Upper Merion will take on Nazareth Academy in a Class AAA quarterfinal game on Friday night.
#5 Nazareth Academy at #4 Upper Merion, Friday, 7p.m.
This is a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal match-up, which Nazareth Academy won 43-35. In last year’s game, seventh-seeded Upper Merion traveled to second-seeded Nazareth Academy. Upper Merion led for 28 minutes of last year’s contest before wavering late in the game. Nazareth returns Danielle Gasperi, who led all scorers in last year’s match-up with 16 points.
Upper Merion
- 16-6 overall, 8-4 SOL
- 3rd place American Conference
- Sweep of #32 seed PW in conference play (35-32; 44-33 OT)
- Win over #28 seed Radnor in non-league match-up (50-36)
- Win over Girls High, 4th place finisher in Public League (43-27)
Last game: Upper Merion earned a bye into the quarter finals and has not played a game since its Feb. 9 win over Upper Moreland (59-39)
Players to Watch: Cassidy Koenig is averaging 14.0 PPG and leads Eastern Pennsylvania with 68 made three pointes in 22 games. Kristina O’Sullivan is averaging 11.2 PPG, 8.7 RPG and 5.3 APG.
Coach Tom Schurtz says: Any time you play an academy team, you have to be able to handle their depth. They will have multiple players who are used to handling the ball, who are used to making shots. The hardest thing about being in Class AAA is that basically for the last couple of years Springfield (Delco) and Upper Merion have been two of the public school teams left. This year, you have eight teams left. It’s Upper Merion and Springfield-Delco and all of the private schools. We’re still looking for a way to figure out how to handle that path to be able to get to the second round. You spend an entire year working to put yourself in a position where we are basically every single year, which is one or two public school teams and six private schools.
For the first time since I’ve been at Upper Merion, we will play a private school on our home court. We have never had that opportunity. The one year when we were a two seed we played at a neutral site, and we lost that neutral site game. This will be the first time a Catholic Academies team has had to come and play in our gym. Our fans are great, and it changes the atmosphere. We’ve been trying to prep differently, and we’re trying to be a little more focused. I think the other thing that will be the biggest difference is how will we react to playing on our home court and how will they react.
I don’t know what Cassidy Koenig’s statistics are at home, but they’re a lot higher than they are on the road, so just that in itself is going to be interesting come playoff time.
Nazareth Academy
- 15-8 overall, 7-7 Catholic Academy League
- 5th place Catholic Academy League
- Win over St. Basil Academy 2 seed in District 1 AAA (55-42)
- Win over Villa Joseph Marie 3 seed in District 1 AAA (52-38)
- Win over Pope John Paul II 7 seed in District 1 AAA (48-43)
Last game: Nazareth cruised to a first round 61-38 victory over 12 seed Pottstown. Nazareth led 20-3 at the end of the first quarter, three players finished in double figures (two more finished with 9 points).
Players to Watch: Nazareth is led by three seniors: Nicole Dombrowski (center), Danielle Gasperi (small forward), and Bridget Sobon (point guard). Each of the seniors is averaging around double figures and combine to average nearly 35 PPG for the Pandas.
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