High school girls’ basketball beat writers Dan Dunkin and Mary Jane Souder share their thoughts about Saturday’s District One AAAA quarterfinal and playback games. Dunkin is the Bucks County Courier Times beat writer while Souder covers girls’ basketball for the Intelligencer. She also is the girls’ basketball writer for SuburbanOneSports.com.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Share your thoughts about the Council Rock South-Spring-Ford semifinal game.
Dan Dunkin: Upper Darby strangely came out in a man-to-man defense, and Alex Wheatley promptly took advantage of it, and the other kids did too, driving and taking people off the dribble. Even though South was not hitting from the outside as they normally do after Upper Darby went to a zone for a while, which was kind of effective, South’s defense was just so outstanding. They picked up Upper Darby's good guards up high on the perimeter and pressured them, pressured the passing lanes, made them go 1-for-9 in the first quarter and 3-for-14 in the third quarter, and Upper Darby just could not score enough. South’s defense is, I think, underrated. You have to remember they’ve had six or seven kids carry them all year, and they play both ends of the court very hard. They get a lot of stuff in transition, too, off their defense. They only scored 44 points, but they won going away.
In Wednesday’s game, I do favor Spring-Ford because of their depth, their overall team quickness and the way that they play. South does have a good chance. It’s strange for a number two seed to be an underdog in this game. Blame the seedings process, but South has a good chance in this game if they can slow the game down some and handle that press. I think they can, but I think Courtney Brown and Wheatley are going to be big keys to handling that press because they’ve got to be release receivers – catch the ball, handle it in the middle of the court some. Spring-Ford will be swarming all over Alexis Hofstaedter and Taylor Dillon. But they can beat that press. A key is once they beat it to not get in a hurry and play too fast and shoot too quick. They need to play at a lower tempo than they normally do. They need to pick their spots, but they can’t get in a 55-point game because they don’t have the depth. They need to be selective and make Spring-Ford play defense, make them guard Wheatley, and they’re going to have hit some outside shots to win the game obviously. If they play a very good game, they can win it. I think that Spring-Ford’s depth will prevail in a close game.
Wheatley is going to have to pass out of double teams, which she does well, and get to the foul line. They’re going to need everything they’ve got out of six people at least.
Mary Jane Souder: This game pits the state’s top-ranked team – Spring-Ford – against the state’s fifth-ranked squad, and it could very easily and perhaps should have been the district title game as the only three teams in the State of Pennsylvania standing between the two schools – Archbishop Carroll, Cardinal O’Hara and Oakland Catholic – don’t compete in District One. Rock South and Spring-Ford have been on a collision course for a date in the semifinals since the moment the brackets were announced.
On Sunday, Spring-Ford put the kind of beating on Haverford that should not happen in a district quarterfinal round, but the Rams – whose top scorer had only 11 points - just might be that good. Against the overmatched Fords, the Rams forced 36 turnovers, and 12 players saw action.
Although I’ve only seen Spring-Ford play for a part of one game, the Rams have made a believer out of me. They have it all – a strong inside/outside game, a balanced scoring attack, a defense that wears teams into submission by pressuring fullcourt and the kind of deep bench that coaches only dream about.
If there’s a team in the district that could beat the Rams, it would have to be Rock South. The Golden Hawks would seem to have the perfect antidote to the Rams’ pressure defense in junior point guard Alexis Hofstaedter and senior center Alex Wheatley. Spring-Ford’s talent not withstanding, it’s hard to pick against any team that has Alex Wheatley on its roster.
If Rock South doesn’t succumb to the Rams’ pressure, if they can get their outside game untracked and if they can play the kind of defense that has been their trademark, a trip to Villanova could be in the Golden Hawks’ future.
Anything less than that, and the Rams will be heavy favorites to capture the district crown at Villanova on Friday night.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Your thoughts about the other district semifinal pitting North Penn against Downingtown West.
Dan Dunkin: I think this is North Penn’s year to really make amends, to get to the district final. You beat Cheltenham twice – you’ve got to be rolling with confidence. They’ve got the inside-outside game going. They’re just a very impressive team. For Downingtown West to do what they have done to some people, it should be a classic matchup. Downingtown West has a high precision offense, but this game will probably come down to North Penn’s interior to see if they can make them play a grinding kind of game inside. If North Penn can get them in foul trouble and control the boards, I think they can win.
I do feel confident in North Penn. Since the districts started, I had them and Spring-Ford in the final game. They’re just a very sound, experienced team. They’re playing as well as you could expect a team of that caliber to play. To beat Cheltenham twice is a tall order. The way North Penn has played, especially the second half of the season, is impressive, and their frontcourt is very good, very balanced. They give teams trouble on both ends of the court. I’m not surprised by their run.
