To view action photos of the Central Bucks East/Souderton game, visit the Photo gallery.
Souderton coach Lynn Carroll was at a bit of a loss after Monday afternoon’s SOL contest against Central Bucks East.Her players had done a reasonably good job of containing the dangerous Martin twins – Liz and Sarah, limiting East’s inside players to a modest 19 points combined, but the Patriots’ three guards had picked up the slack, scoring 30 points combined as East rolled to a 49-35 win over an Indian squad that was coming off a big win over Central Bucks South.
“It’s almost like pick your poison,” Carroll said. “You know obviously the Martins can kill you, can really kill you.
“But the way (Courtney) McManus has the ability to shoot the three and from long range – you really can only be concerned about what’s happening down low so much.
“I think it’s a part of why East is as successful as they are. If it would just be the Martin girls, it would make it a little easier to play defense on them. We did a decent job of stopping Liz and Sarah, and their guards stepped up.”
All five of East’s starters scored eight points or more. McManus led all scorers with 14 points – including three treys - while Liz Martin added 11. Melissa Remmey, Kristina Pogue and Sarah Martin each had eight points.
“If you would have told me we would get the ball inside as little as we did, I really would have thought there’s no way (we would win),” East coach Tom Lonergan said. “I thought our advantage was – we’re an inside team, and if you haven’t shot the ball for four days, I would rather shoot inside than outside.”
The Patriots - who led by just two (13-11) after a Carley Kendall basket early in the second quarter - opened up a 20-11 lead after capitalizing on back-to-back Souderton turnovers. The first resulted in a Remmey bucket at the end of a fast break, and then Liz Martin turned a Pogue steal into a fast break bucket.A 6-0 run by Souderton’s Brittany Sandone –which included a three and a bucket after a steal – made it a 20-17 game, but McManus buried a long three in the closing seconds to send the Patriots into halftime with a 23-17 lead.
A telling stat showed that 18 of East’s first-half points came from its three guards.
“I was surprised we were hitting our shots because we haven’t practiced for three days because of the snow,” Pogue said. “We didn’t have a shoot-around before the game because the game was right after school.
“We focused on our shots, and not that it was lucky – but we were on. When we’re hitting our outside shots, it makes it a lot easier to get it inside because they have to respect the outside.”
The Patriots extended their lead to 27-17 after a fast break basket by Remmey early in the third quarter, but the Indians pulled to within five after an Emily Price three from the top of the circle. It was still a five-point game after Price found Kendall down low, but the Patriots closed out the quarter with an 11-3 run to effectively seal the Indians’ fate.
Sarah Martin, who did not so much as take a shot in the first half, scored all eight of her points in the second half.A lot of times I don’t come out that strong because I focus more on defense to get the team pumped up,” she said. “I started running the floor, and easy stuff came to me, and I got my confidence.
“When our guards are scoring, it really relieves the pressure inside because a lot of teams try and double Liz and me inside, but it’s impossible to do if our guards are going to shoot the ball the way they have been. Everyone was really mentally here today.”
Making East’s performance even more impressive was the fact that it came after several days without practice.
“The concern was they weren’t playing for so long,” Lonergan said. “All the things we’ve been working on – it’s now just on paper, but to their credit, they were studying their pre-game plan over the weekend, on the bus ride coming here.
“They did what we wanted (today). They did a great job preparing themselves.”
Carley Kendall (12 points) and Brittany Sandone (10 points) led the Indians.
While the Indians fell to 7-5 in league play, the Patriots improved to 11-1 and ensured themselves at least a share of the Continental Conference crown.
Reversal of fortunes for Vikings – Upper Merion avenged a nine-point loss to Springfield with its gutsy 47-35 win over the Spartans on Monday night.
“We did some nice things tonight,” coach Tom Shurtz said.
Topping the list of ‘nice things’ was the Vikings’ defensive effort on point guard Elise DiFilippo, who scored 16 points in the initial meeting between the two teams but was limited to just three on Monday.
“She’s their little sparkplug,” Schurtz said. “She’s been scoring in double figures most of the year, and we as a coaching staff decided we were going to have to make (containing her) our point of focus.”
