#4 Cheltenham 55, #7 Upper Dublin 45
WYNCOTE – Early in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s District One AAAA fifth place game, Cheltenham’s Austen Hamler skied for a rebound and kicked the ball out to teammate Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews. The fleet-of-foot guard did what she does best, sprinting the length of the court for an easy bucket that put the Lady Panthers on top 37-28.
There was nothing especially unusual about the play, but it underscored the difference in Saturday’s game. The Lady Panthers had a decided advantage on the backboards, and they repeatedly turned their dominance on the boards into points.
“They started out-rebounding us,” Upper Dublin coach Vince Catanzaro said. “We kept subbing, trying to get someone that wanted to rebound.
“They just did a better job, and that’s where they won the game.”
Nobody rebounded better than Hamler in Saturday’s win. The senior co-captain pulled down a game-high 14 boards to go along with 11 points.
“Austen again – isn’t it wonderful to see the plays she makes,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “That kid is 5-9 and probably 115 pounds wet. She’s just great.”
Adding to the Lady Panthers’ dominance in the paint was junior Christina Coleman, who is recuperating from a shoulder injury but still pulled down 10 boards and scored five points.
“She looked more like herself,” Schaefer said. “Her shoulder seems to be getting better.”
Offensively, Andrews – after a four-point first half – came to life in the second half, torching the Flying Cardinals for 18 points to finish with a game-high 22. Included was a dazzling 8-for-8 effort from the foul line in the fourth quarter.
The difference in the second half?
“Schaef yelling at me,” Andrews said with a laugh. “He always gets on me. He’s like, ‘They’re giving you what you want. What’s holding you back?
“He told me the only thing holding me back on the court is me. We were only up by six at halftime, and I think we should have been up by more than that. Schaef told me, ‘Go out there and push yourself and play harder.’”
For the Flying Cardinals, junior Taylor Bryant scored 17 points while sophomore Curtrena Goff had 16. Senior Sarah Hallowell added eight points, which included a pair of three-pointers.
This was the third meeting between the two American Conference rivals. The Lady Panthers have won all three, but despite that, Hallowell still enjoys taking the court against her team’s archrival.
“I think it’s the best,” the senior captain said. “I love having an in-league rivalry like this. You know every player’s strengths and weakness. They just beat us today.”
The Flying Cardinals took a 2-0 lead after Bryant connected from just inside the arc, but then the Lady Panthers went to work. In a preview of things to come, Hamler scored on a putback, and after an Upper Dublin miss, Tiffany Johnson took it coast-to-coast for a bucket.
Then it was Coleman scoring after an offensive rebound, and the Lady Panthers led 8-2 after senior Asia Dan turned a steal into a bucket. That lead grew to 11-2 after a Johnson shot off the dribble. The Flying Cardinals used a three-pointer by Goff to make it 12-5, but Andrews turned a defensive rebound into a fast break bucket for the Panthers.
A three-point play by Goff made it a 14-8 game, but Johnson scored off the dribble in the closing seconds to put the Panthers on top 16-8. The senior co-captain had six of her 10 points in the first quarter.
“The last couple of days me and Schaef has been working on everything for this game because the first time we played them – that’s how I scored my points, pulling up,” Johnson said.
“When Tiffany is getting us points, teams are in trouble,” Schaefer said.
The Flying Cardinals – sparked by seven points from Bryant – outscored the Panthers 9-7 in the second quarter, but Upper Dublin found itself on the short end of a 23-17 score at the intermission.
The Flying Cardinals had the hot hand early in the third quarter. Lauren Rothfeld scored on a putback, and then it was Bryant connecting after a Cheltenham turnover. When Hallowell hit nothing but net on a trey at the 5:15 mark of the quarter, the Flying Cardinals found themselves on top 24-23.
Goff turned a steal into a bucket, and that lead extended to three, but Jiana Clark scored on an impossible shot in traffic, and then Andrews scored on a tough shot over her defender after an Upper Dublin miscue. Just like that, the Lady Panthers were back on top 27-26.
With 2:41 remaining in the quarter, Goff was whistled for a foul that created some controversy. Upper Dublin’s book had the sophomore point guard for three fouls while Cheltenham’s book had four. The officials went with the home book, and Goff took a seat on the bench.
Andrews buried both foul shots to give the Panthers a 29-26 lead.
“We got momentum by hitting some shots,” Hallowell said. “At the start of the game, we couldn’t get anything to go down.
“When Toga (Goff) got that supposed fourth foul, that took some momentum away from us. We started turning the ball over more than we should have, but we fought back and gave it everything we had. That’s all you can ask.”
Johnson found Hamler for an easy bucket, and after a Flying Cardinal turnover, Andrews scored off the dribble before Bryant scored on a drive to make it a 33-28 game at the end of three quarters.
