(1-2) Council Rock North vs. (3-6) Daniel Boone at Council Rock South, Friday, 6 p.m.
As recently as 10 days ago, Rock North would have been a no-brainer choice to rout a Daniel Boone squad that – after entering the District 3 Tournament seeded fourth – finished sixth.
But a lot has happened in the last 10 days, and the Indians, once a favorite to advance to the state title game, will be more than happy to simply earn a win over the Blazers in Friday night’s PIAA opener after losing point guard Lauren Gold (knee injury) for the season.
The Indians struggled mightily without Gold in a 45-23 loss to Mount St. Joseph Academy in last Friday night’s District One AAAA title game at Villanova, so expect some new twists when the Indians take the court on Friday night.
“It’s a little bit like starting the season over again,” coach Lou Palkovics said. “We’re trying people at different spots.
“I like what I’ve seen the last two days of practice.”
The Indians had a hard time getting into their offense against the Mount’s aggressive man-to-man defense, and Palkovics is looking for a way to remedy that before Friday’s game.
“We have to protect the ball,” the Indians’ coach said. “If we can’t show some poise and some patience and be able to run our offense, the same thing will happen.
“What I have seen from Daniel Boone again is a team that plays hard man-to-man defense. We have find ways to expose that. If you’re going to deny the wings, we have to be able to utilize backdoors and pick-and-rolls, which we did not do on Friday night.
“That’s really been our focus, trying to simulate much more pressure defense and what are our options on offense knowing we have two or three different people handling the ball.”
In Friday’s title game against the Mount, the Indians fell behind 31-4 before staging a late rally, outscoring the Magic 19-14 to close out the game.
“We’re trying to build on the fact that once we hit that five-minute mark in the third quarter – we won the rest of the game,” Palkovics said. “We saw things in the last two quarters we can build on.”
About Daniel Boone: Daniel Boone went into the District Three Tournament as the number four seed but fell to fifth-seeded Governor Mifflin in the quarterfinals 54-47. Erin Hughes led the Blazers with 16 points while Aly York – who surpassed the 1,000-point mark in late January – had 11 points. In a playback game for fifth place, Daniel Boone fell to 11th seeded Lebanon 41-35. Hughes scored a game-high 10 points for the Blazers, who trailed 21-11 at the intermission.
About Council Rock North: The Indians took a 25-1 record into last Friday night’s district title game, but they won those 25 games with Lauren Gold at the helm. They will have to find a new floor general for Friday night’s state opener. Gold not only averaged close to 11 points a game, she also handed out 4.2 assists a game and was the team leader in steals. Devin Gold is the team’s top scorer, averaging just over 12 points a game while Emily Grundman averages 11 and Alyssa Dumont, almost seven points a game.
(1-5) Cheltenham vs. (3-3) Governor Mifflin at Muhlenberg High School, Friday, 5 p.m.
Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews calls Cheltenham’s district quarterfinal upset at the hands of Lower Merion a wake-up call.
“It was a hard loss,” the junior guard said of a game that saw the Lady Panthers let a late lead slip away. “It was a game we should have won and could have won. It was just a really hard loss, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.
“There’s no such thing as a good loss, but if there was, that was a good one because it showed us we’re going to play good teams, and if we don’t take care of the ball at the end of the game, it can all get away in the snap of a finger. That’s what happened, and we learned from that.”
Senior co-captain Austen Hamler sent a text message to her teammates shortly after that heartbreaking loss.
“I basically said that we needed to get our spirits back and play these next two games and win them so we can have a good seed in states,” Hamler said.
The Lady Panthers went out and earned impressive wins over Central Bucks East (47-44) and Upper Dublin (55-45), and coach Bob Schaefer credited his senior captains – Hamler and Tiffany Johnson – for pulling the team together.
“I think they both grew up a lot with the responsibility of being team captains,” the veteran coach said. “As the season went on, they matured.”
Schaefer admits he wasn’t sure how this year’s team would fare after losing key seniors from last year’s team to graduation.
“We still had Tiffany Johnson, who’s one of the best point guards out there, and we still had CC, who’s another super guard,” he said.
It is Johnson and Andrews, according to Schaefer, who will have to establish the tempo in Friday’s game against Governor Mifflin.
“We’re going to have to play our game,” he said. “CC can’t disappear. She has to be out there in the game, and Tiffany has to be playing like the new Tiffany, which was the old Tiffany where she’s penetrating and making those little jump shots.
“She did beautifully in our last playoff game and in our scrimmage. She and I have been working – just the two of us – on making foul shots and getting those penetration jumpers. She’s really stepped it up. If she does that, and we get the game out of our forwards that we’ve been getting, we’ll be alright.
