PW & Souderton were winners in Saturday’s semifinal round of the SOL Tournament. PW/Abington photos provided courtesy of Larry Small. To view game action photos, visit the photo gallery: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f884733941
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 45, ABINGTON 44
Erin Daley was understandably frustrated with her view from the bench.
The PW senior left Saturday’s semifinal game after being whistled for her second foul with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter and her team trailing 8-6. When she returned at the start of the third quarter, the Colonials were on the short end of a 23-14 score.
“Sitting through a whole second quarter – I haven’t done that for I don’t know how long,” Daley said. “It was insanely hard. I felt awful leaving my teammates out there on the court. I needed to be out there. That can’t happen moving forward – I have to be more smart, more composed early on in the game especially. I can’t do that to my teammates.”
Daley returned to the court with resolute purpose and provided an immediate lift to her teammates, scoring on her team’s first possession and putting 11 points on the board in an inspired third-quarter performance. The Colonials trailed by just two heading into the final quarter, 29-27.
PW led 39-36 after Abby Sharpe scored on an inbounds under her team’s basket with 1:35 remaining, but that lead was far from safe. The Ghosts evened the score on a Cire Worley 3 with 56.3 seconds, setting the stage for overtime where Sharpe scored the go-ahead basket on a drive with 50.5 seconds showing on the scoreboard clock.
The Ghosts misfired on their shot for the lead, Daley pulled down the rebound, but – with 12.4 seconds remaining – the Colonials missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving the Ghosts one last chance with 10 seconds remaining. Abington’s shot for the win never happened, and all that remained was the celebration.
PW’s 22nd win in a remarkable season was especially sweet and vaulted the Colonials into Tuesday’s title game against Souderton.
“It’s so exciting because last year we rolled through a lot of games, and that was a credit to our talent – our starting five and then our two coming off the bench were super talented,” Sharpe said. “This year, we’re a younger team, we’re newer, we’re still learning. It makes the games more
exciting, for sure. These games are fun. They’re crazy, but the adrenaline keeps you going.
“Honestly, I think a lot of people were underestimating us considering we were coming off a state championship, but we lost four major players from our team. We’re 22-2. I think that’s unbelievable. It’s a testament to our team, what we are, how far we’ve grown. We’re here, we’re in it.”
The Colonials are here because they are led by a pair of veterans – Daley and Sharpe – who combined for 39 of their team’s 45 points. The players also share a singular belief they can win. They certainly had plenty of reasons to lose Saturday, beginning with losing Daley for the entire second quarter and falling behind by nine to a strong Abington squad.
It could have been worse, but Sharpe kept her team in it, scoring 12 of her team’s 14 points despite attracting a crowd every time she touched the ball.
“Obviously, Erin plays a really big role for us on the floor,” Sharpe said. “She does a really good job leading us defensively. She’s a big presence defensively, and offensively, she’s been stepping up a lot this year, so not having her – we knew the other four plus me had to step up.
“I just said to myself, ‘Erin’s out – I’ve got to just keep being aggressive and take control of the offense.’ I was able to do that, help us stay in it. We just had to all step up.”
It’s a mentality that has been key in the team’s success despite some growing pains.
“We’ve started slowly for whatever reasons multiple games now,” said assistant coach TJ DeLucia, filling in for Dan Dougherty who is at the Super Bowl. “We don’t want to be down nine at the half, but I went in at halftime and said – we’ve been here before to that team specifically and even later in the game, so we just stayed calm at halftime.”
Saturday’s win came on the heels of a come-from-behind 49-44 win over Council Rock South that was a whole lot closer than the final score suggests. In both, the Colonials overcame some untimely miscues.
“We had so many mistakes, and it’s just ‘move on, move on,’” DeLucia said. “Multiple turnovers – ‘move on, get a steal, get a rebound, come back, try to set up a play.’
“In that atmosphere, it’s hard to set up plays. The freshmen’s heads are spinning sometimes. Our two freshmen – AJ (Avery) and Kenna (Winland) – just completely stay composed and had multiple offensive rebounds.”
