. Dash hit nothing but net on a corner three, putting the Ghosts on top 42-41 with 4.2 seconds remaining in regulation
.
“When you’re in that moment, you know you have to shoot it, you’ve got to shoot it,” Dash said. “But you’ve got to think you’re going to make it. At that moment, being there and shooting it, I had no doubts that the ball was not going in. You just have to have the confidence to shoot it.
“It was really exciting. Luckily, a timeout was called. It definitely brought down the emotions, the anxieties and the nerves. It would have been a scramble if it wasn’t called.”
The game wasn’t over. The Redskins got the ball over midcourt, called another timeout and managed to take a foul line jumper over a defender that fell short, and the celebration began for a Falcons’ squad that – despite losing its top two scorers – had pulled off the unlikely upset.
“Going into the game, it was 50-50,” Dash said of her team’s chances. “It was like, – ‘They have this, we have this, but we’re not as established. They’ve been together a little bit longer.’
“It really was a 50-50 game. We just had faith in ourselves and pulled it off.”
The win was the second of the season without a loss for the Falcons while Thursday’s game was the first of the season for the Redskins.
“Neshaminy is the real deal and has the pieces to make a run at a district title,” Pennsbury coach Frank Sciolla said. “Reese (Zemitis) is elite and so smooth. Taylor (Gurysh) and Lola (Ibarrondo) are scholarship basketball players. Coach Gal (John Gallagher) is experienced and had a great game plan from the tap
“The key for us this year is hanging in. We need to have a puncher’s chance late because we realize that our size is going to be an issue in almost
every game.”
The Falcons came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. Dash buried a corner three, and then it was Vitucci reeling off five straight to give Pennsbury an 8-0 lead. Linds Little broke the run with a bucket, and the Redskins pulled to within three (9-6) by the end of the first quarter after Zemitis sank a 3-pointer.
A 3-pointer by Daniella MacDonald put the Falcons on top 14-9, but they did not score again in the quarter, and the Redskins – sparked by seven points from Gurysh – closed out the half with a 10-0 run to go into halftime with a 19-14 advantage.
The Falcons trailed 32-21 late in the third quarter after Neshaminy’s Lola Ibarrondo buried a three. They had every reason to fold, but they simply refused. Vitucci’s three in the closing minute of the frame made it a 32-24 game.
Still, a comeback seemed improbable. Improbable maybe but certainly not impossible. The Falcons proved that in the fourth quarter. Vitucci and Little exchanged three-pointers to open the frame, and the Redskins led 35-27.
Three minutes into the quarter, the Redskins still trailed by eight, but back-to-back-to-back baskets by Daniella MacDonald, freshman Emily Panaro and another MacDonald bucket (Vitucci assist) – made it a 37-33 game with 3:31 remaining.
A putback by Anna Saska gave the Redskins a 39-33 lead, but a Vitucci three pulled the Falcons to within three, and a comeback was within their grasp.
Gurysh scored on a drive to up the Redskins’ lead to 41-36, but Vitucci – who is fearless – buried her fifth three of the game to pull the Falcons to within two with 37 seconds remaining.
“Honestly, Sofia is just a clutch player,” Dash said. “At the end of the day, she’s always going to get her points, no matter what. We’re learning how to play off of each other. We feed off each other’s energy. Once the energy gets started, that’s when the scoring starts, especially her scoring, and it just brings the whole team’s energy up.”
A Neshaminy turnover against the press set the stage for Dash’s game-winner and the dramatic finish.
“Neshaminy weathered first quarter foul trouble and made a big run in the second quarter,” Sciolla said. “They went up 11 midway through the third quarter, but we didn’t blink. We never have. If there’s one thing I can say about the kids that I’ve been so lucky to coach is that we won’t blink. We don’t give in. I understand that’s cliche but not for us
“We are going to be in a ton of games like tonight this year. We will not be able to run away. We just have to hang. Nevaeh and Sofia both got all 32 minutes. That’s incredible when you consider the face guarding and handling pressure.”
Dash pointed to the positive exchanges between players as a key in the comeback.
“Every time we had a timeout, we were giving each other critiques – ‘Okay, they’re playing zone, we need this screen every time,’ and just doing it and doing it,” she said. “That’s what kept us in the game.
“We kept each other’s spirits up. If it wasn’t for us being teammates and being close, that’s really what helped us win the game. Nobody was upset, nobody was getting mad at each other. We practice situations. We know how to stay calm. We’ve been practicing them since last year. Most of the players on the floor have been there since last year.”
Vitucci led all scorers with 21 points, including five 3s. She also had four steals. Dash added 11 points and had three 3-pointers. MacDonald finished with seven.
