Council Rock South and Cheltenham advanced to the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament. To view action photos of the CR South/Pleasant Valley and North Penn/Governor Mifflin games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
1-7 CHELTENHAM 65, #11-1 BANGOR 63*
*Information in this summary was reported as received on Friday night but has been changed to reflect additional information that was received.
Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews admits things didn’t look promising.
In truth, things looked downright hopeless for a Lady Panther squad that found itself staring at a 62-55 deficit with 33 seconds remaining.
“We were actually kind of getting killed for a good portion of the game,” Andrews said. “We were down 14 to 16 points, and then we put on the ‘T’ and got turnovers.
“At the end, of course, we had to foul them, and for the most part, they were only making one. We were down eight, and we had to get some big points, and we went for the three, and they were going in.”
Still, erasing a seven-point deficit in 33 seconds is nigh impossible at any level, but thanks to the heroics of Andrews, who scored all 10 of her team’s points in the miraculous comeback, the Lady Panthers found themselves deadlocked 63-63 with three seconds remaining after an Andrews trey – this one from NBA range. It was her second three-pointer in the final 33 seconds.
“After that three, they called a timeout, and they had the ball at our end of the court,” Andrews said. “There were two things – we didn’t want to foul them because we had over 10 fouls, and they would shoot two shots. We also didn’t want them to run down the court for a football pass.
“We set up basically man, and Christina (Coleman) was pressuring the ball. She was jumping up and down, up and down. Everyone did a good job of denying their man, and the girl overthrew it.”
Andrews – who says she was roaming near the foul line - was there for the overthrow, stealing the ball and setting the stage for the game winner.
“I got the ball and went to the rim,” she said. “I saw their big girl coming, so I took a little jump shot off the backboard.
“The gym was packed with their fans. They brought the whole town, and it went from their million fans screaming to our 15 fans going crazy. I think I just walked back and I saw the cheerleaders, the parents, Schaef and the team running out. I looked over to their side of the floor, and their team was stunned. Everyone was just stunned because they thought they had the game in the bag. We were all happy. We didn’t know what to do. I can’t explain it.”
“It was remarkable,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “In that three seconds, there wasn’t anybody in that gymnasium that wasn’t screaming at the top of their lungs.
“It was just unbelievable. No one remembers what happened after CC’s basket. Everybody was up and hugging each other.”
Andrews admits she never saw this ending coming.
“If you would have asked me if we could have ever won a game like that, I would have said, ‘No,’” the senior captain said. “If you saw me during the season, I’m probably not the best three-point shooter out there, but I made them when it counted, so I’m happy about that.
“As much as I hate to say it, sometimes when you’re losing bad, it’s like, ‘Oh, what are we going to do?’ If it was our last game, you have to go hard anyway. Even if we would have lost, at least we would have tried our best and never gave up.
“We kept going, and it paid off in the end for us.”
Andrews scored 32 points - which included three treys - in a dazzling individual effort.
“We have had a lot of nice players over the years, but she’s the most prolific scorer we have ever had,” Schaefer said. “We have never had a player where teams had two people on her all the time, and they still can’t stop her.
“That’s what tonight was like - she must have five to seven times gotten clobbered and flattened out on the floor with no call, and she hung in there and kept playing. It was unbelievable.”
Perhaps nothing was more unbelievable than the game’s final sequence.
“All they had to do was throw the ball long,” Schaefer said. “They were expecting us to come out and be fronting their front four and have someone back at their foul line, but we changed up our defense and put Christina Coleman on the ball to make it hard for them to throw it in. Doesn’t she go and throw it to, of all people, the person that CC is on.
“We have been on the wrong side of the perfect storm. Well, that was the perfect storm in our favor tonight.”
Early on, the Lady Panthers – behind nine points from Andrews – trailed by just one at the end of one quarter (16-15), but Bangor upped its lead to 33-27 by halftime.
