Three SOL teams will be playing in Wednesday night’s two District One AAAA semifinal games.
And, in this case, two is the operative word.
Instead of playing both semifinal games at one site as everyone had anticipated, the two games will not only be played at different sites but also at basically the same time, ensuring that fans cannot possibly attend both.
Top-seeded Cheltenham will face Downingtown East at Norristown at 6 p.m., and second-seeded Council Rock North will face Abington at Hatboro-Horsham at 7 p.m.
For those who would like to catch a glimpse of both games, the two schools are 14.3 miles apart with an estimated driving time of 30 minutes.“It’s hard enough to get big crowds at girls’ games, and then to split the two biggest girls’ games of the year – I don’t know what their thinking was,” Rock North coach Lou Palkovics said. “You put them both at the same site it’s going to be a bigger crowd and a better atmosphere for these kids that have worked hard all year.
“I can’t understand the rationale for splitting it.”
Bob Ruoff, executive secretary of District One, says it was his mistake.
“I’m not trying to be a hero,” he said. “But I should have checked.
“I knew in the past we had put the girls in the same gym, but I didn’t check.”
Ruoff says he didn’t check because basketball chair Gary Kochersperger had done such a remarkable job of creating order to what could have been chaos after all of Friday’s district playoff games were postponed because of a snowstorm.
“(He had to) check out who’s playing who, make contact with the schools and see who’s willing to host games and then basically do your best after the first two rounds to try and pick sites that geographically make sense,” Ruoff said of the procedure. “This year he put out feelers for people who volunteered their schools. There weren’t as many responses this year.
“We came to this past Saturday, and I was amazed that he was able to put it all together.”
Thirty-three games were played on Saturday, and the day went off without a hitch.
“He did a good job,” Ruoff said. “Everything came off well.
“I knew in the past we’d put the girls’ (games) in the same gym, but I didn’t check. I assumed that was what he was going to do, and I’m not blaming him – he attacked it from the point of view of geography. It was hard (to change it) because everybody had been told where they would play. People were counting on it. It was my fault for not checking.”
Playing the two semifinal games at different sites is a mistake the district office says won’t happen again, but that is small consolation for this year’s seniors.
Abington’s Emily Leer – who has attended the district semis as a fan for as long as she can remember – will be playing in her first final four this year.
“It’s just frustrating,” the Villanova-bound senior said. “Why aren’t we playing a double header?
“I have always gone to these double headers. They were always packed, and now it’s my chance, and it changes. I was pretty upset about that.”
Palkovics – whose teams have been in four district title games and won three - has had teams in at least six district semifinal games, and he called the district’s most recent decision ‘more than disappointing.’
“I just feel so bad for the kids,” the Indians’ coach said. “Being involved in this game at least six times – it’s always been a double header, it’s always been a Final Four atmosphere with nice big crowds. It’s all fans of women’s basketball.
“I know like any other business you have to make money, so the boys are getting the Palestra, the Liacouras Center and now Villanova – but to not even get a double header, that’s very disheartening. It shows that very little thought was put into the scheduling of the girls’ games. It’s discouraging and real disappointing.
“What’s really disappointing is they’re saying – yes, they know they made a mistake. Well, don’t wait until next year to fix it. You can fix it now.”
As for the argument that the decision was made based on geographical distance, Palkovics insists that should not be a factor – just as it’s not a factor when sending the four Class AAAA boys’ teams to Villanova for the district semifinals.
“I can cite so many examples where one team has made a much longer trip than the other three teams,” the Rock North coach said. “It just happens.
“The girls should have a double header, and to admit they made a mistake and to not fix it until next year – that’s even more discouraging.
“Someone like Emily Leer – I remember seeing Emily at state championship games. She’s at every one of those games, and now she’s finally playing in one of those big games, and they do this to her. When they say, ‘We’ll wait until next year to fix it.’ You’re forgetting about the kids like Emily Leer. It’s a shame.”
#2 Council Rock North vs. #6 Abington
Wednesday, March 3, 7 p.m., at Hatboro-Horsham High School
Abington and Council Rock North are meeting for the third time this season.
In both regular season meetings, the Indians rallied from late deficits to earn wins – winning the first one 63-52 in overtime and winning the second 48-42.