“We have played this team two times, and we have shown we can beat them,” Andrews said. “We wanted to come out today and say – ‘We’re in states. This isn’t a fluke.’
“When we got behind, Austen said, ‘Girls, let’s go. Let’s pick it up.’ We picked it up, and we responded.”
Goff returned to the floor for the Flying Cardinals to open the fourth quarter, but the Lady Panthers added to their lead when – on their opening possession - Johnson found Clark for an easy bucket. An Upper Dublin miss set the stage for another fast break for the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Panthers opened up a 43-30 lead after a Hamler putback.
“Schaef had me at guard, and he’s always telling the guards to crash the boards, so I made it a point to do that,” Hamler said. “We just did a really good job of boxing out. Me, Christina (Coleman) and Jiana (Clark) – we all really worked hard at getting our rebounds.”
The Flying Cardinals pulled to within six (49-43) when Goff buried a baseline trey with 32 seconds remaining, but the Lady Panthers closed it out with a 6-2 run, thanks to six straight foul shots by Andrews.
“There was really no quit, but we just couldn’t knock anything down early in the game,” Catanzaro said. “We have a good time every time we play them. Would we like to win more? Yes.
“The thing is – you have to do a good job boxing out, and that’s where they won the game. We’ve been battling this all year with our height.”
As a result of the win, Cheltenham has earned a date with District Three’s third place team, Governor Mifflin, in Friday’s opening round of the PIAA Tournament contest. Upper Dublin will hit the road to play either the District Two or Four champion.
CHELTENHAM 55, UPPER DUBLIN 45
Upper Dublin (45) – Curtrena Goff 6 1-3 16; Taylor Bryant 8 0-2 17; Sarah Hallowell 3 0-0 8; Lauren Rothfeld 1 0-0 2; Jen Myers 0 0-0 0; Tori Waters 0 0-0 0; Kayla McAneney 1 0-0 2; Brianna Spector; Megan Deetscreek 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 19 1-5 45.
Cheltenham (55) – Ciara Andrews 6 10-12 22; Tiffany Johnson 5 0-0 10; Christina Coleman 2 1-3 5; Shayla Peoples 0 1-3 1; Austen Hamler 5 1-2 11; Asia Dan 1 0-0 2; Jiana Clark 2 0-0 4; Ming Seawright 0 0-0 0; Taylor Wing 0 0-0 0; Sabrina Cassius 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 13-20 55.
Upper Dublin 8 9 11 17-45
Cheltenham 16 7 10 22-55
3-point goals: UD-Goff 3, Hallowell 2, Bryant 1.
#6 Boyertown 51, #8 Central Bucks East 49
BOYERTOWN – The ending was as stunning as it was devastating.
As the buzzer sounded on Saturday night’s District One AAAA seventh place game, Boyertown junior Krista Schauder - who was on the floor because teammate Kelly Furman had fouled out – threw up a shot to beat the buzzer that found its way through the net, giving the Bears the come-from-behind win over the Patriots in a game they had trailed by 16 late in the third quarter.
“I thought the first half we did an excellent job of executing the game plan,” said Lonergan, whose team took a 23-11 lead into halftime. “Just as we did on Wednesday – we kind of let the game plan get out of our hands in the second half.
“They weren’t recognizing the players on the floor that we had talked about for two days and had done such a good job in the first half of recognizing. I don’t know whether it was mental fatigue or physical fatigue. They didn’t mentally finish the game strong in the second half.”
Nothing could have prepared anyone on East’s sidelines for such a heartbreaking ending.
Not after the Patriots - minus high-scoring guard Courtney McManus (eye infection) - had battled gamely and controlled play against the sixth-seeded Bears for three quarters. Not after the Bears had managed to put just 14 points on the scoreboard with two minutes remaining in the third quarter. And certainly not after Lindsey Kelley scored on a putback with 90 seconds remaining in regulation to put the Bears on top 49-42.
But the improbable happened in Saturday night’s consolation game that had the intensity of a title game. After scoring just 14 points in the opening 22 minutes of the game, the Bears scored 37 in the final 10.
“To their credit, they started making shots,” Lonergan said. “Hopefully, we would have done a better job of not giving them that many good looks.
“I think it was just mental fatigue, and I think that can be expected from a young team.”
Senior co-captain Melissa Remmey, who was once again the glue that kept the Patriots together, scored a game-high 21 points.
“Melissa has been doing that all year,” Lonergan said. “She’s the one player on the floor that can pull the team and try to regroup them. I think she was trying to do that several times.
“At the end, the game started to drift away from us.”
