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NORRISTOWN – Nothing was going right for the Cheltenham Lady Panthers.So it was hardly a big surprise to find out their play for the potential game winner had fallen apart before Monet Constant even inbounded the ball with 5.5 seconds remaining in overtime of Wednesday night’s District One AAAA semifinal against Lower Merion.
“It was a double pick down low,” teammate Shayla Felder said. “I was supposed to come off it (for a shot), but the play got all messed up.
“When I saw that it wasn’t going right, I started to panic a little bit, but I had confidence in my teammates that they’d pull through.”
Constant threw the ball to the only player with a remote chance of catching it – 6-2 center Jenna Peoples, who snared the pass and immediately handed it back to Constant.
The junior guard dished off to Felder, who took it into the paint and put up a shot that somehow found its way over the outstretched arms of Ace center Amy Woods and fell through the net with 1.6 remaining.
“When I got the ball, I wasn’t thinking about anything else except ‘Score,’” Felder said. “The tall girl was there, and I had to put the shot up higher than I was supposed to. I thought she was going to block it because they’d been blocking them the whole game.
“It was too much pressure. If I didn’t make the shot, I was going to blame it on myself that we didn’t win the game.”
As it was, Felder didn’t need to delegate any blame.
The Aces inbounded the ball near midcourt, but senior standout Molly Hanlon never managed much of a desperation heave, and an unlikely, improbable, you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 34-33 win was in the books for the Lady Panthers.
“When it went in, it didn’t feel real at all,” Felder said. “It was crazy. It felt so good.”
Felder, who scored a team-high 10 points, was mobbed by her jubilant teammates, and Lady Panther fans dashed onto the court carrying signs declaring their team Villanova-bound.
“Honestly, I knew it was going in,” Constant said of Felder’s game winner. “Me and Shayla have been playing together so long. That’s why I looked for her because I knew she could make the shot.
“We keep pulling through, pulling through. Nothing can stop our team.”
The odds were certainly stacked against the Lady Panthers in this one. For starters, they were playing without senior co-captain Dayna McCrewell (ineligible). That allowed the Aces to focus all their attention on containing Felder and Constant.
For the better part of the game, that strategy worked to perfection, and the Aces, who led by as many as nine points, had everything going their way.
Until the Panthers staged yet another gutsy comeback that left even their coach shaking his head in amazement.
“If you had told me before the game, ‘Your two best shooters are going to get their shots blocked maybe 12 times and make very few shots. Your center will be in foul trouble in the first three minutes of the game. You’ll be playing without your captain and the only player who had played in the state championship game. You’ll be down nine points, and you won’t make your one-and-one’s’ – not many people would believe we would come back from the dead like that,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “Once again, it comes down to the team that works hard every day at practice.“Everybody filled their part and tried to do the best that they could.”
There were too many heroes – some unlikely ones - to count.
There was freshman Sydni Epps in a rare start contributing six rebounds, four steals and two points. Peoples overcame early foul problems to snare nine rebounds and block seven shots – many down the stretch with the game on the line.
Tiffany Johnson came up with a steal and a pair of buckets to key a third-quarter surge as the Panthers began their comeback in earnest. She also had six rebounds.
Lorraine Oliver – who saw limited action all season – contributed six points and seven rebounds in a standout effort off the bench. The junior forward admits she briefly considered quitting this season.
“I figured I wasn’t playing, but he (Schaefer) told me to stay – they needed me, even if it wasn’t on the court, so I listened to them,” Oliver said. “Tonight, I couldn’t let the nerves get to me because they needed me.
“I know some people got scared, so I had to step up. I couldn’t let that stop me from helping the team.”
Junior Liz Taliaferro had eight points but none loomed larger than her tough baseline floater that bounced off the rim and fell through to make it a 33-32 game with 18 seconds remaining in OT.“Schaef had me in the corner,” Taliaferro said. “I don’t usually shoot the three-pointer, and he always tells us – if somebody runs at you, just go by them.
“The boys’ coach has had me working on that shot, so it was a good time to use it.”
On the ensuing inbounds, Taliaferro came up with a steal while on the ground. Schaefer called a hasty timeout.
Felder took the initial shot as time was winding down on the clock but came up short. The Lady Panthers forced a jump ball on the rebound and maintained possession, setting the stage for the fantastic finish.
“We really are a team, and we showed it tonight,” Taliaferro said. “Dayna wasn’t playing, but everybody stepped up. It was all about attitude because we never gave up.
“This was definitely unusual for us because usually we’re fueled by our offense. We stepped up our defense, so it was alright that we weren’t scoring.”
Scoring was a problem from the outset for the Panthers.
A baseline bucket by Epps gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead midway through the first quarter, but that was short-lived. By the end of the quarter, the Aces led 8-4 and extended that lead to 12-4 before Felder found Oliver for a bucket.
Late in the second quarter, Taliaferro kicked the ball out to Felder for a trey, making it a 19-15 game at halftime. The Aces went on top by eight before Oliver scored on a drive midway through the quarter. Johnson turned a steal into a layup, and then Felder took it coast-to-coast for a basket after pulling down a defensive rebound. The two teams were deadlocked 25-25 after Oliver scored on a putback.
“Lorraine Oliver steps in and plays great basketball and makes the coaches look wrong all season,” Schaefer said. “She came up big for us.”
A floater by Taliaferro in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter put the Panthers on top 27-26. That score didn’t change until Felder sank one-of-two from the foul line with one minute remaining as the Panthers had no success trying to score off their spread offense and misfired on the front end of two one-and-ones.
Woods scored on a putback with 34 seconds remaining to knot the score, and the Panthers came up empty on the attempt for the game winner.
The Aces appeared to be in command when they took a 33-30 lead with 41 seconds remaining in OT, but the never-say-die Panthers rallied for the emotional win.
“It was a real bad, long day for me, knowing the situation and not being able to have Dayna out there,” Schaefer said. “I really wouldn’t have expected it to be this kind of game at all, but they did a real nice job of keying on Shayla and Monet.
“I’m just delighted with the games we got from the kids. It’s monumental that they could survive these last two games.”
On Friday night, the Lady Panthers will take on Downingtown East in the district title game at Villanova University at 7 p.m. The Cougars pummeled Downingtown West 49-13 in the other semifinal.
For one night at least, the Panthers were enjoying this win.
“There are no words to describe it,” Taliaferro said. “It’s awesome.”
CHELTENHAM 34, LOWER MERION 33 (OT)
Lower Merion (33) – Sheba Hall 0 4-6 4, Amy Woods 2 1-3 5, Molly Hanlon 5 8-10 19, Lil Carney 1 3-4 5, Erin Knox 0 0-0 0, Kiki Worku 0 0-1 0. Totals 8 16-24 33.
Cheltenham (34) – Jenna Peoples 0 0-0 0, Monet Constant 2 0-0 4, Tiffany Johnson 2 0-1 4, Sydni Epps 1 0-0 2, Shayla Felder 4 1-2 10, Liz Taliaferro 3 2-3 8, Kira Ogden 0 0-0 0, Lorraine Oliver 3 0-0 6. Totals 15 3-6 34.
Lower Merion 8 11 7 2 5-33
Cheltenham 4 11 10 3 6-34
Three-point goals: Lower Merion – Molly Hanlon. Cheltenham – Shayla Felder.
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