To view action photos of the game, visit the Photo Gallery later this weekend and click on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/ To view the post-game interview, click on the following link: http://www.suburbanonesports.com/videos/all/145
FRANCONIA TWP – Souderton felt uncomfortable for the better part of Tuesday night’s SOL contest against neighboring North Penn. Never did the Indians feel more uncomfortable than during a stretch in the first half that saw the Maidens – after falling behind 7-2 – outscoring the Indians 21-2 to close out the first half.
The Maidens’ defense – the suffocating, in-your-face variety – was responsible for creating the Indians’ discomfort.“Their defense – they’re in your face, and they play tough on-the-ball defense, doubling Carley (Kendall) every time she touched the ball, and that certainly caused problems,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “I think what happened, particularly in the second quarter was that we were kind of playing as though if we went more than 20 seconds, we had to take a shot.
“As soon as the play didn’t work, whoever happened to have the ball tried to force something, and we got away from our strengths.”
The Indians’ strength is getting the ball inside to Kendall. The Maidens made sure that didn’t happen with Steph Knauer assigned the task of containing the Indians’ junior center with senior Meg Gallagher providing help.
“I thought our defense did a really nice job, covering their main scorers really well,” Maiden coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “We held Kendall to four – Steph did a really nice job on her. Meg Gallagher timed her help really well and got a lot of steals jumping into the passing lanes.
“I was pleased with Vicky Tumasz’s defense on (Bianca) Picard. I just thought the kids overall really played a nice game.”
While Kendall finished with just four points, teammates Libby Wetzler and Gabby McAndrews led the Indians with six points. Knauer, who turned in a dominant effort under the backboards for the Maidens, led all scorers with 17 points. Teammate Lauren Crisler added nine, but the Maidens’ defense was the story of this game.“We were really active on defense,” Gallagher said. “At practices, we always go really hard, and we always want to play hard in practice, so we play like that in games.”
The Indians actually got off to a good start, turning an early 2-0 deficit into a 7-2 lead after consecutive buckets by Libby Wetzler, Kendall and a trey by McAndrews.
“We came in thinking they were going to come out exactly like they did the last time we played them,” McAndrews said of North Penn’s 54-34 win earlier this season. “In the beginning of the game, we played extremely hard, and we were up on them, but they came just as hard as they did the last time.”
The Maidens’ run began with six straight points by Knauer – who scored a game-high 17 points – to close out the first quarter, putting the Maidens on top 8-7.
The fun was just starting for the Maidens.Crisler, who added nine points, scored on a short jumper to open the second quarter, and when Brenda McDermott scored from the top of the circle, the Maidens led 12-7.
Souderton’s Libby Wetzler broke the Maidens’ run with a putback at the 5:47 mark. It was the Indians’ first and only basket of the quarter as the Maidens closed out the half with a 13-0 run.
Crisler got the ball rolling in that impressive run with a baseline trey, and Gallagher closed it out, turning a McDermott pass into an easy bucket at the buzzer. During the Maidens’ run to close out the half, the Indians misfired on eight straight shots and turned the ball over twice.
“Our main thing is our helpline defense,” Gallagher said. “Whenever I saw that Carley was getting the ball and she looked like she was going to have a post move on Steph (Knauer), I just tried to help her out. It seemed like it really worked.
“It wasn’t just me. It was everybody on the team that also helped out.”
The Maidens opened up a 32-14 lead late in the third quarter before Picard buried a trey and Kendall added a bucket to make it a 32-19 game heading into the final frameA Katie O’Connor trey pulled the Indians to within 11 (33-22), and when Picard sank one-of-two from the foul line, it was a 32-23 game. The Indians would get no closer as the Maidens close out the game with a 9-2 run.
“Tonight we wanted to come out like we ended the CB East game last night and not like we started the CB East game,” Gallagher said. “I think we definitely did that. We had great intensity from start to finish.”
The Maidens showed no ill effects from Monday’s disappointing 41-39 loss to Continental Conference champion Central Bucks East. In that game, the Indians rallied from an early 17-1 deficit to come within a shot at the buzzer of sending the game into overtime.
“Souderton has been playing well, and we put a lot of effort into the end of the game last night,” deMarteleire said. “We played really hard.
“We did again get off to a sluggish start, but they worked through it. I didn’t need to call a timeout. The kids themselves just worked through it.”
While the Indians fell to 7-5 in SOL play (11-8 overall), the Maidens improved to 9-3 in the league (14-6 overall)
NORTH PENN 41, SODUERTON 25
North Penn (41) – Maher 0 0-0 0; Hagan 1 1-2 3; Gallagher 1 1-2 3; McDermott 1 2-2 4; Crisler 4 1-3 9; Tumasz 2 0-0 5; Knauer 7 3-3 17. TOTALS 16 8-12 41.
Souderton (25) – O’Connor 2 0-0 5; Reagan 0 0-0 0; McAndrews 2 0-0 6; Perna 0 0-0 0; Kendall 2 0-0 4; Wetzler 3 0-0 6; Kwiatkowski 0 0-0 0; Picard 1 1-2 4. TOTALS 10 1-2 25.
North Penn 8 17 7 9-41
Souderton 7 2 10 6-25
Three-point goals: NP – Tumasz. Souderton – McAndrews 2, Picard, O’Connor.
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