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LOWER GWYNEDD – Kelly Scull had an early morning wake-up call on Thursday. It turns out the Council Rock North senior had some important business to take care of before she went to school.
“I went to the gym with my dad at 5 a.m.,” the Indians’ senior captain said. “I have been in a slump the last two games, and I think the best way to get out of a slump is to keep shooting.”
That extra shooting practice paid immediate dividends.
Scull buried three huge three-pointers and shared game scoring honors with 16 points to help lead the Indians to a no-doubt-about-it 51-35 win over Mechanicsburg in Friday night’s opening round PIAA Class AAAA contest at Wissahickon High School.
“Mentally, I was just so low,” said Scull, who had just two points in her team’s last two games combined. “I’m really hard on myself, and it’s probably my biggest weakness.
“With my coaches and my teammates, I was able to get right out of it. Coach Palkovics came up to me at practice and said, ‘Kelly, you’ve got to play in full gear. We need you.’ I had that in the back of my head – the fact that he believes in me after two awful games just shows a lot. If he can believe in me, I can believe in myself.”
While most players might want to sleep in after a big win, Scull was actually lobbying for an earlier start time to Rock North’s 7:30 a.m. Saturday practice.
“We’re not going to have any regrets,” the senior captain said. “I’m not going to look back and be like, ‘We should have gotten there at six o’clock instead of seven o’clock’ because that extra hour could give us an extra 10 points in our next game.
“Right now, I want to be at that gym practicing because these are my last practices. I just think the more practice gives you more confidence. If we believe in ourselves as a team, we can do anything.” In addition to Scull, junior Devin Gold also had a monster game for the Indians, contributing 16 points – which included 11 in a second quarter that saw the Indians blow the game wide open with a 22-11 outburst. Lauren Gold chipped in with six points.
“I love playing with them,” Scull said. “Lauren and Devin make everyone around them better.
“I have been playing with them for as long as I can remember, and I’ve never met two girls with better court sense.”
On a night when Sarah Kiely was hampered by foul woes and scored just three points, sophomores Emily Grundman and Helena Gemmel both came off the bench to give the Indians important minutes. Both had four points.
“Helena is probably the most athletic girl I have ever seen,” Scull said. “At practice she does the crossover you saw tonight and lays it right up. She does it all the time at practice, and now she is able to play in a state playoff game for her first time is unbelievable. I give her a lot of credit, and I’m really proud of her.
“Emily Grundman – you saw the difference from the beginning of the season until now. She was having trouble catching the ball, and now she is scoring big points.”
Those performances by players in supporting roles were not lost on their coach.
“I thought Emily Grundman did a nice job coming in and filling in for Sarah,” coach Lou Palkovics said. “Helena Gemmell – she came in and just sparked us with a couple of moves, and you have the two-headed monster with the Gold girls – they showed up to play.”
The Indians held just a 4-3 lead late in the first quarter when their offense came to life. It began with a Devin Gold burying a shot off the dribble, and after Taylor Miller sank a trey at the other end, Jodi Marrazzo answered with a short baseline jumper to give the Indians a lead they would not lose.
Kiely’s three from the top of the circle put the Indians on top 12-8 early in the second quarter, and the Indians were clinging to a tenuous 14-11 lead when Kiely went to the bench with her third foul at the 6:05 mark of the second period.The Indians led 19-13 after Devin Gold broke down her defender for a bucket. After a Wildcat miss, she buried a three to put the Indians on top by nine.
“She got us going,” Palkovics said of Devin Gold. “It must have been 4-2 with three minutes to go in the first quarter, and we just couldn’t get going offensively.
“It was nothing I ran – it was Devin finally saying, ‘I can take my girl off the dribble,’ and she started opening the floor a little bit by taking the ball to the basket. I give her all the credit for our offense kicking into gear in the first half.”
A Mechanicsburg turnover set the stage for a baseline three by Scull, and the Indians – who led 25-13 – were off and running.
“It was nice to see girls that have been struggling offensively step up – namely, Kelly,” coach Lou Palkovics said of Scull. “Kelly has not really played well, and she knows it, and she’s really been pressing at practice.
“But she does what she always does – she stays after practice a half hour and works hard. My question of Kelly has never been her work ethic. She sometimes lets missed shots or defensive assignments get in her head, and she didn’t tonight. I thought Kelly really stepped up and played a great game for us.”
With the final seconds ticking off the clock, Gemmell scored on a nifty drive, and then Devin Gold stole the inbounds pass and scored at the buzzer, sending the Indians into halftime with a 31-17 lead.The Wildcats never threatened the rest of the way.
Friday’s win erased memories of last year’s district playoff loss to Downingtown West at Wissahickon – a loss that marked the beginning of a four-game skid to end Rock North’s season.
“Coming into this gym, I was like, ‘I really don’t want to play at Wissahickon,’” Scull said. “Clearly, we broke that spell.
“Everyone keeps saying, ‘Watch out, they play great in the league, but when it comes to after the league, they’re going to lose it like they did last year.’ I think we’re proving the point tonight that we’re not going to lose it. We’re going to stay strong, and we have confidence in ourselves.”
Rock North will face Northampton – a 45-35 winner over Downingtown West – in Tuesday’s second round game, and if Scull has her way, Friday night’s win was just the first of four for an Indian squad with its sights still set decidedly high.
“I think by not winning a district championship gives us all the more reason to win a state championship,” she said. “In a way, it gives us a little extra push.”
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 51, MECHANICSBURG 35
Mechanicsburg 6 11 12 6-35
Council Rock North 9 22 10 10-51
Mechanicsburg (35) – Airy Arnold 0 0-0 0; Emma Galinskie 0 0-0 0; Holly Burgard 0 0-0 0; Nicki Keiser 2 1-1 5; Taylor Miller 4 4-4 12; Kaila Baughman 0 3-6 3; Brittany George 5 3-4 13. TOTALS 11 11-15 35
Council Rock North (51) – Jodi Marrazzo 1 0-0 2; Devin Gold 7 1-2 16; Kelly Scull 4 5-5 16; Emily Grundman 2 0-1 4; Helena Gemmell 2 0-1 4; Sarah Kiely 1 0-0 3; Megan Cunningham 0 0-1 0. TOTALS 18 10-14 51.
3-point goals: Mechanicsburg – Miller 2. CR North – Scull 3, D.Gold, Kiely.
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