For the better part of 32 minutes, it looked as though the Patriots would gut out a win without McManus. In her absence, Lonergan rotated 10 players in and out of his lineup, and freshman Shaun Kane found herself playing point guard most of the night against the Bears’ trapping defense.
The Patriots’ coach was without Lexi Scrivano – who was saddled with foul woes - for large chunks of the game as well.
“The main thing is it forced us to play a lot of other players who did a great job that played more minutes than they normally would,” Lonergan said. “We had MargaretAnne Hubbel, a freshman, coming in and playing a lot more minutes than she normally does.
“Emily Kiersnowski spelled some minutes at the guard spot in the first half. Laura Aseltine was in and out.”
Despite being shorthanded, the Patriots battled gamely and looked as they would win against all odds.
Sparked by five points from Remmey, the Patriots led 9-2 at the end of one quarter, and they added to that lead in the second quarter, opening up a 23-11 lead heading into the intermission. Remmey led the way with 10 first-half points while Kelly, who finished with 13 points, added six. The Patriots were 11-of-13 from the foul line in the half while the Bears were just 3-of-9.
The Bears made it a 23-14 game after a bucket by Brooke Mullen early in the third quarter, but the Patriots had an answer. First it was Remmey connecting from the outside. Then, after a Bear turnover, Shannon Devlin found Remmey cutting to the basket for an easy deuce. After a Kiersnowski steal, Kane hit nothing but net on a shot from just inside the arc to put East on top 29-14. That lead grew to 30-14 after Shannon Devlin connected on one-of-two from the foul line.
In an omen of things to come, sophomore Kaitlyn Eisenhard – who had been ice cold from the floor – connected on her first basket of the night, a three-pointer. A three-point play by Mullen in the final seconds of the quarter made it a 32-24 game, but Remmey found Kelly for a bucket at the buzzer, and the Patriots still led by 10 heading into the final quarter (34-24).
Early in the final quarter, the Bears – after another Eisenhard trey – cut the Patriots’ lead to 35-29. Remmey buried both ends of a one-and-one at the other end to make it a 37-29 game, and this time, Furman responded by sinking a trey.
Remmey answered with a bucket just inside the arc, but the Bears refused to go away as Eisenhard hit nothing but net on her third trey, making it a 39-35 game. The Bears pulled to within one after a Jess Schlesman trey (41-10) midway through the quarter, but Kelly converted a three-point play to put the Patriots back on top by four.
A pair of Kane foul shots gave the Patriots a 46-40 lead, and they still led by seven after Kelly’s putback with 1:30 remaining. A conventional three-point play by Bobbie Kulp – her first and only points of the game – made it a 49-45 game, and after an East turnover, Schauder sank a pair at the foul line, and the partisan Boyertown crowd was on its feet as coach Jason Bieber called a timeout.
“We knew it was going to be a good atmosphere, and we knew it would be a loud atmosphere, and they did a job handling that for the most part,” Lonergan said.
The Patriots came up empty on a pair of foul shots with 39 seconds remaining, and Schauder – who scored all seven of her points in the final 64 seconds – connected on a basket to knot the score with 27 seconds remaining. The Patriots went for the last shot, but Remmey was whistled for a charge – her fifth foul of the game, and in perhaps the longest 3.3 seconds of the night, the Bears went the length of the court for a basket that won the game and cut East’s heart out.
“We did a very good job overall,” Lonergan said. “Our game plan had us (ahead), and I honestly thought if we scored 49 points, we would have won the game.
“Defensively, we gave up 27 points in a quarter. That’s unheard of.”
As the eighth seed out of District One, the Patriots have the unenviable task of taking on District 12 champion Archbishop Carroll in Friday’s opening round.
BOYERTOWN 51, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 49
Central Bucks East (49) – Shaun Kane 1 3-4 5; Melissa Remmey 7 7-9 21; Karoline White 0 0-2 0; Margaretanne Hubbell 0 0-0 0; Lindsey Kelly 6 1-1 13; Shannon Devlin 1 5-6 7; Lexi Scrivano 0 2-2 2; Laura Aseltine 0 1-2 1; Emily Kiersnowski 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 15 19-26 49.
Boyertown (51) – Bobbie Kulp 1 1-1 3; Jess Schlesman 4 3-5 12; Kaley Snyder 0 0-0 0; Brooke Mullen 5 5-11 15; Kelly Furman 1 0-0 3; Kaitlyn Eisenhard 3 0-2 9; Sherrine Saber 1 0-0 2; Dee Terry 0 0-0 0; Krista Schauder 2 3-4 7; Beth Anne Kircher 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 17 12-23 51.
Central Bucks East 9 14 11 15-49
Boyertown 2 9 13 27-51
3-point goals: Boyertown – Eisenhard 3, Schlesman 1, Furman 1.
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