The Ghosts are hoping the third time is the charm.
“The most important thing is that we go out and we do ‘us,’” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “Obviously, we’re going to prepare for Council Rock North. They’re a very good team, very talented, but we have to go out and do what we’ve been doing – play good defense, take care of the basketball and finish the game.
“Since the Council Rock North games and situations like that where we didn’t finish the games the way we wanted to – it’s something we worked on. Hopefully, if we get into a situation this time where we have a lead that we’ll be able to close the game out because we have experience now, we have the knowledge of what we did the times before, and we can fix that.”
Turnovers down the stretch were the Achilles heel for the Ghosts in their two losses to Rock North, and no players were more instrumental in creating those turnovers than guards Devin and Lauren Gold. The sisters have combined for 148 thefts with Lauren accounting for 81 of those.
“It’s composure really,” Marsh said. “I have confidence in our ability to handle their pressure. For six of the eight quarters, we have handled their pressure.
“It’s been a couple of stretches where we’ve fallen apart a little bit. It’s really going to come down to composure and the girls believing in themselves and knowing they can handle pressure and then moving the ball. Getting the ball to the right people in the right spots is going to be important.
“Obviously, nobody puts pressure on you the way a team like Council Rock North does except for perhaps Cheltenham, so it’s hard to prepare for that. I believe we can do it, our girls believe we can do it, and hopefully, we can. If we don’t, we won’t win. I can tell you that much.”
A trip to the final four is a brand new experience for the Ghosts – the last time Abington found itself in this spot was in 1975 when the Ghosts went on to capture the district crown.
“Every year this is what I dream about, so it’s nice to finally not be let down by a season,” senior Emily Leer said. “I expect a lot out of everything, and to finally get something I have been wanting for a while and have a great team that got me to this point – it’s phenomenal.”
Leer - who is averaging 17.1 PPG, 10.5 rebounds, 3.4 blocks and 2.9 assists a game – has accepted a basketball scholarship to Villanova, but the possibility of playing at Villanova with a win over Rock North is taking a back seat right now.
“I think it’s obvious how amazing that would be for me, but the most important thing right now is to prepare for Wednesday night,” she said. “I’m just really excited for that game. We have a chance to get our revenge – hopefully, and I’m excited to see how it works out.
“I’ve always been confident that we could beat Council Rock North. They’re a good team, but I really think we can pull it out this time, so I’m just really excited to give it another try.”
So what has changed since the last time the two teams met when – despite the absence of Sarah Kiely from Rock North’s lineup because of an injury – the Ghosts could not put the Indians away?
“We were watching film of our game against them, and Marsh was pointing out all the mistakes we made, and each time we said, ‘We don’t really do that anymore,’” Leer said. “We’ve gotten a lot better at the things we did wrong in that game.
“It was nice to see that we’re not the team we were then anymore. A lot of times when we played them before we lost because we panicked. The last couple of games we’ve played in have really prepared us for this game because we haven’t blown people out, and we’ve held a lead in the last 10 minutes, so I’m just really excited to play them with our renewed confidence.”
Coach Lou Palkovics is not turning cartwheels at the prospect of facing Abington for a third time.
“You hate playing any team three times,” the Indians’ coach said. “The fact that our two games against Abington were both come-from-behind wins certainly gives my girls confidence knowing they can come back from a deficit.
“But at the same time, you know it’s going to be a war. I would probably rather not see Abington for a third time. The way we won the last time without Sarah Kiely has got to give the girls a little more confidence going into this game.”
As for a game plan, neither coach expects many surprises.
“I just watched my fourth and fifth hours of tape, and they know what I’m going to run, and we know what they’re going to run,” Palkovics said. “It’s just going to come down to who plays a little bit harder and who executes a little bit better.
“There are definitely some different things I picked up on watching the tape that we’re going to run, and we’re going to mix up our defenses, but it’s going to be won by the girls on the court – how hard they play and whether they execute.”
While the Indians are coming off a 59-27 rout of Great Valley, the Ghosts are riding the high after their 48-35 upset of third-seeded Central Bucks East.
“That was big,” Marsh said. “We had a lead, and the fact that we were able to control the game for the last couple of minutes was important. That was a huge confidence booster.