“I bet they shot 70 percent tonight,” Schaefer said. “It was another North Penn or Mount game where everything was going in in the first half for them.”
Things only got worse in a third quarter that saw Bangor go on a 17-10 tear to take a 50-37 lead into the final quarter.
“We were sitting there in the middle of the third quarter, and their fans were applauding and laughing at us because their big kid was beating us down court and getting layups, and they were beating us backdoor,” Schaefer said. “We were looking like a bunch of schleps out there.
“It was almost like a guffaw, mocking us and how pathetic we were. I looked over at (assistant coach) John (Rogalski) and said, ‘What a way to end the season if we lose like this.’”
It was during a moment of desperation that Schaefer opted to employ the Lady Panthers' trapping ‘T’ defense.
“After our Mount St. Joe’s game, John told people, ‘If I ever tell Schaef we should trap somebody, I want you to come down and pour the whole cooler of Gatorade on me,’” Schaefer recalled. “He said, ‘Schaef, we’ve got to do something different.’
“There was nothing left to try. We had tried everything else, so I said, ‘All right girls, we’re going to try something different. You get out and get in their faces.’”
The trap, which has not been particularly effective all season, proved to be the difference. Bangor managed just one field goal in the fourth quarter.
“All I can think is they got a little tired,” Schaefer said. “They hadn’t seen us ever do it. They were shocked. They started to be tentative, they rushed a few shots, and we got the rebounds.
While Bangor was struggling, the Lady Panthers caught fire offensively. Shayla Peoples, who scored 13 points, connected on a pair of three-pointers, and Sabrina Casseus also had a big trey in the fourth quarter.
Andrews acknowledged that it was the Lady Panthers change in defensive strategy that turned the tide.
“They were shooting great,” she said. “Their three-pointers were on point, and our defense at one point was breaking apart – we didn’t know where the open shooter was, but once we basically went man-to-man, we took them apart.”
Friday night’s mountaintop experience came just 10 days after the Lady Panthers had dropped their second game in as many outings, falling to Mount St. Joseph in a playback game after suffering an upset at the hands of ninth-seeded North Penn in the district quarterfinals.
“There weren’t many happy faces,” Andrews said.
Cheltenham’s turnaround began with a trouncing of Haverford in last Saturday’s seventh place game.
“It really started with the coaches,” Andrews said. “They came to us and said, ‘Listen, we have to find a way to pick it up after these two losses. Maybe we’ll use a different approach.’
“We came together as a team, especially the seniors because all of the starting five are seniors, and we said, ‘We don’t want to be losing to teams we think we can beat. We’re not going out like this.’ We came together and said we were going to play hard and not worry because at some point, you start blaming people and things like that.
“But we came to the point where we said, ‘We’re going to take the game upon ourselves and not blame it on the refs and not blame it on the fans and not blame it on anybody but ourselves.’ I think we picked each other up.”
That commitment to take the game upon themselves was never more obvious than in a fourth quarter that saw the Lady Panthers outscore Bangor 28-13. In the final quarter, they connected on five three-pointers and finished the game with seven treys.
“We were happy because we definitely wanted this one,” said Andrews, who scored 16 points in the final quarter. “We definitely wanted it as a team because we cracked down and we came together at the end.
“We said, ‘Listen, there’s three minutes left in the game. We’re going to go as hard as we can.’ We put it on the line, and we played great defense and communicated well. We kept each other in good spirits throughout the whole game, even when we were getting killed. We did great, and we know that no matter how much we’re down by we can find a way to win.”
With the win, the Lady Panthers improved to 25-3 on the season.
“For this team now to be 25-3 is just amazing,” Schaefer said. “We have never been a ‘pretty’ win team, but we have managed to find a way, thanks to some Herculean efforts by CC, but you know what – everybody had to do what they were supposed to do for CC to do her thing.
“We can’t win that game if other kids aren’t on their man and denying their man the ball so CC can do her thing. We have had crazy games, and we have had some great wins, but that was certainly the surprise of the year - this was a monstrous come-from-nowhere to eke it out at the end. This was such a drastic turn of events. Unbelievable.”
