To view action photos of the CR North/Daniel Boone and Cheltenham/Governor Mifflin games, visit the Photo Gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
(1-5) Cheltenham 74, (3-3) Governor Mifflin 46
LAURELDALE – Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews, delayed by a post-game interview, was the last player to leave her team’s locker room after Cheltenham’s 74-46 romp over Governor Mifflin in an opening round PIAA Class AAAA game at Muhlenberg High School on Friday night.As Andrews – no longer in uniform - walked in front of the packed stands, a fan shouted from the crowd, ‘Nice game, 10.’
‘Ten’ will undoubtedly be giving the Mustangs nightmares for a long time to come. The junior standout – who wears the number 10 - torched the Mustangs’ defense for 31 points, which included 13 field goals and a 5-of-6 effort from the foul line. She also pulled down nine rebounds and had seven steals.
Included in Andrews’ repertoire of shots were numerous fast break layups and also more than a few of those patented jumpers off the dribble that have become her trademark.
“I saw them play Muhlenberg, and I knew they had a couple of real nice, aggressive players, but I knew our speed would give them some trouble,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “CC had an outstanding game. Their coach was shaking his head, and even a couple of their fans were clapping when she’d drill another shot.”
If it seemed as though Andrews and her teammates were playing with even more passion than usual in Friday’s game, they were. “Today was actually a long day,” Andrews said. “One of our players (Ming Seawright) – her mom died, so we went to her funeral this morning.
“Ming was here tonight, and this game was pretty much for her because you can see how fast things can fall apart, and if you have an opportunity, you have to take a hold of it because you never know what’s going to happen. We said, ‘Ming, this is for you. We’re going to play hard.’”
The players kept their promise and then some, and although Andrews stole the spotlight, she was hardly a one-woman show. Teammates Austen Hamler and Tiffany Johnson both scored 11 points while junior Jiana Clark came off the bench to score 10. Hamler also pulled down nine rebounds while Clark had six boards.
“Everybody was just excited to come out tonight,” Clark said. “Just the mentality and the environment – everybody just wanted to play, and everybody was ready.
“When (the starters) are hyped, I’m just as hyped. I’m not a really hyped person, but when they were hyped that rose my energy through the roof. I was just excited to play this game.”The Lady Panthers put on a clinic, setting the tone on their first possession when Shayla Peoples buried a three-pointer. They upped their lead to 11-4 after Christina Coleman scored on a putback midway through the quarter.
The Mustangs rallied to make it an 11-9 game, but in the final 1:50 of the quarter, the Lady Panthers went on a 10-1 tear. It began with Coleman burying a short jumper after a Johnson steal. Then – after a Mustang miss – Hamler scored on a putback. A Peoples steal resulted in another Coleman bucket, and then Andrews scored a fast break bucket off a Hamler steal.
“It started at defense,” Johnson said. “At first number 30 (Alexis Wright) was getting offensive rebounds, but once we started boxing out and playing defense, their offense wasn’t able to score.
“When we started pushing the ball - that always gives us offense.”
When Johnson connected on her second bucket of the quarter – this one a tough drive in traffic in the closing seconds, the Lady Panthers led 21-10.
“I’m just basically being more aggressive in everything – whether it’s fast break or a pull-up jumper,” Johnson said. “We didn’t get much time to warm up, but as we always say in the huddle before the game – we have to get it from the gate.
“We have to come out hard from the beginning of the game and get done what we got to do, and that’s what we did tonight.”The second quarter belonged to Andrews – who scored 10 of her 16 first-half points in the frame. During one particularly dazzling 30-second span, Andrews turned a steal into a layup and then scored a fast break bucket off a Mustang miss to put the Lady Panthers on top 29-17.
“We knew we could outrun them, and so Schaef was like, ‘When you get the ball, just push it,’” Andrews said. “Once we get running the floor –that’s what we’re best at.”
The Mustangs responded with a mini-run, trimming the Panthers’ lead to 29-19 with three minutes remaining. Schaefer called for the spread-to-score offense, and it worked to perfection when – after running close to a minute off the clock – Andrews hit nothing but net on a foul line jumper off the dribble.
Another Andrews fast break bucket after a Mustang miss was followed by a Clark basket, sending the Lady Panthers into halftime with a 35-19 lead.
“Jiana came in and stepped up her effort,” Schaefer said. “She was muscling with their big girl, boxing out and pulling big rebounds down in a crowd. She hit most of her inside shots on our spread-and-score and did exactly what we wanted out of her.“I’m happy with all our kids that went in the game. Shayla (Peoples) worked real hard on defense to not give up much up top, and that’s what we want. We want to make it hard for them to pass it. They threw some balls out of bounds. I thought it worked out pretty nice.”
The Lady Panthers continued to roll in the second half, outscoring the Mustangs 37-27 with Clark scoring eight of her 10 points in the half while Andrews added 15.