“Of course, we have to control their three good players. We can’t let them beat us on second and third tries at the basket. They will play more deliberate than we will. We’re not big on 5-10 passes.”
Governor Mifflin relies on 6-0 center Alexis Wright as well as its backcourt to provide most of the scoring. In preparation for Friday’s game, the Lady Panthers traveled to Tamaqua for a scrimmage on Tuesday.
“I’ve very excited,” Hamler said. “I can’t wait to play. It’s a whole new tournament, and now that it’s one-and-done, everyone is playing to win, so you have to bring you ‘A’ game every game.”
“We’re ready for states,” Andrews added. “We don’t want that bitter taste in our mouths again. If we lose to a team, we want that team to be legit – better than us.
“We’re practicing hard, and hopefully, we can do good.”
About Governor Mifflin: The Mustangs, the third place team out of District 3, are the Berks County League champions. Governor Mifflin fell to top-seeded Red Lion 43-38 in the district semifinals but came back to trounce Muhlenberg 58-36 in the third place game. Center Alexis Wright led Mifflin with 22 points while Ashley Espinosa had 17. Espinosa is the Mustangs’ big scorer, and the junior guard became just the seventh Governor Mifflin girl to surpass the 1,000-point mark. Governor Mifflin entered the district tournament as the fifth seed and upset fourth-seeded Daniel Boone 54-47 in the district quarterfinals.
About Cheltenham: The Panthers were upset in the district quarterfinals by Lower Merion but rebounded to gut out wins over SOL rivals Central Bucks East (47-44) and Upper Dublin (55-45) to finish fifth in District One. While Tiffany Johnson is the Lady Panthers’ floor general, Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews averages close to 20 points a game, and Austen Hamler and Christina Coleman are a force in the paint.
(1-6) Upper Dublin vs. (2-1) Abington Heights at Marywood University, Friday, 6 p.m.
Taylor Bryant and her Upper Dublin teammates wasted little time putting last Saturday’s loss to Cheltenham in the district’s fifth place game behind them.
“We have been focusing on this game,” Bryant said of Friday’s state opener. “Our practices have been focused on what we what we need to do against Abington Heights and not the past.
“Everyone is more excited now than ever. From the beginning of the season until now that we actually made it to states – everyone is excited, and everyone wants to win and keep going in the playoffs.”
According to Bryant, the Flying Cardinals, despite their youth, came into the season with high hopes.
“I definitely thought we could get further than we did last year when we lost in the second round of districts,” she said. “It was a goal from the beginning of basically everyone on the team to get to states.
“Even though we are young – and everyone keeps mentioning our age, we don’t focus on that too much. We just play, and it worked out really well.”
Upper Dublin, according to coach Vince Catanzaro, has a bit of a history with Abington Heights. It was Abington Heights that upset an Upper Dublin squad that – led by Vince’s sister Jane Catanzaro - was ranked number one in the state in an opening round state playoff game.
“That was the upset of the year,” Catanzaro said of a game played at Abington. “Jane’s team went into states number one, and they got knocked out in the first game.”
Catanzaro – whose team defeated Abington Heights in an opening round game several years ago - would once again like to return the favor on Friday night.
“Cheltenham did a number on them earlier in the year,” the Flying Cardinals’ coach said of the Lady Panthers 61-40 win over Abington Heights in the season opener for both squads. “Abington Heights doesn’t play the kind of schedule we play. They played a lot of AAA teams.
“We’re going up there and taking our game to them and not worrying so much what they have. Let them worry about us.”
The Flying Cardinals are coming off a 55-45 loss to archrival Cheltenham in the fifth place game.
“Cheltenham does the same thing to us every time we play them – they kick our butts on the rebounds,” Catanzaro said. “It’s a good game to show us where we can go. Playing Cheltenham helps us get better.
Catanzaro’s message to his players regarding their performance on the boards has apparently sunk in.
“Every day our post players have been doing drills for rebounding,” Bryant said. “Even us guards have been working on our rebounding. If we don’t rebound when we’re scrimmaging, our coaches will definitely point it out. It has been a point of emphasis.”
Friday’s game is a two-hour bus trip for the Flying Cardinals, and Catanzaro is doing everything he can to prepare his squad.
“I definitely think it would be a winnable game,” he said. “We’re practicing at night right now because by the time we get out of school and play on Friday night, it will be night.
“I have to do everything I can to mentally get them ready.”
About Abington Heights: Abington Heights rallied from an early 11-1 hole to defeat Williamsport 46-42 to capture the District 2 championship. Maggie Fruehan led Abington Heights with 25 points while Tiffany O’Donnell added nine and Lauren Hoyt, eight points.
