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HOLLAND – The season is going by much too quickly for Chelsea Allen.
“Last year, I remember I wanted the season to be over,” the Council Rock South junior said. “This year I don’t want it to end because it’s been so much fun.
“We have improved so much as a team, and we’ve really started believing in ourselves that we can achieve great things.”
The Golden Hawks notched win number 12 of the season on Thursday night when they downed Pennsbury 59-39 in the first half of a girls-guys twin bill.
For those who are counting, that’s seven more wins than they had all of last season.
“The last two years were difficult,” Allen said. “We work hard every single game for our wins.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We always go out and bust our butts and play as hard as we can.”
That effort was underscored during a telling sequence early in the second quarter. The Golden Hawks misfired on four consecutive shots, but a relentless effort in the paint resulted in freshman Alex Wheatley following her own miss for a bucket on the fifth try.
All told, Wheatley had a team-high 12 rebounds while Allen had 10 as the Golden Hawks dominated the paint.
“That’s really important,” Allen said. “It gives us a lot more opportunities to score.
“You’re not going to have a great shooting night all the time, so it’s always important to get those offensive rebounds because you give your team more chances to score.”
Offensively, Ann Silverthorn led a balanced attack with 10 points while Wheatley, Allen and Steph Gillio each added nine.
Lacey Balascsak scored 11 points and Lauren Pisauro added seven for a Falcon squad that fell to 1-11 in SOL play.
“It just seemed like when we got down, we felt like there was no hope, and it got away from us at the end,” Falcon senior Kelsey Balascsak said. “It’s tough, but hopefully, we can start to pull it out in the end because we still have a couple of games left.”
Early on, it certainly looked as though the Falcons might make things very interesting. They led 5-4 after Kelly Rebert buried a pair at the foul line, and when Kersten Formento connected on a trey, the Falcons led 8-4 at the 2:44 mark of the opening frame.
“We just come out slow sometimes,” Silverthorn said. “Yesterday we had a day off for a snow day.
“It was a little rough start. We had to get in the flow of things.”
Silverthorn got the ball rolling for the Hawks when she buried a hook shot, and after a Falcon miss, Wheatley banked home a shot at the end of the break to knot the score.
Gillio connected on her first of three treys to put the Golden Hawks on top 11-8, and then Wheatley scored on a putback to give the Hawks a 13-8 lead at the end of one quarter.
Another Gillio trey was followed by another Wheatley putback, giving the Hawks an 18-8 lead. An Allen steal resulted in a Lea Britton trey, and a three-point play by Wheatley midway through the quarter capped a dazzling 22-0 run and put the Golden Hawks on top 26-8.
“There was a lot of it is communication,” Silverthorn said of her team’s inspired play after a slow start. “We started talking more and seeing the floor better.
“Our defense – if our defense is bad, then our offense goes downhill.”
The Falcons staged a mini-run to close out the second quarter. Lacey Balascsak connected on a trey, and then Pisauro scored on a fast break basket after a Golden Hawk miss. When Lacey Balascsak buried her second trey of the half, the Golden Hawks’ lead had been trimmed to 26-16.
But Jackie Weber answered with a trey at the other end, and the Golden Hawks went into halftime with a 31-18 lead.
“It just feels like we were falling apart, no one was working as a team, and it goes downhill,” said Kelsey Balascsak of her team’s downward spiral late in the first half. “We work on our shooting in practice, but in a game, I feel like we can’t deliver.”
Pisauro scored to open the second half, but Allen answered with a personal 5-0 run of her own, and when Emily Nowicke buried a pair from the foul line, the Golden Hawks led 38-20. Silverthorn took a Falcon miss coast-to-coast for an easy bucket, and Rock South led by 20.
They never looked back, limiting the Falcons to 11 second-half points.
The big win, which upped the Golden Hawks’ SOL mark to 6-5, came on the heels of a disappointing loss to Abington two days earlier.
“It was a rough game,” Silverthorn said. “It wasn’t our night. We tried so many different things, and nothing was working. Abington had a great game.
“We were really excited for tonight, just to get back on the horse.”
With their 12 wins, the Golden Hawks have all but assured themselves a berth in the District One Class AAAA Tournament.
“That was one of our goals,” Rock South coach Monica Young said. “They have come a long way since last year.
“There’s talent here. I believe in them.”
That belief has helped turn things around for a struggling program.
“I give a lot of credit to our new coaching staff,” Allen said. “They took a team that – I know in my two years here we never believed in ourselves. We never thought we could succeed at all in basketball.
“I give a lot of credit to them because they believed in us the whole time. Even after a tough loss, they’d be like, ‘You guys are awesome.’ I give them a lot of credit.”
There’s also the little matter of the team’s work ethic under Young.
“We work really hard in practice, and everyone contributes,” Allen said. “We have a lot of fun together. We hang out together all the time, not only in practice but outside of school. We just have really good team camaraderie.”
And with that camaraderie and resulting success come higher expectations.
“Expectations are so much higher than last year,” Silverthorn said. “Last year every game we went in, and it was like, ‘Let’s just show up,’ but now, each win is really special to all of us.”
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 59, PENNSBURY 29
Pennsbury (29) – Kersten Formento 1 0-0 3, Lauren Pisauro 3 1-2 7, Kelsey Balascsak 0 0-0 0, Kelsey Moulton 0 0-0 0, Molly Phillips 0 2-6 2, Kelly Rebert 0 2-2 2, Lauren Gerity 1 0-0 2, Kelsey Alvino 0 0-0 0, Lacey Balascsak 3 2-2 11, Steph Gray 0 0-0 0, Emily Atunrase 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 7-12 29.
Council Rock South (59) – Lea Britton 1 0-0 3, Ann Silverthorn 3 4-4 10, Emily Nowicke 2 3-3 7, Alex Wheatley 4 1-1 9, Chelsea Allen 4 1-3 9, Steph Gillio 3 0-0 9, Jackie Weber 3 0-0 8, Lindsay Kirlin 1 0-0 2, Brianna Schlupp 0 0-0 0, Alexa Crosier 1 0-0 2. Totals 22 9-11 59.
Pennsbury 8 10 4 7-29
Council Rock South 13 18 11 17-59
Three-point goals: Pennsbury – Lacey Balascsak 3, Kersten Formento 1. CR South – Steph Gillio 3, Jackie Weber 2, Lea Britton 1.
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