The Lady Panthers will face Solanco, the fourth place team from District 3, in Tuesday’s second round game.
1-4 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 51, #11-3 PLEASANT VALLEY 21
As the final seconds of the lopsided win ticked off the clock, the Rock South cheerleaders and fans broke into a spirited rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ directed at senior Alex Wheatley.
As birthdays go, this was indeed a good one for the Rock South standout, who celebrated her 18th birthday by turning in a routinely excellent performance, scoring 22 points and also contributing 11 rebounds and three blocked shots.
“We wanted to make her 18th birthday special,” coach Monica Stolic said. “Alex played like Alex. She did what she needed to do tonight.”
For Wheatley, there was no better way to celebrate than with a big win.
“This has been a most wonderful – if I can call it a present, if I’m being selfish, it was a wonderful birthday present,” the Golden Hawks senior captain said.
Friday’s win came on the heels of back-to-back losses for the Golden Hawks, their first two losses of the season. Their loss to eventual district champ Spring-Ford in the district semifinals was a classic battle, but the Golden Hawks’ loss to Downingtown West that saw a double-digit lead slip away was unexpected, to say the least.
“We don’t even know what happened - it was just a letdown game,” junior Alexis Hofstaedter said of the Downingtown West game. “We were lucky that it wasn’t at a point where our season ended, and we had another chance.
“That gave us a reality check – we’re not having that undefeated season. Actually, I think it’s good for us. We know we have to come out strong, and however we played then, we can’t play that way.”
“We didn’t come out ready to play against Downingtown West,” Wheatley added. “They’re a very good team, and I think we got complacent in the third quarter. We stopped being aggressive, we stopped going in for rebounds, and they made the most of it.
“It kind of woke us up that from here on out, you can never take a play off, and I think we kind of brought that mentality into the game tonight.”
Pleasant Valley never stood a chance. By the end of one quarter, Rock South led 21-6. Courtney Brown accounted for nine of those points while Wheatley added 10.
“It felt good to get back into the game we like to play,” Wheatley said. “They’re not a bad team, and we were able to get control again – get back on the same page, run on offense and defense.
“I thought our defense tonight was good.”
The Golden Hawks, took a 27-8 lead into halftime.
“It was awesome just knowing that we all played together as a team and we all came back and it really built up our confidence,” Hofstaedter said.
In the third quarter, Wheatley tacked on eight more points while Hofsteadter added five, which included a trey. The junior point guard, who handed out nine assists to go along with her seven points and seven steals, acknowledged that playing with Wheatley never gets old.
“It’s been amazing - just playing with Wheaties is such an honor, and it’s so much fun to play with her, just knowing if I bring the ball up the court, she’ll be there to catch it,” Hofstaedter said.
Rock South, according to Stolic, scored 18 points off Pleasant Valley turnovers in Friday’s win.
“I knew they were without their starting point guard, and their ball handling was going to be weak,” the Golden Hawks coach said. “I knew we had to be aggressive on their ball handler.”
Stolic was asked if she was concerned about how her players would respond to their back-to-back losses.
“I was a little bit (concerned), to be honest, but I knew we had four days to practice,” she said. “I knew my seniors wouldn’t let anything happen like a loss today.”
The Golden Hawks coach knows her players well.
“For me at least - after the Spring-Ford game, I was sad, but after the Downingtown West game, I was mad,” Wheatley said. “For me, it kind of fueled the fire.”
The Golden Hawks (26-2) will take on District 3 champion Red Lion (29-1) in Tuesday’s second round action.
To read PhillyBurbs.com beat writer Dan Dunkin’s game story, please click on the following link: http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/high_school/courier/cr-south-lights-up-pleasant-valley/article_359aa4cf-f327-5d3f-a429-ea31ba16d525.html
3-6 GOVERNOR MIFFLIN 50, 1-2 NORTH PENN 44
The scene was replayed again and again as one North Penn player after another emerged from the locker room and collapsed in tears into the arms of a family member or friend.