The Vikings’ coach gave the unenviable task of defending DiFilippo to first-time starter Jackie DeLoan.
“We were playing shorthanded, and I said to her, ‘She’s yours,’” Schurtz said. “She held her to three, and the bonus was that Jackie DeLoan had four points, which – I believe – is four points more than she’s had all year.
“She had a couple of huge baskets at the end of the third quarter after they had taken the lead to go up by one, but she hit back-to-back buckets to put us up. She ended up with the basket that put us in the lead for good and held DiFilippo to three points. I have never been happier with an effort.”
The Vikings are playing without two of their top six players – Paoli Tinari and Jamie Mazzi. In their absence, senior Alex Galdi once again came up huge, contributing 16 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots.
“With the loss of Paoli, she has not only taken over the scoring responsibility but also all the leadership duties on the floor,” Schurtz said. “I can’t say enough about how proud of her I am and her leadership efforts this year.”
Kristina O’Sullivan added 14 points for the Vikings while the Spartans were led by the 12-point effort of Brianna Scafidi.
While the Spartans fell to 4-8, the Vikings improved to 7-5.
“We’re still fighting and clawing to get into the playoffs,” Schurtz said. “This was a nice win. They handled us pretty good the first time we played them.
“We just came in tonight and gave a really good effort.”
Titans back on winning track – Central Bucks South needed a win to erase some of the sting of last Tuesday’s 45-43 loss to Souderton when the Titans went ice cold from the floor, connecting on just 5-of-25 shots in the second half of the game.
“We haven’t been shooting well,” coach Beth Mattern said.
The Titans’ shooting touch improved somewhat on Monday night as they earned a much-needed 46-40 non-league win over Upper Dublin.
“I thought tonight’s win was big for us,” Mattern said. “Besides the fact that Upper Dublin has a lot of W’s, it’s the last week of the season, and you want to try and end playing your best basketball.
“This was the first step of three games to go out and give it your all.”
Mattern credited Nicole Mummert for her work under the basket.
“She was huge, especially on the defensive boards,” the Titans’ coach said. “She had 10 defensive boards alone, not counting her offensive boards.
“She did a great job clearing the boards.”
Mattern also lauded her defense.
“Defensively, when we switched, I thought we did a nice job as a unit,” she said. “Kaycee Shaefer also did a nice job controlling the game for us.”
Schaefer and Katelyn Schneider both had 13 points to lead the Titans. Mummert added nine. The Flying Cardinals were led by the 12-point efforts of Curtrena Goff and Taylor Bryant.
While Upper Dublin fell to 13-6, the Titans improved to 12-8 overall.
Nowicke leads Golden Hawks to big win – Emily Nowicke scored 21 first-half points, which included a perfect 9-for-9 effort at the foul line, and although she did not score again, it was more than enough to propel Council Rock South to a 46-18 halftime lead on its way to a convincing 71-38 win over Pennsbury.
All told, the Golden Hawks put four players in double figures. Chelsea Allen added 18 points while Alex Wheatley had 12 points and 15 rebounds. Jackie Weber came off the bench to contribute 12 points.
“We had nice balance,” coach Monica Young said.
Interestingly, Young was anything but pleased with her team after watching it fall behind 7-1 in the early moments of the game.
“I called a timeout, and my assistant said, ‘Bottle up what you said to them’ because after that they played well,” the second-year coach said.
The Golden Hawks outscored the Falcons 20-3 the remainder of the first quarter and never looked back.
Lauren Pisauro led the Falcons with 10 points while Kristen Fermento added nine.
The Golden Hawks improved to 10-2 in league play while the Falcons fell to 3-9.
Maidens get defensive in win over Panthers – North Penn opened up a 42-20 lead in the opening moments of the fourth quarter of Monday night’s game against Quakertown and went on to earn a 56-41 win over the Panthers.
A key to the win was the Maidens’ ability to contain Daniella Ciccarone. The senior point guard – who is averaging over 20 points a game – had just four points going into the final quarter.
“I was real happy with that,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said.