“I’m really happy with the way we’re playing right now. If we come tomorrow night with the same kind of intensity and the same kind of focus, we’re going to be tough to beat. Obviously, they’re a very good team, and we’re going to get their best. We know it’s going to be a war, and we just have to be ready for it.”
In the Ghosts’ win over East, Aiyannah Peal – who averages 10.8 PPG, 5.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 3.9 steals – connected on her first five shots from the floor and finished with a game-high 16 points.
Other weapons include Jamie Shectman, a long-range sniper who averages 6.4 points a game, as well as defensive catalyst Chynna West, who averages three steals a game to go along with 4.9 points and 4.9 rebounds.
For the Indians, the Gold sisters also can put up points. Lauren is averaging 10.8 points a game while Devin is not far behind at 9.6. Senior captain Kelly Scull averages 12 points a game and 5.8 rebounds while Kiely leads the way with 13 points and 7.8 rebounds a game.
Did Leer really want another battle against archrival Kiely?
“Yes, I did,” she said with a laugh. “I’m really excited to play against her again. The last time she got injured, so it wasn’t really a true rematch, so I’m just ready for this rematch again.”
#1 Cheltenham vs. #4 Downingtown East
Wednesday, March 3, 6 p.m., at Norristown High School
Cheltenham and Downingtown West two perennial district powers are no strangers to each other.
The two teams met in last year’s district title game, and when the two teams meet on Wednesday, the Lady Panthers will be looking to exact some revenge after last year’s 51-33 loss to the Cougars.
“They graduated a lot of their players, and we graduated two of our main players,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “We were a little inexperienced, and the kids were a little starry-eyed going into that arena, and since then, we’ve played a lot of big games.”
In Saturday’s district quarterfinal, the Lady Panthers were slowed down considerably by Council Rock South’s packed-in zone defense. They can expect things to slow down even more on Wednesday night when they take on a Cougar squad that has scored less than 40 points in four of its last five games.
That’s exactly the kind of score coach Bob Schnure – whose team boasts a 12-game winning streak - will be looking for against the Lady Panthers.
“We have to make some baskets,” Schaefer said. “It’s as simple as that. If we go out and we’re cold, they could cool you down real quick because you’re waiting a minute and a half or longer to get the ball.
“Certainly the slower the game goes, the more it fits their style, and the better chances they’ll have with it. The faster the game is the better chance we’ll have. I don’t think there will be any secrets out there. We’ve been playing each other for 29 years now. I’m sure it will be a tough game for both teams.”
The Cougars are led by Rider-bound senior Ro Gentry and sophomore Kelly Devlin, a swing guard.
“They do a lot of motion,” Schaefer said. “They all will cut to the basket. I’ve seen them attempt some three-point shots.
“The Devlin kid can shoot the 15-footer, and she can drive the baseline. They’re an overall talented team. Their style can put you to sleep, and we’re going to have to not allow that to happen.”
The Lady Panthers are led by senior Shayla Felder, who averages 17.4 points a game to go along with three assists and four steals. The senior captain scored a game-high 23 points – which included four three’s – in Cheltenham’s win over Rock South. They also receive important contributions from sophomore Ciara Andrews (10.7 PPG, 2.7 steals), senior Kira Ogden (6.8 PPG, 7.0 rebounds, 2.1 steals, 1.4 blocked shots), senior Liz Taliaferro (6.4 PPG, 2.8 steals, 2.4 assists), Monet Constant (5.3 PPG, 4.6 rebounds, 2.2 steals) and Tiffany Johnson (4.19 PPG, 2.6 steals, 2.5 assists).
“We’ll have to see what happens,” Schaefer said. “Our kids are going to have to be up and playing hard. I didn’t think they were really up Saturday for the game.”
Class AA/Consolation/Playback Games
Springfield will begin district play, taking on New Hope at Plymouth Whitemarsh at 6 p.m. in a Class AA semifinal contest.
In the all-important battle for the district’s ninth spot and the final state playoff berth, Central Bucks South will travel to North Penn for a 7 p.m. game. It is the third meeting between the Continental Conference rivals. South won both regular season games.
In the battle for playoff position, Council Rock South will face Downingtown West at Perkiomen Valley at 7:30 p.m. while Central Bucks East will take on Great Valley at Plymouth Whitemarsh at 8 p.m.
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