“Sof is an alpha level scorer, whose name simply does not get brought up enough when the best players in the area are discussed,” Sciolla said. 
“Nevaeh has carved out a career of making clutch shots, and she got a fantastic skip pass from Layla Matthias and stepped into it and knocked it down. Layla had some really big passes and steals for us. We simply cannot succeed without players like her.
“Daniella MacDonald came in and knocked down a couple big shots, and Emily Panaro may be a freshman, but she plays with the poise of a senior. Neve Davis came in and showed senior leadership and gave us great minutes. All 11 girls that played tonight made positive contributions. We understand how we are perceived around the league this year and we get it. We don’t chafe at it or talk about it. We just try to get a little bit better every game and we will need to do that because our league offers no days off. We are proud of our group tonight.”
For the Redskins, Gurysh led the way with 11 points while Zemitis had 10. Little finished with nine on three 3-pointers, and Jess Purdy had six points on a pair of threes.
The Falcons took three foul shots in the contest and made two while the Redskins did not take a trip to the line, underscoring the fact that both teams play a perimeter game and combined for 18 3-pointers.
Pennsbury (2-0, 1-0 SOL) and Neshaminy (0-1) will both travel to Washington D.C. for the She’s Got Game Tournament this weekend. Pennsbury will face Gwynn Mark (MD) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. while Neshaminy will play Spotswood (VA) at 3:30 p.m.
Neshaminy 6-13-13-9 41
Pennsbury 9-5-10-18 42
Neshaminy (41) – Lola Ibarrondo 1 0-0 3; Taylor Gurysh 4 0-0 11; Anna Soska 1 0-0 2; Reese Zemitis 4 0-0 10; Jess Purdy 2 0-0 6; Linds Little 3 0-0 9; TOTALS 15 0-0 41.
Pennsbury (42) – Emily Panaro 1 0-0 2; Danielle Sherman 0 1-2 1; Sofia Vitucci 8 0-1 21; Daniella MacDonald 3 0-0 7; Nevaeh Dash 4 0-0 11; TOTALS 16 1-3 42.
3-point goals: Neshaminy – Linds Little 3, Reese Zemitis 2, Jess Purdy 2, Taylor Gurysh 3, Lola Ibarrondo; Pennsbury – Sofia Vitucci 5, Nevaeh Dash 3, Daniella Mac Donald.
SOL Liberty Division
ABINGTON 55, PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 53
Abril Bowser was on a mission entering Thursday’s SOL opener against a Colonial squad that brought a 36-game winning streak into Abington’s house – 26 in the Suburban One League.
“Knock this team out of the gym – I wanted this one,” the Ghosts’ senior guard said. “This one felt real personal to me because every time we played them – we weren’t getting anything.”
Bowser certainly did her part to jumpstart the Ghosts, scoring 11 first-quarter points – which included three 3-pointers – to propel Abington to a 17-10 lead.
“I came out hot, and I was able to knock my shots down and be a big help to my team,” Bowser said. “My 3-point shot was working for me today.”
That might be an understatement. By halftime, Bowser had a team-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers.
“That was huge,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “Abril is fearless, that’s the best way to put it. She just loves the big moment, and she wants the big moment.
“I’m actually talking to a couple of college coaches about her because they loved her tonight too. Even if we have a 6-2 kid to guard, she’s like, ‘I’ll do it,’ and she’s serious. She’s fearless. She loves the big moment, she wants the ball in the big moment. She just came out and said, ‘I’m going to open this up for us.’ It was nice to be able to start like that, for sure.”
PW’s Abby Sharpe had the hot hand in the second quarter, scoring 11 points. The UPenn commit had 13 points in the half to lead the Colonials, who trimmed the Ghosts’ lead to 27-23 by halftime.
“Abby Sharpe really stepped up for us tonight,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “She was just special.”
Cire Worley scored nine points in the third quarter, and Maya Johnson had five, and the Ghosts took a 42-36 lead into the final quarter, but the Colonials refused to go away.
It was a two-point game coming down the home stretch, and with less than a minute to play, Piper McGinley buried both ends of a one-and-one to give the Ghosts a 53-49 lead only to watch freshman AJ Avery connect on a three to pull the Colonials to within one (53-52).
“We were down by four, and my freshman, AJ Avery, had a huge steal and breakaway,” Dougherty said. “They foul her, and she hits both foul shots to get us within two.
“Then we’re down four, and she hits a driving kick three. This is her first time playing at Abington, and she played almost 30 minutes of the game. I thought she really held it together out there. A lot of promising things.”