“The last couple of games – including me – we haven’t made a statement from the beginning,” Andrews said. “I think from the time we started tonight, we really made a statement as a team.
“We want to win. We want to play Tuesday, and that will come in time, but we needed this win.”
The Lady Panthers will face District One’s top squad in Tuesday’s second round when they will take on Mount St. Joseph Academy, which downed Harrisburg 55-44 in an opening round game on Friday.
CHELTENHAM 74, GOVERNOR MIFFLIN 46
Cheltenham (74) – Ciara Andrews 13 5-6 31; Tiffany Johnson 3 5-9 11; Christina Coleman 3 0-0 6; Shayla Peoples 1 0-0 3; Austen Hamler 4 3-4 11; Jiana Clark 5 0-0 10; Sabrina Cassius 0 0-0 0; Javon Petty 0 0-0 0; Asia Dan 0 0-0 0; Seriah Robinson 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 30 13-19 74.
Governor Mifflin (46) – Logan Focht 2 0-0 5; Megan Christel 2 0-0 4; Ashley Espinosa 4 1-2 10; Emily Gingrich 6 2-4 14; Alexis Wright 6 1-3 13; Emma Blair 0 0-0 0; Lauren Pietrowski 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20 4-9 46.
Cheltenham 21 16 20 17-74
Governor Mifflin 10 9 13 14-46
3-point goals: Cheltenham – Peoples 1. Governor Mifflin – Espinosa 1, Focht 1.
(1-2) Council Rock North 46, (3-6) Daniel Boone 33
Coach Lou Palkovics was looking for a point guard. Helena Gemmell answered the call, and it was the play of the junior guard at point that helped propel the Indians to the much-needed victory.
“It’s such a relief,” said coach Lou Palkovics, whose teams struggled in last week’s district title loss to the Mount after losing point guard Lauren Gold for the season to a knee injury. “We had to prove we could play without Lauren, and Helena played so great. “
The Indians’ coach did what he could to alleviate any pressure Gemmell was feeling stepping into such a key role.
“I actually should have talked to her earlier, but I pulled her over right after she got announced and said, ‘There’s no pressure on you tonight,’” Palkovics recalled. “She said, ‘What?’
“I said, ‘There’s no pressure on you tonight. Nobody wants to play point guard, and you had the guts to step up and say you want to play point guard. If you turn the ball over two times in a row, I don’t care. I’m fine with whatever happens.’ I think it relaxed her a little bit, and she just played so good.”
Palcovics took the fact that Gemmell had just a few days to prepare into account when he created a game plan.“It was a weird week of practice,” the Indians’ coach said. “We made so many adjustments. We changed everything.
“With Lauren, you have so many offenses you can run. With Elena, we said, ‘We’re going to run these two offenses in the first half and these two offenses in the second half. That’s it.’ That worked out.”
Gemmell not only directed the offense, she also scored a team-high 13 points to go along with six rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and two assists in a superb all-around effort.
Devin Gold added 12 points to go along with four rebounds, four steals and one assist while Emily Grundman had 11 points in a balanced team effort. Alyssa Dumont scored eight points and also contributed seven rebounds, one block and one assist.
Defense has been a forte of the Indians, and that is one thing that didn’t change. They limited the Blazers to just five points in the first quarter as they jumped out to a 10-5 lead. They still led by four at halftime (20-16).“We decided to give them a lot of different looks on defense,” Palkovics said. “We just put in a three-quarter court 1-3-1 trap that really worked out well in the third quarter.
“We played a lot more zone than usual, and that was partially because of game planning and partially because of foul trouble. We had a lot of foul trouble.”
On a night when the Indians needed contributions from everyone, they received quality minutes off the bench from Dana Storjohann.
“She just played great,” Palkovics said. “She had to play 20 minutes tonight because Helena and Alyssa Dumont got in foul trouble.
“Throw in the fact that Megan Cunningham had a 101 fever – she was just dying, but she played through it.”
If there was a defining moment in the game, it came late in the third quarter after the Blazers had trimmed the Indians’ lead to one point.
“We were always up between four and six points, but we were up one and their girl – (Erin) Hughes - got fouled,” Palkovics said. “She missed both foul shots.
“There was about 30 seconds to go in the third quarter. We came down and held the ball until there was two seconds to go when Alyssa Dumont hit a shot at the buzzer. You go from thinking you could be down one to being up three. It was a huge point in the game, and I just thought that was the turning point.”Dumont connected on a huge bucket to open the fourth quarter, and the Indians were off and running as they went on to outscore the Blazers 18-8 in the fourth quarter en route to the big win.
“I’m thrilled,” Palkovics said. “I think a lot of coaches get feelings going into games, and I had no feelings – this could work or this could not work.