None loomed larger than Winland’s putback in overtime after Piper McGinley’s 3 gave the Ghosts an early 42-39 lead. The freshman guard pulled down an offensive rebound and – despite being fouled and in an awkward position– threw the ball up, and it fell through the basket, pulling the Colonials to within one. They took a lead on a putback by Sharpe, but Worley sank both ends of a one-and-one give the Ghosts a one-point lead. Sharpe, however, had one last answer, scoring on a drive for a basket that turned out to be the game-winner.
Sharpe finished with a game-high 22 points that included a 3-pointer and a 4-for-5 effort at the foul line. Daley finished with 17 points – all after the intermission.
“That’s one thing a basketball player really needs to have – a short term memory, and you really need to believe in yourself,” Daley said. “You make a mistake – that doesn’t mean the game is over. You have plenty of time left in the game to keep going. My teammates knew I had it in me, and I needed to do it for them.
“Obviously, everyone knows from my previous years I’m a defensive player. If I have a great game defensively, that’s all I need, and my offense will just come from it. Tonight, when I was out through the second quarter, I saw what my team needed me to do when I went back out there, and that was take over and score in the third quarter. Especially Abby (Sharpe) – I needed to help her out there.”
For the Ghosts, Worley led the way with 15 points, which included 11 after halftime and a 5-for-6 effort at the foul line. Jordyn Reynolds added eight points, Maya Johnson had seven (5-for-7 at the line) and Mikiaya Durham finished with six points.
Saturday’s tournament semifinal was the third meeting between the two teams – four points have separated them in those three meetings with PW winning the last two, both by one point.
“It was a great game,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “Again, what I think it boiled down to – we got dominated on the offensive boards. This is where our size comes into play. We need to understand as a team that we’ve got to put bodies on people and finish it with a rebound.
“We had them on the ropes, and we didn’t put them away, and we didn’t make some shots in the second half. When you have a team on the ropes, you’ve got to put them away, and you have to finish defense with defensive rebounds, and that’s what we didn’t do.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh (22-2, 15-1 SOL) will host Souderton in Tuesday’s SOL title game at 5 p.m. Abington (20-5, 14-2) will have an opening round bye in the District 1 6A Tournament and will begin play with a second round game on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Abington 11-12-6-10-5 44
Plymouth Whitemarsh 6-8-13-12-6 45
Abington (44) – Cire Worley 4 5-6 15; Maya Johnson 1 5-7 7; Abril Bowser 2 0-0 5; Mikaiyla Durham 2 0-0 6; Jordyn Reynolds 3 0-0 8; Piper McGinley 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 13 10-13 44.
Plymouth Whitemarsh (45) – Azzy Crumpton 1 0-0 2; Angelina Balcer 1 0-0 2; Kenna Winland 1 0-2 2; Erin Daley 8 0-1 17; Abby Sharpe 9 4-5 22; TOTALS 20 4-8 45.
3-point goals: Abington – Cire Worley 2, Mikiaya Durham 2, Jordyn Reynolds 2, Abril Bowser, Piper McGinley; PW – Erin Daley.
SOUDERTON 34, NESHAMINY 32
The Indians – like all teams – had a list of goals. Advancing to the SOL Tournament final was on that list. Turns out they hadn’t forgotten last year’s 41-31 loss to Pennsbury in the semifinals.
“This is towards the top of the list of goals because we definitely fell short last year, and it was not great,” senior Casey Harter said. “We really wanted to be able to compete for the SOL championship, and now we have a chance on Tuesday, so it’s really exciting and definitely one of the goals we had.”
The win was anything but easy, and the ending had more than a few anxious moments.
After Lola Ibarrondo – out of a timeout – stole the inbounds pass near midcourt and found teammate Reese Zemitis for a layup, the Indians’ once seven-point lead in the fourth quarter was trimmed to one (33-32). Teya McConnaha sank the front end of a one-and-one to give the Indians a two-point lead with 18 seconds remaining.
The Indians – with fouls to give – began using them, but the Redskins had one last chance for the lead on an out-of-bounds play, but as time expired, Zemitis’ shot was deflected by Erin Bohmueller, and the Indians had earned their spot in Tuesday’s final.