McGinley again sank a pair at the foul line to up the Ghosts’ lead to three. With the Colonials needing three to tie, the Ghosts fouled with seven seconds remaining. PW made one of two and came up with the rebound. With 3.6 seconds remaining, a PW player was driving to the basket, but Bowser got a hand on the ball, and the Colonials never got a shot off.
“At that point, I was like – ‘It’s three seconds, it’s all or nothing. Let me just slide over and help,’” Bowser said. “I knew she wasn’t going to make the shot, but at the same time, I wanted to put pressure on her, and that’s what I did.
“This feeling is crazy. It’s a high school game, but this game was really personal to us, but I felt like we came out there and did what we had to do.”
While Bowser stole the spotlight in the first half, it was Worley – who finished with a team-high 21 points – who came up big time and time again in the second half, scoring 17 second-half points, eight in the fourth quarter.
“I felt like we just did a good job of keeping our composure,” Marsh said. “I think Cire’s leadership really stepped in. She was like, ‘We’re good, we’re good, we’re all fine. We’ll just run aces – layups only.’ We were able to knock down some free throws.”
Dougherty tipped his hat to the Ghosts.
“We just struggled from a chemistry standpoint,” the PW coach said. “A lot of it was their defense, their crowd and their ability to make plays. You could just see the chemistry they have as a team having so many of their players back. They know what their roles are. Every kid he runs in off the bench – that kid knows exactly what their role is. They seem to have a lot more continuity and chemistry right now, and we’re just trying to build it.
“I keep telling the girls – it’s tough to play such an important league game the first or second week of November, but we’re trying to build for February. We’re trying to be the best we can be in February. We hate losing, but my team really, really showed me a lot. We struggled to defend tonight. It was disastrous at times, and offensively, it took us a little too long to ease into the game. It was a little too much nerves, but a lot of it was their defense and their environment. I’m proud of the girls. Yes, our streak ends, and what a special streak it was. We move on. We’ll be okay.”
Sharpe led all scorers with 26 point – she had nine in the fourth quarter. Erin Daley added 11, and Angelina Balcer had six.
Last year, on Abington’s homecourt, the Ghosts battled the Colonials to a 33-33 halftime tie only to see the game slip away in a 64-57 loss.
“When they started making their run, we started hesitating and started overthinking everything,” Bowser said. “But tonight, I felt like we all stayed in the game, we stayed engaged, we stayed to what we know, we played defense, we got open looks, and I felt like that really helped us.
“I was confident this whole game. I never had a doubt in my team because I knew we were going to beat them today. Today was our day. We came here and did what we had to do.”
Dougherty put the loss in perspective.
“I told the team after the game – I actually feel better about our team on the way out than I did on the way in,” the PW coach said. “We’re just not there yet. We’ve got a lot of new faces, and I was talking to my coaches – this team is wearing a target that a lot of them weren’t part of.
“I was really proud of the girls for the way they bounced back from an onslaught at the beginning of the game. It was a close game. We had the ball in our hands with a chance to tie or win at the end of the game.”
The win was the third without a loss for the Ghosts, who captured the title of the Jim Church Memorial Tournament at Souderton opening weekend.
“I just wanted our team to start out strong, to start out confident, and I felt like playing those two games (in the tournament) was a big test for us, but we were able to fight through the adversity – all of the stuff we were dealing with, including three of our starters in foul trouble,” Bowser said. “I felt like we were composed, we controlled the game and did what we had to do.”
All three of the Ghosts’ wins were tightly contested.
“We beat West Chester Rustin in overtime, we squeaked out a one-point win against Souderton, and then we win by two over PW – you can’t pay for experience like that,” Marsh said. “It’s a great start. I honestly had no idea how these first three games would go. I’m just happy we were able to persevere and keep our composure. This is going to do so much for us in February and March.”
Abington (3-0, 1-0 SOL) will travel to Hatboro-Horsham on Tuesday, and Plymouth Whitemarsh (2-1, 0-1) will travel to Garnet Valley for a non-league game on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
“I purposely did this – we played a tough tipoff tournament, we played Abington tonight, and we play at Garnet Valley on Saturday,” Dougherty said. “It’s a tough start to the season, and it’s baptism by fire for these new kids.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 10-13-13-17 53
Abington 17-10-15-13 55
Plymouth Whitemarsh (53) – Azzy Crumpton 1 2-2 5; Angelina Balcer 2 2-6 6; AJ Avery 1 2-2 5; Erin Daley 4 3-4 11; Abby Sharpe 10 5-7 26. TOTALS 18 14-21 53.
Abington (55) – Cire Worley 8 4-4 21; Maya Johnson 4 0-0 9; Abril Bowser 6 0-0 17; Piper McGinley 0 6-8 6; Sara Oleary 1 0-0 2; Kayla Day 0 0-2 0; TOTALS 19 10-14 55.