“This was a big win for their confidence. Hopefully, we can build on it.”
On Friday night, it worked for the Indians, and as a result, they have earned a date with Cardinal O’Hara in Tuesday’s second round game. O’Hara defeated Nazareth High 51-40 in opening round action.
“We kind of have the attitude now – why not?” Palkovics said. “No one really gives us a chance in the state playoffs without Lauren, so why not?”
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 46, DANIEL BOONE 33
Daniel Boone (33) – Sam Baro 3 4-4 10; Aly York 1 0-0 2; Nikki Baro 0 2-2 2; Alana Greene 1 2-2 5; Liama Goodrich 0 0-0 0; Erin Hughes 4 1-4 9; Kelly Howiszak 0 0-0 0; Kaitlyn Hampton 1 3-4 5. TOTALS 10 12-16 33.
Council Rock North (46) – Devin Gold 3 5-7 12; Alyssa Dumont 4 0-0 8; Ally Mangogna 0 0-0 0; Emily Grundman 4 3-6 11; Dana Storjohann 0 0-3 0; Alyssa Jett 0 0-0 0; Megan Cunningham 1 0-0 2; Helena Gemmell 4 5-6 13. TOTALS 16 13-22 46.
Daniel Boone 5 11 9 8-33
Council Rock North 10 10 8 18-46
3-point goals: Daniel Boone – Sam Baro 1. CR North – Devin Gold 1.
(1-7) Upper Dublin 47, (2-1) Abington Heights 36
Sarah Hallowell didn’t need a whole lot of words to describe her emotions after Friday night’s big win at Marywood University.“It feels amazing,” the Flying Cardinals’ senior guard said.
Amazing is probably as good a word as any to describe the Flying Cardinals’ convincing win over the District 2 champions after a two-hour bus ride.
“We tried to relax on the bus ride,” Hallowell said. “We were pretty loose when we came out.
“We didn’t know anything about this team, so we stuck to what we do best and tried to capitalize on opportunities they gave us.”
What the Flying Cardinals do best is play defense, and that was once again the key.
“I think our defense won the game for us,” Hallowell said. “We came out and we shut down their inside game really well in the second half, and that was definitely key. We also hit some big shots, which obviously helps.”
It was a Flying Cardinals’ defensive adjustment that might well have been the difference in the game. Abington Heights’ Maggie Fruehan scored 12 points in the first quarter. She scored one in the final three.
“It was a definite game of adjustments, and it started in the first quarter,” coach Vince Catanzaro said. “We were playing a 2-2-1 trap zone over halfcourt and then getting back into a match-up zone. She (Fruehan) started to eat us up in the first quarter, so we went to a box-and-one.
“Eventually, what we had to do -in the second half, we went into a sagging defensive zone. We just couldn’t give up the middle of the lane because she was killing us.”
Without Fruehan providing offense, Abington Heights was lost.“They were very limited on who was supposed to shoot the ball, and I think that hurt them a little bit,” Catanzaro said. “They weren’t a bad team. They were pretty aggressive on defense, and they ran some nice sets.
“One set took two minutes , and they still didn’t score. They ate a lot of clock, and they were behind, so a lot of that worked to our advantage.”
The Flying Cardinals took a 28-22 lead into halftime and then limited Abington Heights to just 14 seconds-half points.
“The adjustments really helped us,” Catanzaro said. “We’re not a tall team, we’re not a fast team. We just have to be better at adjusting in the game.
“They got close a couple of times, but we really maintained our composure, and we made shots and we made foul shots at the end.”
Taylor Bryant led a balanced attack with 14 points while Curtrena Goff added nine points and Hallowell, eight points.
“The kids that came off the bench – Tori Waters rebounded well,” Catanzaro said. “(Freshman) Kayla Mcaneney went in, and between her and Lauren Rothfeld – they did a box-and-one on that kid (Fruehan) all night. They shut her down. They were on her the whole game.
“Even though we were sagging, they were still man-to-man on this kid, and that was the difference – their defense.
“It was a really well-played game. There were not a lot of fouls, and there were not a lot of turnovers.”
As a result of their win, the Flying Cardinals have advanced to the second round of the state tournament where they will face Wilson-West Lawn, which won in a 56-14 romp over Girls High in opening round action.
“It’s amazing that our team has come together like this in my last year,” Hallowell said. “I can’t get enough. I’ll keep playing for another month if we have to. I’m loving it.”
(12-1) Archbishop Carroll 47, (1-8) Central Bucks East 16
The Patriots never could generate any offense against the District 12 champions. They trailed 16-5 at the end of one quarter and then were outscored 13-1 in the second quarter as Carroll took a 29-6 lead into halftime. No East player scored more than five points with senior co-captain Melissa Remmey leading the way with a team-high five points.
- Log in to post comments
0