About Upper Dublin: The Flying Cardinals are coming off a 55-45 loss to Cheltenham in the fifth place game after pulling off a big 36-33 win over sixth-seeded Boyertown in a playback game on the Bears’ home court. Taylor Bryant leads the Cardinals, averaging 15.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.1 assists per game. Sophomore Curtrena Goff averages 9.6 points, 4.2 assists, 5.9 rebounds and 4.2 steals a game while senior Sarah Hallowell is a dangerous long-range shooter and averages 8.3 points a game. Jen Myers chips in 6.6 points and 5.7 rebounds a game.
(1-8) Central Bucks East vs. (12-1) Archbishop Carroll at Monsignor Bonner High School, Friday, 7:30 p.m.
The Patriots find themselves in the unenviable position of playing an opening round game against a Carroll team ranked second in the state and picked by many to play for the state title.
While that might seem like a daunting task for a team that lost three straight to close out districts, think again. The Patriots lost those three games to three very good teams by a total of just six points, falling to Boyertown by two on a buzzer-beater, losing to Cheltenham by three and falling to Council Rock North by one.
“We have been trying to harp on – we’re certainly not going into the tournament just to keep things close,” coach Tom Lonergan said. “It doesn’t do any good. We’re in it to win.
“We don’t plan on beating (Carroll) 70-68. If we do some things right – control the defensive glass, take care of the ball better than what we did on Saturday, and we have got to keep their number of shot attempts from the floor down.
“I think we’re definitely a team that can play some defense on teams. If we can bring that as well, who knows? We understand what’s in front of us. It will take a real team effort. You can’t go in and beat a team like Carroll without a team effort. There’s no question, it’s going to take a major team effort.”
The Patriots got a good warm-up for Friday’s showdown when they scrimmaged defending state champion Archbishop Wood on Tuesday.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity to scrimmage Wood,” Lonergan said. “We did the same thing last year, and it really gets you prepared because they’re just a tremendous team. You can’t simulate what they do defensively in practice.”
The Patriots were without co-captain Courtney McManus (eye infection) in Saturday’s loss to Boyertown, and she did not play in Tuesday’s scrimmage. Lonergan is hopeful she will be back in the lineup for Friday’s state opener.
“Where we struggled against Boyertown was taking care of the ball, and that’s where Courtney certainly would make a big difference,” the Patriots’ coach said. “We can’t go into games giving up 60-some shots to opponents and only get 40.
“The reason behind that was because of possessions. Boyertown was getting more possessions because 1) we were turning the ball over a lot and 2) you have to take care of the defensive lapse. The game was played at their pace, and those are things we have to do a better job of.”
Freshman Shaun Kane got her first game experience at point guard in Saturday’s game at Boyertown, sharing time with freshman Karoline White.
“For the majority of the game, they did do a good job of taking care of the ball,” Lonergan said. “If it meant Melissa Remmey coming back to get involved – I just thought they did a really tremendous job for being put in that situation with not a lot of notice. We didn’t really have enough time to prepare for that situation, but overall, I thought they responded well.”
Lonergan has been especially pleased with his team’s resiliency after tough losses.
“I thought we did a tremendous job bouncing back from that heartbreaker to Council Rock North to take Cheltenham to the wire,” he said. “I thought they bounced back from that loss, and it was doubly disheartening when Courtney wasn’t able to go against Boyertown, but they responded well there. I hope they can do it one more time, but hopefully, this time we will have more points on the scoreboard than the other team at the end.”
About Archbishop Carroll: Carroll captured its third straight District 12 title – its first at the Class AAAA level – with a 76-33 rout of Central in Saturday’s title game. Carroll won the District 12 Class AAA title in 2009 and 2010. Junior Rachel Pearson led a balanced attack with 14 points while senior Mary Victoria Barr added 12, Emily Fazzini, nine points, and sophomore Sarah Curran, eight points. The win came on the heels of a heartbreaking 33-31 loss to Archbishop Wood in the Philadelphia Catholic League title game. Carroll, ranked second in the latest state poll, is picked by many to play for a state title in its first year of Class AAAA competition.
About Central Bucks East: There’s no understating the significance of senior co-captains Melissa Remmey and Courtney McManus to this young Patriot squad. While McManus can burn teams from long range, Remmey also can bury the outside jumper and is a force under the backboards, but it is the way the senior captains have brought this young squad together that is perhaps most significant. Senior Shannon Devlin is a defensive stopper for the Patriots. Lindsey Kelly has been effective in the paint as has junior Lexi Scrivano while a number of other underclassmen also have made significant contributions.
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