Mary Jane Souder: The Maidens are coming off their second win in as many tries over top-seeded Cheltenham, but there shouldn’t be any danger of a letdown on Tuesday when they face a Downingtown West squad that put a 49-29 beating on the Maidens on Dec. 22. In truth, the game wasn’t even that close as the Whippets opened up a 19-8 lead at the end of one quarter and extended that lead to 41-14 heading into the final quarter.
In Saturday’s quarterfinal win, the Maidens – who once again posed matchup problems for the Lady Panthers - had their inside-outside game working. Life gets a whole lot easier when your shooting guard buries three-pointers on your team’s first three possessions of the game, and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday. Sophomore Vicky Tumasz, picking up where teammate Erin Maher left off in the initial meeting between the two teams, hit nothing but net on three straight treys from the top of the circle, spotting the Maidens a quick 9-0 lead. She finished the game with four three’s and a total of 15 points. While Tumasz jumpstarted the Maidens, it was Steph Knauer who closed it out, scoring 10 of her team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and pulling down every rebound down the stretch.
The Maidens are mighty tough when Tumasz and company are burying their outside shots, and if they hope to exact a degree of revenge from the Whippets, they will need big games from everyone who sees action. Then again, the Maidens found a way to knock off the district’s top-seeded team on a day when the dangerous Lauren Crisler did not score a point – a fact that says a lot about the Maidens’ depth and balance. It’s just one of the reasons I’m going with North Penn earning a trip to Villanova.
SuburbanOneSports.com: Three of the teams fighting for the ninth and final state tournament berth are from the SOL. What are your thoughts about those games as well as the consolation games?
Dan Dunkin: I think Central Bucks East is going to win easily over Methacton. I have a lot of belief in the Continental Conference. I don’t see Methacton giving them much trouble at all. CB East is a very fundamentally sound team, so defense will keep them in it. I’m very confident they’ll win.
I like CB West over Upper Dublin because Upper Dublin is so streaky and seems to have lost some confidence offensively. With CB West, it’s like, ‘Why not?’ I really like them next year and the year after that. Upper Dublin is a team that I think should have been better, but they just missed their stride. I like the younger team with nothing to lose to win this game.
I like the Mount to win its game against Cheltenham. I think Cheltenham is still licking their wounds. The Mount is a little more balanced team. They’re a team that conceivably could have won districts. They’re very good, and they have enough to combat (Ciara) Andrews in Wednesday’s game. I don’t believe a lot in intangibles, but in this one I do. I don't think those Cheltenham kids are recovered from their loss to North Penn yet.
Mary Jane Souder: Methacton makes a living out of playing fundamentally sound basketball, and in Monday’s playback game, the Warriors knocked off a Downingtown East squad that hung tough in an eight-point loss to Cheltenham, turning a three-point halftime deficit into a 12-point win. They did it by upping the tempo of the game, riding their fullcourt pressure to some easy baskets and the big win. Things might be a little more difficult on Wednesday when Methacton takes on Central Bucks East, which boasts the kind of height inside that should make life very difficult for the Warriors. Lindsey Kelly, Lexi Scrivano and Margaret Anne Hubbell promise to provide a tough matchup in the paint for the Warriors, but if the Patriots don’t protect the basketball, the Warriors will most definitely capitalize. This game will be a battle of two teams whose defenses are their respective trademarks, but look for the Patriots to win this battle of wills even though it’s on Methacton’s home court.
The night’s other playback game, an all-SOL contest pitting Central Bucks West against Upper Dublin, is an intriguing one. The Flying Cardinals showed remarkable resiliency, bouncing back from their devastating loss to Haverford to defeat Central Bucks South. Upper Dublin rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to outscore the Titans 26-16 in the second half. Veterans Taylor Bryant (15 points) and Lauren Rothfeld (13 points) answered the call, ensuring the Flying Cardinals would live to see another day. Central Bucks West trailed by one at halftime of its playback game against Boyertown but outscored the Bears 36-19 in the second half to earn the huge win. The Bucks also were led by their seniors – Jen Fabian, Amanda Parker and Sam Colloi, who combined to score 31 of their team’s points. While the Flying Cardinals are hoping to return to states for the second time in as many years, the Bucks – just three years removed from an 0-22 record – are in many ways ahead of schedule, and a trip to states would fast forward a program that has already taken gigantic strides.
There undoubtedly weren’t many people who had Cheltenham and the Mount penciled into a consolation game on Wednesday, and this figures to be a good one between a pair of perennial district powers. It will be interesting to see how the Lady Panthers respond to their loss to North Penn. Expect the Magic to come after the Lady Panthers defensively, and the Lady Panthers will be successful only if they can get production from everyone on the court. That being said, it’s hard to imagine a Cheltenham team that has lost just twice in 25 games dropping back-to-back games. Although they will undoubtedly have their hands full against the Magic, expect the Lady Panthers to respond to Saturday’s loss with a vengeance. If they don’t, it could be a shorter than expected postseason.
In Wednesday’s lone game featuring no SOL schools, look for Central Division champion Upper Darby to defeat Haverford for the third time in four tries.
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