No words were needed to describe what this loss felt like. The pain and disappointment the players were feeling was written all over their faces. That disappointment stemmed from the fact that the Maidens knew they had let this one slip away.
North Penn went on top early, opening up a 10-5 lead after Steph Knauer turned an Emily Hagan pass into an easy bucket, and they still led 13-9 after Hagan buried a trey.
But the Mustangs, who buried five straight shots – including a pair of treys – during one stretch, trailed by just one at the end of the quarter (15-14). They continued their torrid offensive showing in the second quarter, opening up a 24-19 lead after Ashley Espinosa, who scored a game-high 18 points, buried a three-pointer.
“They’re very quick,” Maidens’ coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “I don’t know what percentage they shot in the first quarter, but they hardly missed a shot.”
With her team trailing by five, Knauer went to work, scoring eight points in an overpowering three-minute stretch while Crisler added four points as North Penn closed out the half with a 12-5 tear to go into halftime with a 31-26 lead. Knauer scored 12 of her 15 first-half points in the second quarter.
The Maidens turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions of the third quarter. They threw up an air ball on the fourth, but despite their struggles, they still took a 39-37 lead into the fourth quarter.
Neither team scored until Espinosa connected on a drive at the 5:45 mark of the quarter to knot the score 39-39. Knauer – who scored 15 of her game-high 17 points in the first half - got a rare touch on the offensive end but had her shot blocked by Megan McKay. The Mustangs couldn’t capitalize, and that sequence was followed by a stretch that featured four consecutive turnovers – two by each team.
The Maidens misfired on a three-point attempt, but Logan Focht didn’t, burying her third trey of the night to give Governor Mifflin a 42-39 lead. Emily Gingrich turned a steal into a layup, and just like that, the Mustangs led 44-39 with three minutes remaining.
“We would just shoot, shoot, shoot in the second half and didn’t get the ball inside at all,” deMarteleire said. “I don’t even know what to tell you.
“We found something that was working, and for whatever reason…”
deMarteleire didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t have to. The Maidens inability to get the ball inside in the second half allowed the Mustangs to seize control of a game that appeared to belong to the Maidens.
“That was definitely a frustrating part of the game,” said Crisler, who finished with 12 points. “Our guards were working hard. I felt like we could have made better decisions on the perimeter to either penetrate or pass it into the post because that’s the thing that was working for us.
“We weren’t really hitting our shots tonight, and the only thing that was working was getting it in.”
The Maidens pulled to within two (46-44) after sophomore Vicky Tumasz converted a drive with 50 seconds remaining. Gingrich answered by burying both ends of a one-and-one, and the Maidens never threatened the rest of the way.
“They totally outplayed us,” deMarteleire said. “They made their shots. They outhustled us to loose balls, but we knew all that coming in – that they were quick and athletic, so we needed to step to the ball, we needed to ball fake, we needed to bounce pass.
“Defensively, we did not play very well either. We took people off some of their weaker players to protect the basket, and that person would settle in too far away from the basket, and they would scoot right around us for a layup. Everything we went over in practice – I just feel we did not apply here today. It’s very disappointing.”
The Maidens closed out the year with a 21-7 record, and although it ended on a disappointing note, it had been a special season.
“It was such a fun season,” said Crisler, biting back tears. “The team was great this year. I loved all the girls. We really came together and bonded more than any other year, I felt.
“Everyone was so comfortable with each other. The one word I would describe it as was fun.”
To read Mary Jane Souder’s game story in PhillyBurbs.com, please click on the following link: http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/high_school/intel/north-penn-eliminated-in-state-opener/article_63f5ec3d-a733-5132-8ad6-a78b773c22b1.html
3-1 RED LION 59, 1-9 UPPER DUBLIN 26
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