“I wish we would have executed a little better on that last inbounds play,” Neshaminy coach John Gallagher said. “I had a timeout I could have used, but I didn’t. I didn’t want (Souderton) to get set up on defense.”
On the other side of the court, Souderton coach Lynn Carroll was more than a little relieved to see her team eke out the win.
“We escaped with a win,” the Indians’ coach said. “There were several times when I looked up at the scoreboard, we were winning, and I thought – how are we winning?
“We did not play as well as I think we need to be playing at this point in the season. Neshaminy – their matchup zone is very, very good, and they disrupt what we’re trying to do. That’s a big part of why they keep us in the 30s.”
Saturday’s win avenged Souderton’s regular season 37-32 loss to the Redskins, and in both, defense was the name of the game.
“I honestly don’t know what it is,” Harter said. “Their defense is not something we usually face – it’s a matchup zone, so it’s something we had to work out.
“We had to work as a team and figure out how to play against it. The first half was slow, but we did good in the second half.”
The Indians opened up an early 6-0 lead, but they were outscored 9-2 the remainder of the quarter.
“They’re going to go on a run, and we might not, but we just have to keep fighting through it because basketball is a game of runs,” Harter said. “We’ll get ours, shots will fall eventually.”
The Indians took a 14-13 lead into halftime.
“No matter how many times we play each other, it’s going to be pretty close each time,” Gallagher said. “They create problems for us also – they’re long.”
The Indians took a 23-22 lead into the fourth quarter and upped that to 29-22 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Brooke Fenchel and Bohmueller.
A baseline 3 by Taylor Gurysh made it a 31-27 game, but Harter answered by sinking a pair at the foul line. Another Gurysh 3-pointer made it a 33-30 game with 4:14 remaining. Neither team put any points on the board until – with 34.1 seconds remaining – Zemitis scored on Souderton’s miscue.
“In the second half, between Casey (Harter) just finding a way to score and Erin and Brooke with those two huge 3s it gave us enough breathing room where we could afford a few mistakes down the stretch,” Carroll said. “The girls at the end of last season felt like they had some unfinished business to take care of, and this tournament was one of them, and we’re happy to be playing in the championship game.”
Harter’s 13 points led the Indians while Mikayla McGillian had six points. McConnaha’s 10 rebounds led the Indians under the boards.
Zemitis scored 17 of her team’s 32 points – 10 in the second half. She also had five rebounds and two steals. Gurysh had six points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals. Ibarrondo had a team-high six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“Reese getting 17 with Harter covering her was special,” Gallagher said. “I think we were down by seven in the fourth quarter. This time last year if we had fallen behind in a similar situation, we would have folded, and we didn’t.
“Taylor hit two deep 3s to help us out. Overall, I thought we played pretty well, and that’s a compliment to Souderton.”
Carroll had high praise for Zemitis.
“I told Reese after the game she should play that way every game – she played great,” the Indians’ coach said. “Otherwise, I thought we kept Lola (Ibarrondo) in check. Taylor (Gurysh) played a good game, but Reese really was the reason they continued to hang.”
Souderton (21-3, 15-1 SOL) will travel to Plymouth Whitemarsh for the SOL Tournament championship game on Tuesday (5 p.m.). Neshaminy (18-6, 13-3) will have an opening round bye in the District 1 6A Tournament and will be in action in the second round on Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Neshaminy 9-4-9-10 32
Souderton 8-6-9-11 34
Neshaminy (32) – Alena Cofield 1 0-0 2; Lola Ibarrondo 0 4-4 4; Gurysh 2 0-0 6; Ava Irizarry 1 0-0 3; Reese Zemitis 8 0-0 17; TOTALS 12 4-4 32.
Souderton (34) – Erin Bohmueller 1 0-0 3; Brooke Fenchel 1 0-0 3; Mikayla McGillian 3 0-0 6; Casey Harter 4 4-4 13; Grace McDonough 2 0-0 4; Teya McConnaha 2 1-2 5; TOTALS 13 5-6 34.
3-point goals: Neshaminy – Taylor Gurysh 2, Ava Irizarry, Reese Zemitis; Souderton – Erin Bohmueller, Brooke Fenchel, Casey Harter.
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