3-point goals: Abington – Abril Bowser 5, Cire Worley, Maya Johnson; PW – Azzy Crumpton, AJ Avery, Abby Sharpe.
Non-league
UPPER MORELAND 43, VILLA JOSEPH MARIE 28
The Golden Bears, who led 9-2 after one quarter, opened up a 19-6 halftime lead on their way to their third win in as many games.
“In our first three games, we have found three different ways to win,” UM coach Matt Carroll said. “Against Bensalem, we went zone. Against Harriton, we played tough man-to-man. Tonight, we looked to double more and attack passing lanes. We had 13 first half steals which helped slow their offense, but nine first half turnovers on our end kept the game close.”
With the game well in hand, the Golden Bears outscored their visitors 24-20 in the second half.
Eight players contributed scoring with Mikel Lancit’s 11 points – which included a perfect 5-for-5 effort at the foul line – leading the way. EmmyFaith Wood added nine points – seven in the first half – while Holly Gohl had eight points, and Lilly Hansen chipped in with six.
“Our offense is starting to come along slowly as we begin league play on Friday,” Carroll said. “I’m so impressed with how EmmyFaith and Holly, girls used to shooting 13-plus times a game and averaging 15-plus point per game, are playing within themselves. Combined they took six second half shots, and it’s reassuring to everyone to know that we don’t need them do dominate offensively for us to be successful.
“Mikel really stepped up tonight both offensively and defensively. Deal is a good player for them and dictates their offense. Mikel gave her fits and then really attacked on offense. She was getting in the lane and put Villa on their heels. Her growth from her freshman year to her sophomore year has been impressive, and it’s getting better daily. We still haven’t put together a complete game, but we are getting closer. I’m excited once we start to hit our stride.”
Upper Moreland (3-0) will travel to Lower Moreland for Friday’s SOL opener.
Villa Joseph Marie 2-4-10-12 28
Upper Moreland 9-10-14-10 43
Villa Joseph Marie (28) – Riley Deal 1 0-0 3; Grace Pizzica 3 2-4 10; Lizzie Grumwell 2 2-2 7; Ava Gumienny 1 0-0 2; Julie Mack 2 0-0 4; Kiki H 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 10 4-6 28.
Upper Moreland (43) – Mikel Lancit 3 5-5 11; Lianna Adames 1 0-0 3; Alyssa Wiley 1 0-0 2; EmmyFaith Wood 4 0-0 9; Lilly Hansen 3 0-0 6; Eliza Feil 1 0-0 3; Holly Gohl 4 0-0 8; Marie Meyers 0 1-2 1; TOTALS 17 6-7 43.
3-point goals: VJM – Grace Pizzica 2, Riley deal, Lizzie Grumwell; UM – Lianna Adames, EmmyFaith Wood, Eliza Feil.
GREAT VALLEY 38, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 24
The visiting Indians trailed by just a 14-12 score after one quarter, and it was still a two-point game heading into the final frame (20-18) when the Patriots erupted for 18 fourth-quarter points.
“Our players showed a tremendous amount of fight on the road against a really, really well-coached Great Valley team,” Rock North coach Jack Kelly said. “We are really proud of our players for their unbelievable effort – especially defensively. We were in the right spots, and we did a great job of taking them out of their actions and forcing them to earn their points.”
Delaney McCaffery’s 10 points – which included a pair of 3s – led the Indians. Jaden Wan added six in a contest that saw only three Rock North players score.
“A credit to Great Valley’s players and their coaching staff – they were able to make the plays down the stretch, and we struggled to match it,” Kelly said. “They were very fundamental and disciplined at both ends of the floor, and they were able to hit big shots.
“We have to be stronger situationally and that ultimately is on me. However, tonight was a great experience for our players as we head into league play; there were a lot of positive takeaways, and we are going to keep working hard one day at a time to build on them.”
Council Rock North (2-1) will travel to St. Hubert’s on Monday for a non-league game at 6 p.m.
Council Rock North 6-6-6-6 24
Great Valley 7-7-6-18 38
Council Rock North (24) – Lizzie Lustig 1 0-0 2; Delaney McCaffery 4 0-0 10; Jaden Wan 3 0-0 6; Skyler Wright 2 0-0 6; TOTALS 10 0-0 24.
Great Valley (38) – Laura Lum 3 2-2 10; Julia Curran 3 0-1 8; Lauren Fredrick 4 0-2 8; Taia DiPrinzio 0 2-2 2; Gia Sioutis 4 2-3 10; TOTALS 14 6-8 38.
3-point field goals: CRN – Delaney McCaffery 2, Skyler Wright 2; GV – Laura Lum 2, Julia Curran 2.
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