The task of defending Ciccarone was handled by senior Dara Nelson with Brenda McDermott also seeing some time against the Quakertown standout.
“We were playing in a man, and we had two people helping a whole lot,” deMarteleire said. “Taylour (Alston) was playing one of their girls, but her main responsibility was protecting the basket if Ciccarone drove.
“Mary Ward was defending someone else, and we wanted her to leave her girl at times and go trap. The kids did a pretty good job. I was pretty pleased overall.”
The only thing that deMarteleire was not especially happy with was the Maidens’ defensive effort in a fourth quarter that saw the Panthers score 21 points after managing just 20 through the first three. Ciccarone accounted for 10 of those to finish with 14.
deMarteleire only half seriously blamed the letdown on the Maidens’ celebration after Ward – despite being fouled - buried her first trey of the year early in the fourth quarter.
“We were winning 42-40 at that point, and then we were so excited we stopped playing defense,” the Maidens’ coach said with a laugh. “It was ridiculous.
“I guess everyone was really happy, but I hope she never hits another three.”
Steph Knauer led the Maidens with 19 points while Alston had 11. The Maidens connected on four three-point baskets with Shannon Knauer collecting two and Ward and Lauren Crisler each burying one.
North Penn improved to 9-3 in league play while the Panthers are 5-7.
Tigers get in win column – Harry S. Truman used a balanced scoring attack to defeat Maple Shade (N.J.) 53-33 in a non-league contest on Monday night. The Tigers took a 22-19 lead into halftime but blew the game wide open with a 31-14 second half.
“We did a better job of rebounding and going to the boards,” coach Dave Wisniewski said. “They controlled the boards in the first half.
“In the second half, we limited them to one shot – they were getting a lot of second shots the first half. Our big girls stepped it up and did well controlling the boards.
“We haven’t been healthy the last few weeks. We’ve had some injuries, and this is the first time we have started our regular lineup in five of six games.”
The win was the third of the season for the Tigers.
Shalaya Lynch led the Tigers with 10 points while Elisha Dupree had 10, including a pair of three’s.
Eagles down Colonials – Norristown celebrated Senior Night with a convincing 50-21 win over neighboring Plymouth Whitemarsh.
Cashae Hinton led the Eagles with 16 points while Natasha Matthews had 11. Precious Tempson and Tyshay Britten each added 10 points as four Eagles finished in double figures.
Britten, a 6-0 sophomore, also had 13 rebounds and four blocks shots.
“She’s huge for us with blocked shots and rebounds,” coach Ashlee Harrison said. “Overall, defensively I was so proud.”
The Colonials managed just eight first-half points as the Eagles opened up a 17-8 halftime lead. They blew the game wide open with a 33-13 explosion in the second half.
The story of the second half?
“Pressure, ball pressure,” Harrison said. “We were just very alert.
“I’ve said it before – this is the way we should be playing. We owed it to our seniors to come out and play really hard. I have three seniors – Cash, Tasha and Ashley Waters, and they all played extremely hard and extremely well.
“I probably played 10 girls, and they all played extremely well. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Alyssa Butcher led PW with six points.
Norristown improved to 4-8 in league play while PW fell to 3-9.
Around the league – William Tennent eked out a 37-36 win over Neshaminy on Friday, thanks to an Ashley Alden foul shot with 10 seconds remaining. Alden led the Panthers with 16 points. Alison Malatesta had five rebounds, three steals and three assists for the Panthers. Kelsey Ryan (19 points) and Amanda Lally (10 points) led the Redskins. Earlier this season, the Redskins downed the Panthers 42-39.
Council Rock North sprinted to a 34-12 halftime lead on its way to a convincing 69-32 win over Bensalem on Friday. Lauren Gold led the Indians with 15 points while Sarah Kiely added 14 and Devin Gold, nine points. Ashleigh Spence led the Owls with eight points.
Upper Dublin received double-figure efforts from Taylor Bryant (15 points) and Jennifer Myers (14 points) in the Flying Cardinals’ 42-25 win over Upper Moreland last Thursday. Katie Costello led the Golden Bears with 10 points.
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