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By Nick DeLorenzo
After losing Sarah Kiely to a knee injury in the first quarter of the conference-clinching win over Abington Tuesday night, the senior captain’s status for Council Rock North’s season-ending rivalry game against Rock South remained a mystery all week.
Even to her coach.
“Sarah did not tell me she was playing until an hour before the game,” coach Lou Palkovics said. “She said she would get a little workout in the morning to see how it felt and then she called me and said ‘I think I can play –I feel like I can go.’”
Kiely’s presence helped Council Rock North remain undefeated in league play, sparking the Indians to a 48-40 victory over the Golden Hawks and a perfect 14-0 regular season in the SOL.
Kiely finished with 11 points and went six-for-six from the free-throw line to help ice the game for North.
“I would have done anything to play in this game,” she said. “It’s real painful to move my leg, [but] all the adrenaline kind of masked the pain. Overall, I didn’t really feel it [on the court].”
Kiely set the tone early by drilling the game’s first basket, propelling Rock North to a 9-2 start in the first six minutes.
“I was worried about an emotional letdown,” Palkovics said, regarding his team’s thrilling league-clinching win over Abington Tuesday night.
It didn’t happen, although the Golden Hawks cut the lead to one early in the second quarter on an Alex Wheatley field goal. North responded with an 8-0 run, highlighted by a Devin Gold three-pointer.
Just when it looked like North was going to pull away, South answered with an 8-0 run of its own to close out the first half down only three, 19-16.
South’s scoring spurt continued in the third quarter, led by senior co-captain Chelsea Allen, who hit the final field goal of the quarter to give South a 31-30 lead.
The Indians proved to have one more run in them, draining eight unanswered points to start the fourth quarter. The Indians also hit 10-of-11 free throws in the final two minutes, holding off South’s attempt at a late game rally.
Palkovics was pleased with the way his team adjusted to South’s defensive tactics late in the game.
“With South running this [double teaming defense], we know we have a lot of confidence now in Megan (Cunningham), in Emily (Grundman), in Jodi (Marrazzo) – they can all score,” Palkovics said.
Lauren Gold led the Indians with 14 points. She also added four assists, a handful of steals, and made a great save off an offensive rebound late in the fourth quarter, helping milk valuable seconds off the clock. Senior co-captain Kelly Scull chipped in with 9 points.
Wheatley led the way for South (11-3) with 16 points, doing her best to take advantage of Kiely’s ailing knee. Allen added 12 points for the Lady Hawks.
The win for North most certainly clinches one of the top seeds when the district playoff brackets are announced on Sunday, most likely nabbing a number two seed behind Cheltenham (12-0, 20-0 overall). The break before the playoffs will be valuable in allowing Kiely’s knee to heal, according to Palkovics.
While Kiely admits that the season has been a great success so far, she knows that her team’s work is far from over.
“I expect to make the (district) finals,” the Indians’ senior co-captain said. “We have a defense this year. We worried about it at the beginning of the year, but we’ve seen players step up – we are three, four deep in our bench. It’s really exciting. I expect us to go to the finals and hopefully win.”
Palkovics too expects his team to leave everything on the floor come playoff time, especially considering the way their season ended a year ago.
“This group -out of any of my other groups I’ve coached - has something to prove,” Palkovics said. “When you lose the last four games in a season like they did last year - which never happened before in my program, they’ve got something to prove. So I think they’ll keep that in the back of their mind.”
The Indians will find out who their first round game will come against when the brackets are announced on Sunday.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 48, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 40
North -- 11 8 11 18 48
South -- 6 10 15 9 40
CR North (48) - Jodi Marrazzo 2 0-0 5; Devin Gold 1 0-0 3; Lauren Gold 4 6-7 14; Kelly Scull 3 2-2 9; Emily Grundman 2 0-0 4; Sarah Kiely 2 7-8 11; Megan Cunningham 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 15 15-17 48.
CR South (40) - Lea Britton 1 2-2 4; Jackie Weber 2 0-0 6; Emily Nowicke 1 0-0 2; Chelsea Allen 5 2-5 12; Alex Wheatley 8 0-0 16. TOTALS 17 4-7 40.
3-pointers: North - Marrazzo, D Gold, Scull; South -Weber 2
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