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VILLANOVA – Morgan Smith and Annie Crudele could not mask their disappointment as they emerged from the locker room after Springfield’s 73-49 loss to St. Pius X in Friday night’s District One AA title game at Villanova University.
Until, that is, the subject of next year came up. Then, their mood changed dramatically.
“If they’re back, we can get them,” Smith said of the Winged Lions. “They lose four of their starters.”
“We’re just losing one,” Crudele added.
But for this year, the Winged Lions – who won their seventh consecutive district title – were just too tough to handle, and the young Spartans fell victim to their non-stop, fullcourt pressure. By halftime, they found themselves a 40-12 hole.
“They trapped everything and frazzled us so much – we just couldn’t hold onto the ball,” Smith said.
The Spartans could have packed it in after a first half that saw very little go their way, but to their credit, they battled until the final horn. Coach Sarah Gibbs would have expected nothing less
“They played so hard to the end,” the Spartans’ coach said. “That’s what we talked about at halftime - they can’t give up, they can’t get frustrated. They have to keep playing. We said, ‘You have to show Pius the team that had two big upsets and who they are.’ We just wanted them to get as close as they could.”
The Winged Lions served early notice that this game belonged to them, jumping out to a 7-0 lead before Crudele found Smith for an easy bucket down low. By the time they scored again – this time a Crudele basket at the buzzer, the Spartans were staring at a 17-4 deficit.
“We practiced our press break over and over,” Crudele said. “You’re not always expecting it, but it’s always coming.”
“Their traps come hard and fast, and it’s hard to break the traps,” Smith added. “I think we were so surprised at how strong they came out. It put us down so low, we couldn’t come back.”
The Winged Lions continued to come at the Spartans in the second quarter, opening up a 40-8 lead before Smith, who led the Spartans with 17 points, buried an outside shot. Taylor Koroncia (nine points) sank a pair of foul shots to make it a 40-12 game at the half.
“We tried hard to simulate it at practice,” Gibbs said of the Lions’ pressure defense. “We knew what they were going to do. It just rattled us at the beginning.
“One of the keys to the game was taking care of the ball offensively, and we didn’t do that. We couldn’t get settled in to anything. We couldn’t see the open girl, and that threw us off the whole game. We just got down too much to come back.”
The players came out of the locker room determined to improve on their first half effort.
“We just wanted to come out as hard as we could the second half,” said Crudele, who contributed 14 points.”
“The score was 0-0,” Smith said of the Spartans’ mindset. “That first half didn’t happen.”
The Spartans – behind seven points from Smith and six from Crudele – exceeded their point output of the entire first half, scoring 18 points in the third quarter to 19 for the Winged Lions. The Spartans outscored the Spartans 19-14 in the fourth quarter. Crudele accounted for six of those points.
“This team has been here before,” Gibbs said of Pius. “Every one of those girls has done this for three or four years.
“They’re experienced, and they know what they need to do to get that championship. This is new for us. We’re excited for next year to do this again. We’re young, and now we’re much more experienced than we were this year.
“We have to move on from this. We have to get excited about states. They got their whole entire school excited about basketball, and now we have to keep that momentum going.”
The Spartans begin play in the state tournament on Tuesday when they will take on the third place team from District 12.
“We’re so excited for Tuesday,” Smith said. “We don’t want the season to end. We have such a good team. We all get along. We hang out outside of the team, and we don’t want it to end.”
“It’s not going to,” Credele said
ST. PIUS X 73, SPRINGFIELD (MONTCO) 49
Springfield (49) – Elise DiFilippo 0 4-7 4, Annie Crudele 7 0-0 14, Morgan Smith 8 1-5 17, Briana Scafidi 0 3-4 3, Maggie Canavan 0 0-0 0, Molly Wheatley 1 0-0 2, Taylor Koroncai 1 7-8 9. Totals 17 15-24 49.
St. Pius X (73) – Melissa Mansur 8 4-5 22, Emily Pufnock 2 2-4 6, Chrissy Esbensen 4 0-0 10, Jordan Pasik 7 6-6 20, Kelly Sorber 3 0-0 6, Leila Weiss 1 1-4 3, Lauren Proud 0 0-0 0, Devon Rauh 1 2-2 4, Amy Guarino 1 0-1 2, Sarah Klokis 1 0-1 2. Totals 27 15-22 73.
Springfield 4 8 18 19-49
St. Pius X 17 23 19 14-73
Three-point goals: St. Pius – Chrissy Esbensen 2, Melissa Mansur 2.
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